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Yes, Audois. Hammersmith are Aussies, Wests are primarily Kiwis. Hammersmith won 16-10 against London Chargers. In a result sure to please anybody who played them, Hemel beat Eastern 28-16.

Oh and the finals. Eastern Rhinos vs. Hemel in the East Div Plate Final Hammersmith vs. London Chargers in the National Playoff Final

I'm not surprised, which is why I am still not sure whether to continue with the game. It'd be easy to walk away if I had personal animosity with those in the club but I genuinely like the other people on the committee and the lads makes me laugh. I'm not going to list all my gripes again for fear of being branded a moaner. However, then I look at some other sports. Some of them can't even get results on their website. Some can't tell you your local team. If I am to compare my local amateur RL scene to that of any other sport with a similar number of local amateur teams, or even more, we're not beaten by that many sports. It's deeply-flawed but others are even more flawed. It's like some sort of private race to the bottom.

Final East combined table. Pos Team Pl W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Wests Warriors 11 11 0 0 432 140 292 22 2 London Chargers 11 8 1 2 312 156 156 17 3 Hammersmith Hills Hoists 11 6 1 4 350 192 158 13 4 Bedford Tigers 11 5 1 5 225 350 -125 10* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Hemel Stags 12 6 0 6 252 269 -17 12 6 North Herts Crusaders 12 5 0 7 228 354 -126 10 7 Eastern Rhinos 12 4 0 8 268 312 -44 8 8 South London Silverbacks 12 4 1 7 254 324 -70 8* 9 Brixton Bulls 12 1 0 11 200 424 -224 2 * Both deducted one point for non-fulfillment of fixtures

I think part of the problem with the game is that there's always something bigger and shinier that attracts the attention. Toronto came along and suddenly expanding to Hemel comes across as glamorous as expanding to Blackpool. On the earlier question, what hasn't worked this year has been publicity. A number of promises were made about publicising the competition, I don't think that's really come off. Also, situations with dedicated staff (the competition manager disappeared mid-season) and chopping and changing behind the scenes means it's all been dumped on a person who already had too much to do. Once again, successes in our game seem to come despite the setbacks.

Then again, I don't know how many times we've been on the end of good-natured arm twisting to basically bullying by the RFL so we'd do what they needed from us. The RFL wanted Hemel Stags to go semi-pro as much as they did.

Looking at it, I don't think Merthyr to Bovey Tracey is completely unrealistic, especially compared to the idea of the Welsh clubs travelling to London. Devon Sharks have proved they can play well with others. As Saint1 said, Birmingham would fit the travel for Wales/Swindon/Gloucester but would it fit for Devon too? Brixton play out of Woodmansterne School in Streatham. The school is a perpetual building site, as it is being expanded from an infants school to a full 4-18 primary/secondary/sixth form school. They have a tiny portakabin for changing, they use a pub 10 minutes away as a clubhouse and the pitch has drainage issues. The whole thing is a little bit diminished compared to other clubs and while the quaintness was charming in the Entry League, it comes across as low-rent at this level. I understand they don't have a ton of options and the RFL was apparently prepared to spend money for facilities at the school but that's been put on the back burner. Hopefully a solution can be found. Skolars under-20s (bit of a misnomer, they have some over-20s too) are playing in the London Men's League, which is three firsts (Medway, Newham and Elmbridge), three SCL reserves (Wests, Brixton and Chargers) and a semi pro team's amateur development side. Without the twos, the firsts would have nobody to play. Problem is, they're not on the level of the better twos. Medway are an awkward outfit to play but they only won one game against a team above them, which was a walkover against Wests. Brixton were beating these twos for three seasons.

Right now, I honestly don't know. Any suggestion I've ever made to the RFL has been politely ignored, including a plan for the 2018 London & South East Championship that I wrote on Christmas Day. So all this is just apropos of nothing. Western: I think Cardiff are done. Swindon need to look at whether they're spreading themselves too thin. I assume Devon will apply but get rejected, though an application from Somerset would probably get both in. A Midlands club would better fit the geographic footprint but nobody is anywhere near ready. If they remain at five (or even six), they'd likely retain the current format. Beyond that, who's vaguely ready for this? If Devon do get rejected, the West of England seriously need to nut up and let them into their league. Eastern: It's still an extended London Premier league and it has operated as such. I think there was too much mid-season faffing around tbh and formalising the calendar earlier would be good, as would sorting out rules for relief weekends. The curiosity of the bottom half of this league amused me. I think Eastern beat Hemel twice, Hemel beat Silverbacks twice but Silverbacks beat Eastern twice. As for anybody who'd drop out? Every team has some sort of viability issue, anybody can fall over at any time. However, Brixton stick out like a sore thumb on facilities. Given they finished bottom after two Grand Final wins (and one GF loss the season before), maybe they might question their viability, though that would be very sad. I can't see anybody joining in the East either but that's OK. Brentwood and St Ives emerged from the pack in East Region but that division needs to re-establish itself. The London Premier was dominated by reserve teams. Medway were the only firsts not to finish with a losing record and I've said repeatedly that it would be a mistake to allow a seconds/age group team into the SCL, so that rules out the Skolars U-20s. There needs to be more work done to get teams into the regional setups. I say this every year. What will actually happen? Well, what's the worst case scenario? Probably that.

I put all of the SCL East Division results from both parts of the season into one table, SPL split-season style Pos Teams Pl W D L PF PA PD Pnts 1 Wests Warriors 11 11 0 0 432 140 292 22 2 London Chargers 11 8 1 2 312 156 156 17 3 Hammersmith Hills Hoists 11 6 1 4 350 192 158 13 4 Bedford Tigers 11 5 1 5 225 350 -125 10* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Hemel Stags 11 5 0 6 222 263 -41 10 6 Eastern Rhinos 12 4 0 8 268 312 -44 8 7 South London Silverbacks 11 4 1 6 230 296 -66 8* 8 North Herts Crusaders 11 4 0 7 200 330 -130 8 9 Brixton Bulls 11 1 0 10 194 394 -200 2 * asterisk denotes -1 for missing a game - Hammersmith probably should have a deduction too The earlier question about "has this been a success?" made me think whether the league has been a success or not. I always say you can only decide whether something is a success by the terms set out at the beginning. How could you solve a problem like the London Premier? You had two teams that hoovered up the best and most experienced players and another team that got the rest of the decent players due to a geographic niche. Then you had another team that had been around for donkey's years. Anybody who went into this league would get beaten badly and lose heart. The aim of this league was to have a league where, sure, you might get beaten by the biggest teams but otherwise it would be competitive. Brixton haven't had the greatest season but there have been plenty of games where they were competitive. The bad points difference is because when they get blown out, they get seriously blown out. So given the aims of the league; find a league where everybody gets game (I think only 3 games haven't been played) and where the lower end teams have a competitive season and thus don't get discouraged, it has met its success criteria.

With hindsight, Hemel going semi-pro is a bit like that Jeff Goldblum line in Jurassic Park. They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. Was the ride ultimately worth it? Would it have worked even if they hadn't removed the provisions to keep League 1 as a development league or did that speed up the inevitable?

Reading team is largely Bracknell/Reading/Reading Abbey Union players with a smattering from other places. But they all love league, for sure.

1. It's been a mixed bag. 2. Sorta, yes. The West is a mess but that's to be expected because of the Union elephant in the room. The East has been better, not perfect. 3. Man alive, where to start. More consistent refereeing would be nice. They all ref differently, that's unfortunate but a human trait at least. However, the RFL sent out new rule guidelines mid-season which took the soggy biscuit. You shouldn't be sent off for something in week 7 when others got away with worse in week 3. Same rules all season, please. Procedure for postponements has been a mess and personally cost us points. The RFL needs to stop playing favourites essentially. Relief weekends aren't for charity games and friendlies, how the RFL allows clubs to get away with that is beyond me. Punishment for referee abuse is now essential. One team are repeat offenders, it needs to stop. Not sure if the split season works, hopefully the uneven numbers sort themselves out naturally in the coming months.

Incompetent refereeing, inconsistent and incoherent application of the Competition rules, and a feeling that we don’t matter. With hindsight, this is a problem that has been going on ever since I got into the game. The difference now is that I no longer feel like tolerating it. There are a number of specific complaints but I don’t particularly want to list them on this forum because I don’t want to get anyone else into trouble. This is a personal thing and a personal decision and I know that I don’t see the game the same way as everybody else does. To be honest, a lot of it would sound a lot like moaning. People would say that we haven’t won a lot of games this year and I’m throwing my toys out of the pram. If winning and losing mattered to me, I would’ve walked away after my first season in Rugby League where we could barely scrape a team together, drew the first game and lost the rest, including a humiliating 54-0 in the shield final.

Of course it has.

The new Wimbledon Stadium might be the ticket. If they wanted their own place, there was talk last year that the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre might be up for grabs. It needs work but the site is set up for 15 to 20,000 fans to get there and back to wherever they need to go