Duchy League - Saturday May 2nd & Monday 4th 2015

[Dave Deacon]

Saturday

Premier Division

Lamerton            0v3              St Stephen

Torpoint Athletic       12v0              St Newlyn East

Division 1

Altarnun              2v5              Edgcumbe FC

Grampound       0v6              St Cleer

Division 3

Lanivet Inn          1v1              Gorran

Division 4

Southgate           3v2              Godolphin Atlantic Reserves

Division 5

Kilkhampton      1v0              Saltash United Res

 

MONDAY 04/05/15 18:00

KMD Developments KO Cup Final           

St Stephen          3v2              Biscovey              (Boscawen Park, St Dennis)            

 

[8 quid]

Gotta love local football,only played four midweek games all season & have had numerous saturdays with no fixture but come monday evening St.Stephen duchy prem will have played eight games in eighteen days three of which were ko cup quarter/semi & final,I think thats way too much to ask any team but were having to do it,surely in the future things could be better thought about for all teams.To top things off we had been told this saturdays fixture could be put back a week with mondays final in mind only to find last night we have to now play lamerton tomorrow because they can not raise a team after this weekend.

[davegrose]

We shud beat them anyway cos I've decided to play up front n leave giving pens away to jimmer

 

[footycrazy15]

It hasn't been easy trying to follow Duchy fixtures this season, Trelawney have there's done for the season. Yours seem to be done month to month? What happens if you all have an evening wedding reception to go to but don't know if you're game is home or away until a few weeks before, or if a pub that does your food has an event booked and they don't know if you're going to be coming back or not until a month before? I can see how it must be very fustrating, I know lower league fixtures get messed about a lot but it would still be 100x better to have a full season of fixtures so you have a good idea of where you'll be so you can plan!

[Premier Sixes]

To shed some light on this. All Duchy teams have a sheet to book the weeks off they need at the start of the season. The league has tried to accommodate every request made by teams this season. It is impossible to plan out the entire season and hope it runs smoothly as apart from hoping for perfect weather and a full quota of available refs when you cannot predict when senior teams will have additional home cup ties (Junior football is at the bottom of the food chain), 1st / 2nd teams within the league get home draws in cups (There are 16 reserves teams of senior team and 13 reserve teams of Duchy teams within the league) and then there are different teams which share the same pitch (P6FC / G 3rds, Southgate / LC Phoenix, Lanivet / AFC Bodmin, Packhorse / Biscovey / Tregrehan Mills / High Street, Rame Peninsula / Real Saltash which is also shared with St Stephens Boro). Fixtures for the season were done last season and by October all fixtures needed to be completely revised due to cancelling games to accommodate junior and senior cup matches. If a Senior or Junior cup match is postponed it takes precedence the following week therefore wiping out another set of fixtures. 
Out of 72 Duchy teams only St Stephen, Lanivet and Callington are the only teams to play catch up. Lanivet and Callington due to lots of postponed home matches (plus in Callys case several Saturdays were they also couldn't play at home as the Peninsula team were at home). 34 teams have already completed their season. St Stephen requested a 6th September start and all of January off (They did have to play 1 league game) which is part of the reason for their backlog (it's 8 games in 23 days - 4 Saturdays and 4 midweek which includes a semi and a final), plus they made the Eastern section Junior Cup Final and have made the league cup final which included a 6-week delayed quarter-final as Torpoint had to wait for their one pitch which is shared between 3 teams to become available. The Duchy league is due to finish it's entire program by May 16th and that is utilising the minimum number of midweek games possible and all matches were kept as local as possible. Only St Stephen (once) and Callington (twice) for the reasons stated above have had more than 1 midweek game a week. The Trelawney league I believe has the fixtures set out at the start of the season but is now in a situation where several sides have had to to play 2 games midweek already.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Premier Sixes

[footycrazy15]

Like I said, the lower leagues get the raw end of it all and it's great they even have someone to sort it all. In regards to being able to book weekends off at the start of the season, it's 9/10 months, a lot happens and the majority of events might not even pop up until during the season, but if teams don't know whether in 6 weeks time they're home or away it makes it difficult to be able to plan outside of football. I think even if up to Christmas can be fixtured, then the second half in the new year it would be a great help. Teams may like to know well in advance when they have away fixtures of a fair distance if anyone in there team's struggles with attending those kind of games, and the more notification they have the better a club can prepare for it. There are numerous other reasons but I understand yours as well that's why I'd suggest meeting in the middle and doing fixtures for half the season and then another half rather than month to month. I've looked at fixtures and teams have got to there last 1 or 2 before knowing what's next, they should always know at least the next several, just my opinion. And to be fair, I don't think St Stephen can complain after asking for the whole of Janaury off!

[Mongoose]

It is an impossible task when you are at the mercy of all above so we just have to accept it and try for mini gains.  The sheet is ok at start of season 4 events that are booked but the league (dan) is now much more open and flexible to requests that come to light after the beginning of the season,  and need to be as the same teams at this part of the year need to also be very flexible.  Lack of refs,  cup priorities, reserves sides,  shared facilities with cricket,  and so on,  it's no surprise there are imbalances in the end.  Fair play to Dan,  he works really hard to find the right balance. 

[phoenix]

We just have to get on with things and be grateful for the selfless individuals who put so much of their time into administrating and running the league. And our league falls in one of the wettest parts of the country, so fixture delays are inevitable. 

[AJW]

Dan Code has done an excellent job this season (and last, when the winter weather caused huge numbers of postponements).

I think that the Duchy League has certainly been more accommodating in recent seasons with regard to fixtures but I agree that having the whole of January off is a bit much. It is also a league rule that teams should play at least one fixture before the first Saturday in September (6th September this season).  If I had the time I would trawl through and see how many any other clubs technically broke this league rule like St Stephen and St Stephen reserves.  Cricket may get in the way with regards to pitches for some clubs (I know this is the case for St Stephen), but surely away fixtures can be arranged for teams in that position.

[AJW]

Duchy 3 : St Cleer Res. v Grampound Res. is OFF

Game has been postpononed because of fog at St Cleer

[Pidgeon]

Torpoint 12 - 0 St Newlyn East 

Don't mention the sausages. 

[chelle]

Duchy 3 : St Cleer Res. v Grampound Res. is OFF

Game has been postpononed because of fog at St Cleer

​Thank you very much for agreeing to delay your meet time etc to see if the fog would lift, your patience was very much appreciaated. We look forward to hosting you next week all being well.