Boundary Change?

[Simon BTFC]

Taken from www.thenon-leaguepaper.com

 

RYMAN MEET TO DISCUSS CHANGES - 20/01/2003

 

Representatives of the Ryman League's eighty-eight clubs will meet on Thursday to hear several important announcements.

 

The league is set to reveal details of a new sponsorship agreement and the distribution of prize money at the end of the current season.

 

The meeting will also be given the latest reaction from the Board of Directors on the Football Conference's move to extend invitations to Premier Division clubs to form a larger national competition.

 

Included on the agenda is the issue of 'realignment of boundaries' ready for the 2004/05 season.

The Ryman and Dr Martens leagues agreed to form a working party to look at the issue following the collapse last year of plans to reduce the number of feeder leagues to the Conference from three to two by downgrading the Ryman League to the status of a Dr Martens feeder.

 

The management boards agreed to try and thrash out a boundary change in order to remove some of the geographic anomalies between the clubs playing in them.

 

The most glaring is Chelmsford City, who play in the Dr Martens League when most of the clubs around them, including Braintree Town, Canvey Island, Purfleet and Bishop's Stortford, not to mention a whole host of London Borough sides, play in the Ryman League.

 

It is expected that at the very least the joint league panel will recommend that Chelmsford switch to the Ryman League, with clubs to the extreme north and west of the Ryman League catchment area, likely to include Bedford Town and possibly Aylesbury United, moving the other way.

 

The Ryman, in exchange, could arguably obtain the likes of Welling United, Crawley Town and Havant & Waterlooville.

 

 

[Guest]

Please not havant!

[&yB]

I was wondering what other correspondents thought of this too. Perhaps Chelmsford City would be welcomed into the Ryman by Billericay fans, but I’m not sure we’d respond well to the travelling (especially mid-week) to some of the other contenders: Dover, Folkestone Invicta, Hastings spring to mind here – how many of you made it to Bognor mid-week – I couldn’t!

Don’t get me wrong a place in the southern half of a new Conference structure would suit me fine, it would be progress, But trips to more exotic locations a long way south of the river in the New Ryman Premier don’t inspire. It would be a dent on the clubs transport budget too of course, and would we always be able to put out our strongest team for the longer mid-week hauls?

No for me it’s a Thumbs Up for the Conference, and a big klaxon noise for Mr Turvey’s latest idea.

 

[CANV EFM]

the doc martins league tried to shaft the ryman last year in trying to turn thier league and the unibond into the 2 conf feeders.. now the conf is crapping itself that league division 3 will go regional and take the entire current conf with it, so they are trying to secure the best of the rest in conf north and south.. so now doc martins are crapping themselves and cosying up to the ryman all of a sudden... naturally in all of this the ryman is just crapping itself and running around like a headless chicken

[pabird]

Yep

[Simon BTFC]

Reckon that the Kent teams (Welling, Dover and Folkestone) would be the most likely to move along with Chelmsford. Would possibly then lose Basingstoke, Maidenhead and Aylesbury as well as Bedford.

[Guest]

I would think Hitchin would be a candidate rather than Basingstoke

[Simon BTFC]

I was thinking by county - ie Hertfordshire sides in Ryman, Hampshire in DM, particularly the southernmost clubs.

[Ryan.c]

I'd take Dover, Crawley, Havant and Welling any day if it meant dropping places like Ford, Heybridge, Braincheat, Hampton and Harrow, but unfortunately the clubs we'd be losing are some of the better ones (Aylesbury, Bedford, Aldershot, Basingstoke). I don't see that the clubs alledged to be moving on to another league, and the ones 'we' gain, that we would be travelling any greater distances. After all, isn't this what it's all about, ironing out all the anomalies that currently exist?

[Simon BTFC]

Looks like it's worse than that:

Out: Aylesbury, Basingstoke Town, Bedford Town, Boreham Wood, Chesham United, Hitchin Town, Maidenhead United and St Albans City

In Chelmsford City, Crawley Town, Folkestone Invicta, Hastings United, Dover Athletic, Havant & Waterlooville and Welling United

 

Remaining

Harrow

Hendon

Sutton

Braintree

Hayes

Stortford

Kingstonian

Heybridge

Enfield

Purfleet

Aldershot

Canvey

Ford

Grays

Hampton

 

Think that's about right...... Relegation/promotion permitting.

[Simon BTFC]

Apparently what they are trying to do is split the Ryman/DM region into a SE/NW Split. We would be in the north east corner of the SE league which appears to cover Essex, London, Kent, Surrey and East Hampshire which I guess makes sense from a regionalisation point of view although not from an "improving the standard" point of view.