Haywards Heath Withdraw

It is interesting to contrast OEs and HH as the Clubs that have withdrawn from the Leagues. HH own their ground and clubhouse, OEs do not. Clubs with their own ground and clubhouse should have been better positioned to survive the last two seasons because of the ability to earn other income. OEs were reliant on one sponsor, HH were not. OEs had the classic position of the sponsor withdrawing, sadly through death in his case, which has seen other Clubs fold (e.g. Mounts Bay). Both Clubs have good feeder set-ups, HH their Minis and Juniors, OEs their school. Those feeders should enable them to rebuild over time as London Welsh have done. 

Halliford wrote: It is interesting to contrast OEs and HH as the Clubs that have withdrawn from the Leagues. HH own their ground and clubhouse, OEs do not. Clubs with their own ground and clubhouse should have been better positioned to survive the last two seasons because of the ability to earn other income. OEs were reliant on one sponsor, HH were not. OEs had the classic position of the sponsor withdrawing, sadly through death in his case, which has seen other Clubs fold (e.g. Mounts Bay). Both Clubs have good feeder set-ups, HH their Minis and Juniors, OEs their school. Those feeders should enable them to rebuild over time as London Welsh have done.  This RFU article may explain some of it https://www.englandrugby.com/news/article/ambition-on-and-off-the-pitch-at-haywards-heath-rfc  I feel sorry for everyone at HH which was my first playing Club, there are some happy memories of that Club. I wish them all the best in turning things round.

On the contrary, I would have thought that clubs with their own ground/clubhouse would be in a worse position as they have overheads to find without income. Don't forget hospitality has been virtually non-existent for 18 months.

Stroud RFC have withdrawn from South West 1 (West) for season 2021/22 stating lack of players.

Mark W-J wrote: [QUOTE=Maroon] And yet the regulations regarding promotion published yesterday state that there will be no relegation from Level Six, so they would effectively retain their place for next season.  Don't shoot the messenger!

Thanks FreeFall - I only had a screenshot of the relevant clause from our Fixture Sec, but it's Regulation 13 Adult Competitions - 13.2.6 Principles of Promotion

Many thanks. Lot to read there I’ll take a week off and go through it 

I would suggest that the probable decision will be for Championship to go to 12 which would have 2 promoted from Na1 1 leaving them with 13 so to get to 14 the option would be 2 relegated and 3 promoted from Nat N and S. The logical thing would be to increase the Championship to 14 which would make all national leagues the same size , including the Premiership, then promotion from Nat 1 could be conditional on Ground Criteria being up to the standard of the Championship. But being logical is not something we expect from the RFU. Hopefully this will be made before we start the season which is only 2 weeks away. 

workerbee wrote: I would suggest that the probable decision will be for Championship to go to 12 which would have 2 promoted from Na1 1 leaving them with 13 so to get to 14 the option would be 2 relegated and 3 promoted from Nat N and S. The logical thing would be to increase the Championship to 14 which would make all national leagues the same size , including the Premiership, then promotion from Nat 1 could be conditional on Ground Criteria being up to the standard of the Championship. But being logical is not something we expect from the RFU. Hopefully this will be made before we start the season which is only 2 weeks away.

The Champ had 11 sides next season last time I looked

Kimbo wrote: The Champ had 11 sides next season last time I looked Am I missing something? A withdrawal?