I hope that I’ve not made any glaring errors with the fixtures. I’ve run them through the computer to check and validated them as much as possible.

There is a mistake on the Rules I published which was spotted. For clarity, the HOME team provides the Scorer and announcer not the AWAY team. Funnily enough I sent out the same rules last year and nobody spotted it so it wasn’t just my bad editing

As you know the teams are drawn at random so sometimes you get the teams you want and sometimes not. Given the number of teams and the length of the season I hope that it isn’t too bad and remains fairly competitive in both ‘Zones’. I had considered 3 Zones this year to give more teams a chance of a trophy but the season would have been too short really and should there be an issue with a team completing it’s fixtures, it would have ruined the experience for the other teams in that Zone. I think we’ll look at promoting the league more next year to see if we can attract 3 more teams to make this viable. The good thing is the league is growing year on year and I’m delighted at the support and enthusiasm we get from the teams to make this successful.

The Champion of Champions will be a play off between the top 2 teams from each Zone this year to make more of an evening of it and keep up interest in grabbing  one of those top spots . It’s an additional fun end of season event so we’ll try and work out a format which allows all of the matches to be played on the one evening at one venue. I hope whichever format we choose works out but we will of course review it again for next year and try something different if the feeling is that it didn’t make the matches enjoyable or fair.

The venues for the Competitions are yet to be decided – Now we have the dates we’ll need to check availability to see where we play them.   

Hope everyone has a great summer. Good Luck and hope to see you at some point during the season – Mick Shepherd

Apologies for not being present at the fixture collection. Unfortunately I was a victim of the Icelandic ash cloud and was stuck abroad. I can’t tell you how relieved I was that I’d done the draw and prepared the paperwork before I went away. A big thank you to Eric Bennett and Brian Goodall who sorted out printing the fixtures and result cards so people could collect. Really was a weight off my mind.

I’m delighted that Lower Green and The Wellington’s teams have grown enough to field two sides each this year. I was also pleased that we were able to fill all the positions for the commitee to form the new Summer league season without any arm twisting. Thank you to all of you who put your names forward. I’m looking forward to working with you and a much less hectic season.

I’ll be doing the draw for the league shortly and the teams will appear on the site shortly. I won’t be posting the fixtures on the site though until after the collection date and everyone is paid up.

I will be including a short break in the fixtures for the World Cup. The only real clash with Tuesday nights seems to be for the Semi-finals (should England make it that far!). This will be nominated a free week. I’m not able to fit any more free weeks into the middle of the season without losing a free week at the end or the Champions of Champions evening which is being re-introduced. I think this will work out ok though.

Molesey Royal British Legion – Winner Div A

The Griffin, Claygate – Winner Div B

I have been able to test the website out on their new system but I’ve not been able to carry out the work to tidy it up in time for Tuesday so you might have problems finding things until I can do it. I’m also looking at whether I can add some other features now with the new design.

I hope you find the new design easier to use – I’m not sure about it yet but maybe it’ll grow on me. Please let me know though if you are having trouble accessing or viewing the site when it changes though.

example of new website

Due to the ongoing postal dispute at the Royal Mail, here are some options for getting the results to me.

1. Scan the result card and email to michael.shepherd@fasteye.co.uk. If you do this there is no need to post but the scan must be of good quality so I can read the names and the signatures are clear in case of any dispute. A couple of teams have been doing this and it works well.

2. Email the result and player statistics for both teams to michael.shepherd@fasteye.co.uk. The card MUST also be posted to follow up so that I have a signed card in case of disputes.

3. Text me the result on my mobile number which is available on the menu under ‘League Info’, ‘Contacts’ on this site. Optionally also text the player stats from both teams but if you do text the stats then make them clear. The card MUST also be posted to follow up so that I have a signed card in case of disputes.

4. Post it through my door by hand – You may have a team member who passes by during their working hours or lives close to me who can drop it in.

Obviously we all hope this dispute is resolved quickly so that normal service can resume but given the issues with lost post in the summer, I need your support to make sure I can keep this site up to date and ensure any tables and player stats I distribute are as accurate as possible. 

The other thing to note is the players shown against each team. In most cases these will be shown as the players who have played for these teams in previous seasons. This is because I don’t have access to the league team registration forms where the players were written down. Historically I update the players once the result cards start coming in. If teams want to supply me a list of their players by e-mail I’ll update it but as you can sign players on match night there is always the odd few additions to make anyway.  

It should be remembered that the fixtures paperwork which John Hall supplied is the source of truth for fixtures and venues. I’m as careful as I can be but occasionally I make errors when inputing so many fixtures. Please let me know if you spot any such issues.

The AGM for the winter league has now gone by and was very poorly attended. It’s a pity that others didn’t take the opportunity to contribute their ideas on how to improve the league and submit their teams early. This makes organising the season very difficult and means yet again I’ll not get time to set up this web site for the winter league much in advance. Team wise I think we have around 15 teams now. I’m really hoping we can finish this season with the same number of teams we start with this year. A welcome return this year will be the Lord Hotham which was recently refitted.

Just a reminder – I don’t run the Winter League, that is still John Hall and his number is on this site. I am the result secretary and recieve result cards and update the site. Please make sure any league issues are passed directly to John and not through me. I can’t guarantee that I’ll get messages to him straight away and to be honest I need the break!!

The competitions are upon us, I have most of the forms back so thank you those teams who have turned these round quickly. I’m still accepting entries by text or email from those of you that haven’t got round to it. It’s looking like a good attendance.