League Structure 24/25??

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   My feeling, Camquin, is that you would have to go down to perhaps level 5 in my area - and that's lumping together Greater Manchester, Cheshire & the Wirral, and Lancashire - before you could make a viable league.
Pre leagues, the big clubs (generally described as the 'gate-taking' clubs) would have included Sale, Broughton Park and Manchester; then New Brighton and Birkenhead Park on the Wirral; Fylde, Liverpool, Waterloo, Vale of Lune and Preston Grasshoppers were the Lancashire big boys, joined by Orrell (who may have anticipated the ending of the amateur regulations a wee bit).

Other clubs of status, or pretention to status, would have included Chester, Wilmslow and Winnington Park, possibly, from Cheshire, and the 'town teams' from Lancs, such as St Helens (who combined with Liverpool), Wigan, Widnes, etc.

I was Fix Sec at Sedgley Park during the 1980s, and to get a game with any of those would have been beyond dreams. "Sedgley who?" was the usual response over the phone, and letters were ignored.

So, if I feel passionate about ring fencing, perhaps it's because I know what it is like to be on the outside of that very unfriendly barrier. The coming of the Courage Leagues gave Sedge our opportunity, and we took it. They couldn't dodge us any more....and the rest is history. Actually, I mentioned Widnes, above, and they were the one club who would play us, for which we are grateful.

I know every area is different, with different problems. We have huge soccer and rugby league on our doorstep; I think it was someone from North Walsham who bemoaned the problems of a small, rural population, which we certainly don't have.

The leagues eventually brought together clubs of similar playing standards, to the benefit of all. This season, to date in National 1, losing bonus points have been achieved in 21 of the 49 games - just as an easily accessed crude guide.

Apologies for the rambling rant, but we must not let 'them' destroy what has been built over almost 40 years.