LongTimeLurker

Latest list from FairWeatherFan: There have been some recent rumblings about Lithgae, Sauchie and Oakley (Marten's post above seems to rule out Fauldhouse and Thornton for now) and given the way Arniston flew under the radar to make it onto last week's list of four there could still be some surprises.

The guy who made the Broxburn tweet is an Evening News journalist: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/lower-leagues/bo-ness-and-broxburn-latest-junior-teams-to-make-east-of-scotland-switch-1-4747430/amp?__twitter_impression=true Although no statement has yet been made officially, the Edinburgh Evening News understands Broxburn club members voted to make the move at a meeting on Monday night.

It was 32 (2 x 16) rather than 36 that was mentioned previously as the format they had in mind back in March. I suspect it's easier to have fewer rather than more league games than 30, to avoid winding up like the Highland League in scheduling terms. They had 30 as of last Thursday, so if they were really concerned about numbers, odds on they would have stopped there.

The Evening News article on Friday last week made it obvious they were bending over backwards to try to get Bo'ness and Lithgae (it appears to have worked exactly as intended, because it took until Saturday afternoon until the committees decided to go for it judging by what Bo'ness people have been posting) and that would have been so they could try to kill off the east region as a serious rival south of the Tay once and for all, so I suspect they are happy with the late rush. If the numbers reach the point where they have 3 x 14 I suspect that would be the new sweet spot in logistics terms.

Last night on here Linlithgow Rose fans seemed to think Sauchie were putting an application. I think Livingston United tweeted that the prospect of top West Lothian clubs like Broxburn, Linlithgow Rose and Bo'ness United leaving is "scary", but not clear what they are doing internally in response. The manager of Fauldhouse has made it sound on here like EoS entry is one of three options being considered by that club given all that has happened, but not sure whether that means they are holding a formal meeting this week. Tayport had something on their website recently explaining what is happening without mentioning any plans on their part. Nothing so far about the rest as far as I am aware, but they all no doubt know what is unfolding and I think it would be surprising if at least some of them don't put in a last minute application.

They can put an application in before the deadline then withdraw it if their EGM decides not to proceed.

There's been a few major U-turns of late and didn't you express similar disbelief over Hill of Beath doing it a few months back? Think it's reached the point now where the east region is pretty untenable moving forward unless you are north of or can see the Tay in the town or village where you live and even Jeanfield Swifts appear to be on the verge of defecting. Didn't just play there, they were champions in 1938-39 and Bo'ness FC amalgamated with Bo'ness Cadora to form Bo'ness United in 1945, so there is direct continuity with the old senior club.

Used to wind up Shire fans on here about having a derby game against Bo'ness United in about 5 years time now the pyramid was being brought in without really believing it. Now it could happen.

The SoS league covers an area with a population of 150,000 or so. That means it is a bit like having a local Falkirk area amateur league minus Falkirk, Stenny, the Shire, Camelon and Dunipace (as the equivalents to QoS, Annan, Stranraer, Dalbeattie and Gretna) playing at tier 6. It really belongs further down than that, so there's a good chance the SoS will ultimately wind up being a feeder to the new WoS setup rather than the LL.

The info that has emerged from Bo'ness on this is that Bo'ness heard from Newtongrange that they were leaving when they arrived to play against them on Saturday. Given they are one of the few traditional big clubs left in the superleague south of the Tay, this led to a string of panic driven phonecalls between the committees of Bo'ness, Lithgae and Broxburn on Saturday afternoon, who agreed that the best thing to do was to move to the EoS and to hold the club meetings needed to ratify this. We'll see what unfolds basically.

...and it's worth bearing in mind that Arniston flew under the radar until after the meeting last Thursday, so there could easily be a few more.

Do they realise they are inside the EoSL's catchment being from Fife and don't fall under the category of Dundee because they used to be a Tayside team?

It's like what happened in East and Midlothian. Once a few of the biggest clubs go the rest that were opposed or in some cases had no strong opinion either way will likely follow. If not this year given the tight timeline, then certainly in 12 months time.

My money's on three rather than two sections being the solution.

What's really inappropriate is the SFA leaving clubs in Tayside in limbo where club licensing and progression is concerned, because they know full well that the Highland League have no intention of agreeing to promotion and relegation any time soon and are likely to view the possible future inclusion of ambitious Tayside clubs as being as welcome as a piranha in a jacuzzi. If any club that is based only a few miles north of Jeanfield Swift felt so inclined where's the harm in testing out if there is any flexibility on this? The EoS already has Tweedmouth on board that are a few miles over another line is jurisdictional terms.

So the only inaccuracy in FairWeatherFan's graphic is St Andrews United at this point along with jumping the gun a bit with Newtongrange Star? The seven in orange are the ones known or believed to be having some sort of meeting before the 31st.

If the LL is going to have EoS, WoS and SoS directly beneath it then three tier 6 feeders for the HL seems reasonable enough. Pyramids are supposed to be about keeping things local at the lower tiers not bankrupting clubs with exhorbitant bus hires to play in front of a crofter called Calum and a couple of sheep.

Even some of the ones in the top ten are likely to have something to say given anything beyond Shotts and Cumbernauld seems to be a blank space on the map with terra incognita on it that's too far to drive to for a league game (see post immediately above) any time an east-west merger has been attempted in that past and that goes back at least as far as when the superleagues were being negotiated and the top West Lothian teams really wanted to be in with the central league teams like Pollok, Arthurlie and Petershill rather than Lochee United and Tayport.

Maybe what they had in mind is the money that goes with being a licensed club? That can add up to 15k or so with Scottish Cup money factored in.

It will vary from club to club, so not easy to put a figure on it. A lot depends on the existing spectator cover and dressing room facilities that you have.

The first clubs did it mainly to do licensing and get into the Scottish cup every season and then things reached a tipping point where what was going to be left started to look significantly weaker than what was going to be in the EoS moving forward.

The way to test it is for a Tayside club from north of the midpoint of the Tay Road bridge to put in an application. The worst that could happen is that it gets turned down, so there's nothing to lose in trying.

Can understand why he's upset after being on a high about gaining automatic promotion yesterday. A season's hard work rendered meaningless with no reward of playing the top east region teams from south of the Tay next season as they are all scrambling for the exit. It was on record in the the Evening News how many applications had been received by March 31st and they were all accepted.