The smallest league in the world: and its still great fun. Real Madrid - Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund- Bayern Munchen, Celtic Glasgow - Glasgow Rangers: two teams that decide year in, wear out whos going towin the league ( well Rangers not at the moment, but theyll be back). On Scilly Island there are only two teams in the whole league and they meet 16 times a year ( excl the cup final). Do they ever get bored? Nope, they love the game and they love to compete. They may play for one team one week and for the other, but that doesnt stop the islanders from loving the game of football. Pocket size football on pocket size islands. Theyre even on FIFAs website. The worlds smallest football league Imagine a group of footballers whose passion for the game is so great that they are willing to line up against the same opposition, on the same pitch, season after season. Who turn up every week to shake hands, tackle, evade and out-jump the same opponent, change in the same dressing room and accept the decisions of the same referee week in, week out. This is the recurring scenario facing the footballing community on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago of 56 islands situated 40 kilometres west of Cornwall in the extreme south-west of England, which proudly claims to be home to the smallest league in the world. Founded in the 1920s as a competition between the five islands of St Mary’s, Tresco, St Martins, Bryher and St Agnes, the Isles of Scilly Football League evolved into a series of matches between the islanders and resident mainlanders in the 1960s before taking on its current form in 1984. Each Sunday morning at 10.30, the blueshirted Garrison Gunners line up against the red-shirted Woolpack Wanderers on the largest island, St Mary’s, to compete for the Lioness Shield, awarded to the team that comes out on top over the course of the 16-match season. Disproving the belief that familiarity breeds contempt, the sides also lock horns another four times each year to decide the Charity Shield – played between the league and cup winners – the Wholesalers Cup and the Foredeck Cup, a two-legged affair in which, unsurprisingly, away goals do not count double. Competitiveness is ensured thanks to a novel team selection procedure which sees the two captains meet before the start of the season and take turns to choose their preferred 20-man squad, tossing a coin to decide who has first pick. The system works well, according to former league secretary Chas Wood, a sprightly 70-year-old midfielder, the league’s oldest player, who checks the colour of his shirt shortly before kick-off just to confirm which side he will be turning out for this season. “The top two is the same every season, of course, but the league is still extremely well balanced. In five of the past eight seasons, the title hasn’t been decided until the very last match. Last year, the Reds got off to a great start and it looked as if they were going to win the title by Christmas. They were 18 points ahead, but the Blues reeled them in and it went right down to the wire. On the last day, the Blues only needed three points to wrap up a fantastic comeback, but the Reds, needing a draw, won the match 2-1.” Rare sightings With ten minutes to go before the first match of the 2011/12 season gets under way, players are still ambling along the dusty track, lined with palm trees, which leads to the playing field located on the highest point of the island. “Where’s our goalkeeper?” shouts a blue-clad player warming up on the pitch as a team-mate dismounts his bike outside the modest hut which serves as the changing rooms, both of which are, of course, assigned to the home team. “He’s working today,” shouts the team-mate. “You’ll have to go in goal.” A throng of photographers with expensive-looking equipment slung over their shoulders are jockeying for position along the touch line, giving the match the feel of a crunch FIFA World Cup™ encounter, until it becomes evident that none of their cameras are pointing towards the pitch. Instead, their long lenses are trained on the nearby trees and undergrowth, in the hope of capturing a shot of one of the rare and migrant birds for whom the isles are the first and last landfall for thousands of kilometres. In excess of 400 different species have been sighted on the islands, more than any other single site in Europe, attracting hordes of binocular wielding tourists who come hoping to catch a glimpse of seldom-sighted species and enjoy the clear blue skies, white sandy beaches and tranquillity that the island has to offer. While providing a boon for the local economy, this flourishing trade also explains why the league does not kick off until mid-October. “Most of the players are employed in seasonal work within the tourist industry, for example as hotel staff, chefs, tourist guides or boatmen,” explains Wood. Even the glorious sunlight shining down on the islands for the season’s curtain-raiser are a mixed blessing for some. “One of our players operates a tourist boat to the neighbouring islands and can’t get the time off work to play on a Sunday when the weather’s good. So he prays for rain!” Fledglings scarce The man in the middle, Paul Charnock, who moved to the island from mainland England six years ago and only revealed himself as a Grade 1 referee when the teams asked him to help out one week, blows the whistle to start the first game of the new season, and the players get stuck into the action, displaying nimble footwork, despite the bumpy pitch, and tackles as rugged as any of the nearby coastlines. “The will to win among the lads is incredible. There’s a definite edge, despite the fact that they’re all playing against friends, colleagues and family members,” says Wood. “It’s a sporting outlet, a way of keeping fit, and because we all see each other during the week, it gives us plenty of opportunities for banter.” Despite the healthy competitiveness and the obvious enjoyment the players get out of their weekly encounters, organising the matches is not all plain sailing, with the league being blighted by a dearth of up-and-coming talent. Enthusiasm for football is high among local youngsters, and was further boosted in 2007 when FIFA Partner adidas arranged a surprise coaching session for local youngsters with global stars such as David Beckham and Patrick Vieira, but with no education opportunities for those over the age of 16, young Scillonians are forced to leave the islands in pursuit of qualifications and, lured by the greater opportunities on the mainland, the majority never return. “In the past, most islanders returned home after finishing their education because there were lots of opportunities to find work in the farming and fishing industries,” explains Chris Evans, the 46-year-old Garrison Gunners left-back. Evans’s teenage son Dan has recently started taking part in the league matches, but will also, inevitably, leave when his schooling on the island comes to an end. “These days, tourism is the only real industry, and less than ten per cent of our young people come back,” says Evans senior. As a result, the average age of the players in the league is in the mid to late thirties. One of the few to buck the trend of young islanders moving to the mainland is Daniel Ware, a 20-year-old chef with a striking resemblance to former Southampton and England striker Matthew Le Tissier – himself one of the few players from a small island community, in his case Guernsey, to scale the heights of the footballing ladder. Daniel returned to the islands after he had completed his college studies in Truro. “I missed the island when I was on the mainland, although it gets quiet in the winter when the tourists leave. There’s not much to do but the football gives me something to look forward to every Sunday.” Goals in waves Ware is clearly a talented player, notching up a hat-trick for the Gunners in the 90 minutes that follow. Played against the backdrop of a clear blue Atlantic Ocean, the season’s curtain-raiser begins with defences on top, before the Wanderers’ Neil Jenkins breaks the deadlock after 20 minutes with a high cross that sails over the goalkeeper into the top left-hand corner. Spurred into action by this slice of bad fortune, Ware and his Gunners’ team-mates launch a wave of attacks and by half time lead 4-1. A flurry of goals in the second half, including a wonderful strike from Stuart Hitchens, a 49-year-old lifeboat coxon who only took up football when he moved to the island a few years ago, result in a 12-4 victory for the Gunners on the opening day of the season. The gap in the scoreline is untypical. “Occasionally one team thrashes the other, especially if several players from their opponents are missing because of work commitments, but usually the matches are much tighter than today. Last week’s Charity Shield match, between the league champions and the cup winners, ended 7-6 to the Wanderers,” says Evans. Regardless of the outcome, the Gunners and the Wanderers enjoy a drink together after the games every week, and the camaraderie among them is evident, with banter that reveals the realities of life on the island for these players, for whom the game is essentially a hobby. “Why were you taken off at half-time?” inquires one player of his team-mate. “It was a tactical switch, I’ve got a group of tourists to take round the island this afternoon and I couldn’t risk injury.” On islands which enjoy a sunnier climate than any other part of the British Isles, what shines through most, despite the limiting circumstances of playing a league season in such a tiny population, is the manner in which football brings the community closer together and the players’ love of the game – the joy that comes making the net bulge, timing a tackle perfectly or picking out a pinpoint pass – no matter who makes up the opposition. Chas Wood sums it up nicely: “Of course it would be nice to play different teams, but playing the same team every week is better than not being able to play any football at all.” youtube/watch?v=L0tTnJvKv9E
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 18:19:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015