cmontheloknow

The results of the Junior survey will be revealing : What did North say about whether Junior clubs (not specifically E/W) should join the pyramid? If the link is confusing, they were asked: Should Junior clubs join the Pyramid? Y/N Should the Juniors come in at Level 6 (Option A) or Level 5 (Option B)? Was the club currently meeting Club Licensing requirements?

What's to stop Clydebank joining the EoS and transferring should the WoS ever get off the ground?

To the best of my knowledge, yes.

It's time to bring back the Best Team In Auchinleck Cup too!

The SJFA questionnaire was issued to the entire membership.

I wrote to Gordon Smith years ago outlining reasons why Division 4 N/S (as it was then called) was flawed, and he did respond with his reasons countering mine. That email correspondence is lost to time but it was well towards the start of this decade, if not before. I honestly cannot remember when. Change has been on the cards and the SJFA have refused to play ball all the way along. The creation of the LL did seem to appear out of nowhere but dialogue had been ongoing for a while prior to that. I do believe TJ was resolute in putting the interests of his members first BUT a day of reckoning was inevitable so that brinkmanship seems to have gained the members very little. As it stands, the SJFA want to either have their clubs in at L5 or 6. But there is every likelihood that wishful thinking could be misplaced and they come in at L7, below a new WoS league, the EoS, the SoS and potentially a HFL Div 2.

But it shouldn't come to them dying. They should be at a level that they can prosper. That is the purpose of the pyramid. *IF* we were starting from scratch, a rural (mainly amateur in terms of player status) league from one of Scotland's least populated regions would not be immediately below a semi-national league. The clubs within it cannot afford that next step and Threave were relegated out of the LL having not that long before resigned from the EoS for travel difficulties. The South set-up would benefit from feeding a West of Scotland-wide division (such as the West Super First) and any clubs able to play more widely could work their way up to the LL. Personally, I don't think gates would improve should the big Junior sides come in. Not all have large supports that would travel so far - maybe as a one off perhaps. I was at Wigtown v Talbot in the Scottish Cup, from memory about 200 were there. I'd been to Wigtown before for a derby with Newton and the crowd was smaller but not significantly. At the Talbot game there were a few more around the other sides. Wigtown v Newton 4/4/15 Wigtown v Auchinleck 13/8/16

The South of Scotland League is not fit for purpose as a feeder to the LL and I say that as a fan of football in that region. It's crazy to expect a club from say Stirlingshire like Dunipace to travel down there for a league game, or for those clubs to have to come up. Ok, Dunipace will perhaps get their trip to Kello next season but it's not a trip they'd make every 2nd week. An influx of Glasgow area teams would markedly alter the characteristics of a league for, in the main, D&G sides. And how many of those SoS sides are in any position to get licenced AND want promotion?

Is there any fixture software that can produce a fixture list that gives certain teams say 30 away games next season? Asking for a friend.

Don't think Junior clubs need to resign until their regional AGMs which will be later perhaps than EoS as the Junior season will go on until mid June.

Just on simple maths, if 40 are owed than about 120 are in (haven't checked the current roll). if the 'overwhelming majority' are in favour, to me that suggests a figure north of 70%, perhaps in the region of 70-100 clubs saying 'aye'? If the 40 snails / ostriches vote no, I can't see it being enough to switch the overall position to a no.

I think my 5 mth old daughter has got more to say.

While the Senior non-leagues have a few, I think I'm right in saying that Kello Rovers, being from outwith Ayrshire ar ethe only geographical anomaly in the Juniors (though I suppose Stirlingshire is a bit complicated in East/West).

Apart from Banks o' Dee - in 2009 admitting three sides much poorer onfield (2 from a lower division, one that dodged the drop on goal difference) and all with poorer facilities - none of the others had seats (or lights?), Strathspey's ground as alluded to up the thread was very basic.

Aye but the most recent expansion was from hoovering up and effectively killing off the Saturday amateur league.

Hypothetically speaking, if there ever was a vote of no confidence in the SJFA leadership, who would it be aimed at? Do the membership have any say in who runs the show beyond electing the office bearers?

There does appear to be some confusion though over whether the coordinates are either decimal degrees (which makes it Dundee Airport) or degrees, minutes and seconds (which makes it north of Brechin / Montrose).

Dundee Airport is at 56.27º according to Google Earth. A different result, using decimal degrees, shows it as Dundee airport and comes from https://www.latlong.net

It isn't - the dividing line is a line of latitude that is just north of Montrose.

They're successful in the middle division of one of the worst amateur leagues in the West - why did they not join the SAFL, CSAFL or CAFL when their previously poor league (WosAFL) folded?

In view of Charlie Nicholas' comments this week re: McTominay, he was ranting about 'Englishman' Warren Cummings being picked for Scotland under Vogts on the teatime show, alluded to him being so bad that he was now 'out the game' or words to that effect and then was stopped in his tracks by the guest (whose name I did not catch as I had only just turned on) saying that he had a Scottish accent - "are you sure?" asked Cosgrove? Maybe like Cummings he chould consider retirement as invariably he speaks utter guff and (unlike Tam) isn't funny with it either.

Yes, I know.

Go to Silverburn Tesco cafe for lunch and when deciding which knife or fork to use from the 'help yourself 'trays, pick up a handful of each, dislike their cleanliness and then say 'nah, not using those,' chucking them back into the tray for the next unknowing sod to pick one up.

Making use of floodlights is fine but not everyone has them therefore it cannot be used by all as a solution. I agree that playing on surfaces when grass doesn't grow is not ideal, but there'd be no grass on them at all if they weren't closed for remedial work in the summer. The Junior season's length is a joke, I don't disagree. However it is extended because of the present executive's unwillingness to acknowledge the elephant in the room - a national cup competition that takes priority over league games and can lead to weeks of postponements because it is scheduled to run some large rounds in months notorious for bad weather (Nov-Feb). IF the Junior Cup was removed from that window, there would be a reduction in postponements as just like giving teams a game with floodlights, home fixtures can be avoided for teams with bogs for parks. There are ways to fix the present without reinventing the future.

Volume of games is an issue though - the summer leagues in Scotland do not play with anything like the intensity of the fixture lists in our league. I don't claim to know how the Scandinavians deal with the issues I outlined but they are issues we would face here. I found this document from the FAI about how to maintain a decent pitch without having a close season to do so: https://www.fai.ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Natural_Turf.pdf Badly maintained council pitches will not function within the summer football model, going by what that document says. Damage needs to be repaired within 12 hours of the game, it suggests on p23.