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I last refereed in 2016, and spent last year moving house (to the Isle of Wight), and concentrating on a few other things, so didn't follow what was happening in the southern amateur comps. Things were already looking a bit shaky in 2016, once you got past Chargers, Hammersmith and Wests. I've been searching around on the internet and can't find anything from 2017 on league tables, results or competition structures, and nothing about 2018 either. Even the wiki pages seem to have stopped being updated years ago. 

Is there a competition this year? If so, is there a website anywhere which actually has up to date information on which clubs are left?

I'd be a bit gutted if it's all gone to the wall.

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3 hours ago, Roy Haggerty said:

I last refereed in 2016, and spent last year moving house (to the Isle of Wight), and concentrating on a few other things, so didn't follow what was happening in the southern amateur comps. Things were already looking a bit shaky in 2016, once you got past Chargers, Hammersmith and Wests. I've been searching around on the internet and can't find anything from 2017 on league tables, results or competition structures, and nothing about 2018 either. Even the wiki pages seem to have stopped being updated years ago. 

Is there a competition this year? If so, is there a website anywhere which actually has up to date information on which clubs are left?

I'd be a bit gutted if it's all gone to the wall.

There's still a London premier and a merit league, but in 2017 there was no division in between. There is talk of reintroducing a London division 1 below the premier division for the 2018 season

http://www.rugby-league.com/leagues__competitions/london_and_south_east/league_table

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17 hours ago, Roy Haggerty said:

..... I've been searching around on the internet and can't find anything from 2017 on league tables, results or competition structures, and nothing about 2018 either......

The rugbyleague.com websites for the regional leagues are woeful.  Last year in the East region they had the wrong scores shown for some games and even now show the wrong points/details for the 2017 league tables, and no local club news etc.  When I mentioned it to the lad from Bedford Tigers who 'supervises' the East League, he said he had questioned the standard of the website he been told that all the rugbyleague.com websites from superleague right down to the regional/junior levels are run by one chap based in Wigan.

I always think that if someone wants to get involved in this game at a player or volunteer level they will look at an individual clubs website and the area or league website they play in.  And at this level it does not give a good impression. 

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On 1/7/2018 at 8:38 PM, Roy Haggerty said:

I last refereed in 2016, and spent last year moving house (to the Isle of Wight), and concentrating on a few other things, so didn't follow what was happening in the southern amateur comps. Things were already looking a bit shaky in 2016, once you got past Chargers, Hammersmith and Wests. I've been searching around on the internet and can't find anything from 2017 on league tables, results or competition structures, and nothing about 2018 either. Even the wiki pages seem to have stopped being updated years ago. 

Is there a competition this year? If so, is there a website anywhere which actually has up to date information on which clubs are left?

I'd be a bit gutted if it's all gone to the wall.

Hello sir, noticed you weren't refereeing anymore and wondered where you'd got to.  Hope all is well.

Last year wasn't all that bad a year as it goes.  Refereeing is in complete crisis, with many games not getting a referee assigned, but the game overall has been in worse shape.

Skolars A were flaky, as they always are, and Richmond didn't handle promotion all that well.  Surrey folded for the season but that, sadly, is all to be expected.  Without automatic promotion and relegation, the bottom teams get disheartened and have nothing to play for.  There was a plan to have two leagues to replace the Conference League South, which disbanded at the end of the 2016 season.  However, this didn't get off the ground and, instead, it seems the London League's big four will welcome one of the better teams in the Midlands and one from the East to create the beginnings of the planned Eastern League by stealth.

As such, that leaves Surrey and Richmond, and perhaps Skolars A, looking for a new league.  There's a league meeting this week to thrash out the structure.  I think it's at least a season too soon for London Division 1.  As with every Merit League season, it was a disaster and a triumph.  Brixton , us (South London), Wests A and Chargers A put up decent figures.  Sussex and Newham played games but had their own issues, both losing a lot of games. Reading were encouraging.  Elmbridge were up and down, struggled for numbers and now look to be a bit directionless.  Invicta and Weald both struggled with player numbers and off-field organisation and neither played.  Last I heard, both want to give it another go this season but that remains to be seen.

So, as I said, no better or worse than any season.  What really dragged the Merit League down was this awful, arcane bonus point system.  It was created with the best of intentions to serve a merit league in 2016 that was supposed to stretch from Southampton to Colchester but created a situation where teams who got to play, for instance, Sussex got bonus points.  We fell largely in the middle of the footprint so missed out on these.  Hopefully, they'll be gone next season.

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Sounds the usual mix of ups and downs.

I couldn't ref last year, partly because initially I didn't seem to be able to get my contact details to whoever organised the referees outside of London, but mostly because from April to June I was otherwise occupied in the local and general elections. By the time that and the aftermath died down, the season was over and I managed just one late-season touch judging appointment at an army v navy women's game in Portsmouth.

 

I've registered for next year, and I can do Southampton and Portsmouth home games easily enough. Anything further afield is probably a no-no though. Mind you, I've put a bit of timber on with my first season not running round a rugby field for 32 years, so the ten metres will be even shorter this year!

 

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