Remaining fixtures - tough run in

[Foul Throw 3]

As with a lot of south-west leagues, the FA not extending the season is becoming a real issue. 
Feel for Mike Murray and the other secretaries in the area with difficult tasks to undertake in a restricted calendar. 
Saltash 1sts have 4 games in 6 days from what I’ve read today. 
And looking at my own sides fixtures in ECPL we have 4 in 8days, with 11 from April onwards. last season I think we only played 25 all season inc cups. 
Do the FA think players and club members don’t have full time jobs? Crazy! 

[Grassrootsgary]

1 hour ago, Foul Throw 3 said:

As with a lot of south-west leagues, the FA not extending the season is becoming a real issue. 
Feel for Mike Murray and the other secretaries in the area with difficult tasks to undertake in a restricted calendar. 
Saltash 1sts have 4 games in 6 days from what I’ve read today. 
And looking at my own sides fixtures in ECPL we have 4 in 8days, with 11 from April onwards. last season I think we only played 25 all season inc cups. 
Do the FA think players and club members don’t have full time jobs? Crazy! 

Agreed foul throw, see it year after year and in leagues like ecpl where not every team has floodlights teams are expected to travel and kick off on weekday games for 6:30. Ludicrous.

[Shouter]

The ECPL is probably too big. 18-teams at the start of the season, 17 left with Godolphin's withdrawal. I think that number was reluctantly voted in at the AGM, even though CCFA wanted a 16-team league. The problem with this, is that only 4 clubs in the league - Torpoint Thirds, St Blazey Reserves, Newquay Reserves and Marjon Reserves - have floodlights to enable mid-week games to be played throughout the season.

St Cleer are in the toughest position with 16 games to play yet. How is that even feasible when they don't have lights, unless the season is extended sufficiently?

We still have 14 games left, 8 home, 6 away. We don't play at home until 8 April, at which point, we will still have 10 games to play.

Padstow are in the best position having played 22 already so only 10 games to fit in between now and early May. Looking at their fixtures, you would think they should get these in without the need for too many evening games.

With Reserves and Third teams in the league, this makes fixturing all that more difficult as teams in higher leagues will take precedence. That said, perhaps the ECPL could look at TRYING to fixture the clashes involving longer journeys earlier in the season, on a Saturday, when there is less chance of postponement. This would potentially ease the pressure on teams having to travel greater distances for 6.30pm kick offs throughout April and May. Easy eh? Well, not really, but worth consideration surely.

The league or FA must extend the season. Surely? It's a no brainer.

For next season, I think the ECPL seriously needs to look at reducing its numbers to 16 teams, possibly even 14.

They also need to make better use of those clubs with floodlights. We played 6 games under lights at The Mill before the end of October and played a Cup game at Newquay on a Friday night. How many more evening games have the likes of Newquay, St Blazey and Marjons accommodated? It's a genuine question, not a criticism. 

I don't have the answers, but something needs to change surely? Starting with the FA being sensible and extending the season by a couple of weeks.

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

The only thing that the FA are interested in is the premier league. 

Then off on a jolly somewhere in the world...Cornish football - not interested...get on with  it! 

[Adlestrop]

If you check out Full Time,the ECPL/Duchy/Combo all can go to the END of May-surely plenty of time-unless,of course we have 1963 type snow storms !

[baldy]

1 hour ago, Adlestrop said:

If you check out Full Time,the ECPL/Duchy/Combo all can go to the END of May-surely plenty of time-unless,of course we have 1963 type snow storms !

Don't think that has changed for many years. Step 7 end date is May 9th. Step 6 is April 25th. So one can see what the FA process takes shape at the end of season?

[Maybenextyear]

On ‎26‎/‎02‎/‎2020 at 09:12, Shouter said:

The ECPL is probably too big. 18-teams at the start of the season, 17 left with Godolphin's withdrawal. I think that number was reluctantly voted in at the AGM, even though CCFA wanted a 16-team league. The problem with this, is that only 4 clubs in the league - Torpoint Thirds, St Blazey Reserves, Newquay Reserves and Marjon Reserves - have floodlights to enable mid-week games to be played throughout the season.

St Cleer are in the toughest position with 16 games to play yet. How is that even feasible when they don't have lights, unless the season is extended sufficiently?

We still have 14 games left, 8 home, 6 away. We don't play at home until 8 April, at which point, we will still have 10 games to play.

Padstow are in the best position having played 22 already so only 10 games to fit in between now and early May. Looking at their fixtures, you would think they should get these in without the need for too many evening games.

With Reserves and Third teams in the league, this makes fixturing all that more difficult as teams in higher leagues will take precedence. That said, perhaps the ECPL could look at TRYING to fixture the clashes involving longer journeys earlier in the season, on a Saturday, when there is less chance of postponement. This would potentially ease the pressure on teams having to travel greater distances for 6.30pm kick offs throughout April and May. Easy eh? Well, not really, but worth consideration surely.

The league or FA must extend the season. Surely? It's a no brainer.

For next season, I think the ECPL seriously needs to look at reducing its numbers to 16 teams, possibly even 14.

They also need to make better use of those clubs with floodlights. We played 6 games under lights at The Mill before the end of October and played a Cup game at Newquay on a Friday night. How many more evening games have the likes of Newquay, St Blazey and Marjons accommodated? It's a genuine question, not a criticism. 

I don't have the answers, but something needs to change surely? Starting with the FA being sensible and extending the season by a couple of weeks.

Marjons have not had one evening game at home this season and not had one home game scheduled in 2020 so far when the pitch would be playable every week. They have played 3 away games this year and you could argue that none of the pitches were in a good playable condition, the rest were postponed. Ironically, with the winter behind us "in theory", Marjons have 5 home games in a row..

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

Winter would normally be behind us...but not this year...bleddy jet stream!