Could you all read the below email from Stuart Pinkerton regarding 2016 League. We need to have a consensus for the agm.
Dear All
During the course of the season we have lost several teams. At the start of season 3 divisions had 9 teams and we have since lost another 7. We now have 120 teams but on top of that Southend 2s and Thurrock 4s wish to reapply whilst new clubs Leigh on sea and Oaklands wish to join. There is no way we can have divisions of 10 if we have 124 teams so the 2 options are-
1. We go with 120 teams which will mean all teams getting 18 games and the 4 teams listed above would not be elected into the league. We would though vote them in an order so that if there is a drop out we might be able to put the preferred reserve team from the 4 in as a replacement.
2. If you elect 2 of the teams in we would have 9 divisions of 10 teams and 4 divisions of 8 or 3 divisions of 8 should all 4 be elected. This would mean that the bottom 4 divisions (32teams) only getting 14 league games.
At the AGM we will ask clubs to vote if they want 12 divisions or 13. John French has looked into the possibility of having more than 10 teams in a division but unfortunately this will not work. The Committee have discussed this at length and they are in favour of 12 divisions of 10. Though this would mean 2 existing clubs not getting a team back into the league we feel that all 120 clubs getting 18 games is more important
Clearly the final decision is down to you the clubs so please discuss this before the AGM so that your representative knows what they are voting for at the meeting. If you wish to ask any questions please contact me.
This winter we are delaying doing the fixtures till the start of February. The reason for this is to give clubs more time to decide if they are capable of fulfilling their fixtures. The last 3 years teams have withdrawn after the fixtures have been published with Division 1 hard hit. We are aware of the frustration of players who have no game when they want to play and the loss of income when a ground is not used. We ask all clubs to let us know by the new year if they are not going to get teams out. Once the fixtures are out there is nothing we can do if a team pulls out
Regards Stuart