London Skolars

[Eddie]

Looks like the Skolars will be in a new combined London and East Premier Division this season, which will sit below the SCL. It’s good to see them continue, and also a strengthened league for clubs in those areas to have more varied opposition and more league games. 

[EssexRL]

That is good to read. It is long way from the aspirations of 5-6 years ago but great that RL will still be played in North East London. 

[gogledd]

Here's wishing London Skolars all the best. Always enjoyed our visits to New River and Enfield. Its good that RL will still continue at Skolars; just a shame they're not still in League 1.

[Eddie]

There’s seven teams in the new division - Anglian Vipers, Brixton Bulls, Canvey Knights, Elmbridge Eagles, Hemel Stags, London Skolars and Medway Dragons. It looks quite strong. 
 

There’s also a 5 team merit league with Vipers A, Brighton & Hove, Rhinos A, St Ives Roosters and St Albans Centurians - so hopefully plenty of games for them too. Good to see the latter two back involved. 

[Archie Gordon]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

There’s seven teams in the new division - Anglian Vipers, Brixton Bulls, Canvey Knights, Elmbridge Eagles, Hemel Stags, London Skolars and Medway Dragons. It looks quite strong. 
 

There’s also a 5 team merit league with Vipers A, Brighton & Hove, Rhinos A, St Ives Roosters and St Albans Centurians - so hopefully plenty of games for them too. Good to see the latter two back involved. 

You breaking embargos!

[Archie Gordon]

More seriously, it's looking good for the region in 2025. Skolars have a decent new coach too with connections at the Broncos and across the London Junior League so they may recruit some decent 17/18/19 yos.

[JM2010]

This is how I’d like to see the RL organised. SCL at the top with more regionalised league underneath. If more teams could be added to the merit league in the future then it would be good for them to split into an even more regionalised structure underneath. 
It’s good to see the Skolars back. Hopefully they can become a strong community club

[EssexRL]

3 hours ago, JM2010 said:

This is how I’d like to see the RL organised. SCL at the top with more regionalised league underneath. If more teams could be added to the merit league in the future then it would be good for them to split into an even more regionalised structure underneath. 
It’s good to see the Skolars back. Hopefully they can become a strong community club

Club needs to reach out to old fan base who have had 18 months without the team playing regular RL. 

[Mark]

I used to love our trips to watch Swinton down there, everyone from the chairman down used to make you feel so welcome 

[newbe]

Local Derby with Hemel Stags?

[Gomersall]

 

[Griff]

What happened to Canvey Knights?

[newbe]

Bit late in the day to start recruiting players still.

[Eddie]

6 hours ago, newbe said:

Bit late in the day to start recruiting players still.

This is the (new) London and East league, it’s how it works. 

[Archie Gordon]

7 hours ago, newbe said:

Bit late in the day to start recruiting players still.

They started ages ago. They've already played 2 pre-season games.

[langpark]

Recruitment is an ongoing thing.  Before and during the season. At amateur level, you can never have too many players.

[EssexRL]

Looking forward to watching RL at new river again. Been a while. 

[fighting irish]

13 hours ago, langpark said:

Recruitment is an ongoing thing.  Before and during the season. At amateur level, you can never have too many players.

When we were selecting our away team to play in the London league (our nearest opposition was 200 miles away) we carried a squad of roughly 43 players.

I wrote a personal invitation, hand delivered to each one, every prior Thursday night, telling them the time and venue of the bus departure on the following Sunday morning.

This inflated figure usually guaranteed we had 17 or 18 players to travel.

On any home Sunday, we could expect 28 players to make themselves available.

It didn't take us too long to realise we had a 43/17 conversion rate, for away games but once we knew how the stats tumbled down, we felt we could operate confidently from then on.

We also had a multifaceted selection policy (on the day) which constrained and compelled the coach/team selectors to favour the players who were ''more loyal'' to the club and helped us ensure we met our responsibilities to the league (by travelling away) before considering playing ability!!!

Only when the entire turn-out fulfilled our ''loyalty'' criteria, did we consider playing ability in the selection of the team. This prevented the fickle, disloyal, glory hunting, fair weather, non-travellers from displacing one of our club players in the glamour games.

This short-term discipline built increasing trust and loyalty between the management team and our club members/players over time.  

[Gomersall]

 

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

10 hours ago, Gomersall said:

 

Gutted I can’t make it. Bloody dog sitting the opposite side of London until Sunday pm

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[EssexRL]

52 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

 

Blimey reads like they are hoping people will turn up tomorrow to play!

[Eddie]

Final score Skolars 34 Vipers 42. 

[Gomersall]