Secretary's Report 2007/08

Intro duction

I’m delighted to report that overall the 2007-08 season was one of the smoothest and most successful in the London Legal League for a number of seasons.

By far the best element was the Beckham Academy at North Greenwich. My stock phrase during September when speaking to clubs was always that “however good you think it’ll be, it’ll be better” and I believe that almost everyone agreed. Although the permits there (£137.50 per game) do cost most than the other grounds we use (typically £110 - £120) I think everyone felt it was value for money, and well worth the increase in subscriptions.

The only downside to the season was the withdrawal of Withers at the start of the season, which meant that Division Three played with only nine sides. To compensate for the two missed games we introduced a Division Three trophy, which added some spice to the end of the season, but it is not planned to continue this so long as we have a full complement of clubs for each Division next season.

On The Field

The first division race went right down to the wire, with Slaughter and May winning their last game to overtake Ashurst for the title. Slaughters made it a double with a superb extra-time 4-3 victory over CMS Cameron McKenna in the Challenge Cup final.

Division Two saw a titanic battle between winners Allen & Overy and runners-up Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who clinched their second consecutive promotion. The third division title proved to be a stroll for Camerons, with Denton Wilde Sapte joining them in promotion.

The Weavers Cup Final saw SJ Berwin beat Macfarlanes 1-0 in a tight game, and they added the Division 3 Cup. Allen & Overy won the Invitation Cup, beating Barlows 4-2.

Discipline

I’m delighted to report that on the discipline front, “normal service” seemed to be resumed. After the problems of the 2006-07 season, when a number of clubs had to be interviewed, two clubs reached Stage 2 of the AFA Disciplinary Code (17 points or more – caution = 1 point, sendings off = 2-5 points) and a further three clubs reached Stage 1 of the AFA Disciplinary Code (11 points or more), in 2007-08 just one club (Olswang, 14 points) reached Stage 1. The league average number of disciplinary points dropped to 4.3 points (6.2 in 2006-07), a level similar to 2005-06 (4.2).

Particular congratulations should go to Baker & MacKenzie, Macfarlanes and Simmons & Simmons, none of whom garnered a single caution during the season.

Referees

The improvement in discipline was also reflected in comments from referees, who I think enjoyed the season as much as any for some time. It is worth re-iterating that within the London Legal League we have the highest quality of officiating anywhere within the AFA. On a Saturday, sides playing a similar standard of football are lucky to see one qualified official, let alone three, and many of our officials on a Saturday are refereeing at semi-professional levels. Week-in, week-out I can confidently say the best team on the pitch will be our officials.

The season ended with a new fixture – the Referees issuing a challenge to a club for a friendly fixture. This was offered to the team top of the Sportsmanship Table (Norton Rose), who readily accepted, and we hope it will be a feature of future seasons, and dare one say it, some incentive for finishing top of that table.

John Harkin continues to do a superb job with the referees, adding and subtracting from the panel as required.

Fixtures & Pitch Permits

The only glitch at the start of the season was Mile End cancelling two of our permits (due to administration errors on their part), which meant we generally had 13 permits per week, not 15 (though the withdrawal of Withers meant this was partly a blessing in disguise). 13 permits worked fine, and we don’t intend to increase them for next season.

Whilst the Beckham Academy quickly established itself as the “Premier venue” we don’t believe we should seek to increase its usage any further – if we did, and then it became unavailable to us, we’d have serious problems, and a mixture of permits across grounds remains the sensible course for the long term.

We shall nevertheless continue to look at new grounds, and in particular if the rumoured relaying of Southwark Park takes place, we will be keen to try and include that.

Iain Wagstaff continues to do a superb job of juggling the fixtures, and has confirmed he will continue for 2008-09.

Results

We also launched a new system for gathering scorelines during the season, with results texted into the FA’s Full-Time system. This reduces the workload for league officers quite significantly, and we shall use it next season in its entirety (and potentially levy fines accordingly).

Cup Finals

We did try to contact De Beers about renewing sponsorship to cover costs of Cup Finals, but had no luck. In fact all of our Cup Finals (bar the Division Three Cup) were played at the Beckham Academy, which significantly reduced costs, although there was catering afterwards at the Pilot Inn. Although in the past we have sometimes asked participating firms to contribute towards these costs, I believe we should make a decision that the costs should come out of league funds – everyone has a chance to reach the finals, and they ought to be the league’s highlights of the season.

We shall nevertheless continue to try and secure sponsorship to cover the costs.

Representative Team

Aside from results, the Representative Team season was one of the best for years. As charged by the AGM we did arrange a trial match, but only seven players were put forward by clubs, so this was cancelled and we reverted to the old system of scouting (by yours truly, various referees) and word of mouth. Unfortunately Luke Mines, the team manager, was seconded to the Far East, so yours truly stood in with his best Avram Grant impression.

We played three games, two in October (losing somewhat unfortunately 2-1 to the Amateur Football Combination, and 3-0 rather more convincingly to the Arthurian League) and one in March, losing 4-2 to Cambridge University despite being 2-1 up (a bare eleven being a major handicap, with a number of late cryoffs). Five years is too long since we last won a game.

The Cambridge game was a rearranged fixture. We had determined to make one last attempt at getting a side to travel to Cambridge for an afternoon kickoff, but with only six players available it was clear this is no longer practical. Instead we invited them to the Beckham Academy, which they loved, and we’ve now agreed we will play them annually in Greenwich.

League Officials

Once again thanks should go to the officers who ensure the smooth running of the league. Iain Wagstaff and John Harkin are the key people in the day-to-day running of fixtures, but thanks should also go to Steve Wallace (Results Secretary & AFA Representative), John Wilson (Treasurer and President), Mark Brailsford (Chairman), Iain Ramsay (Vice-Chairman), Luke Mines (Representative Team Manager) and Chris Brayford (AFA Representative).

Without these officers the league could not operate and their work, and advice, ensured a smooth season.

Danny McConnell (June 2008)