Everards Brewery Leicestershire Senior League

The Everards Leicestershire Senior League returns this weekend, looking slightly slimmer than it did 12 months ago.

To begin with, the Everards Brewery Premier Division is relatively unchanged. Last season's champions Asfordby were promoted to the United Counties League Division One, and Barrow Town came down in the other direction, having requested relegation from Step 6. There was no relegation, but last year's Everards Division One Champions Ashby Ivanhoe Knights and runners-up Aylestone Park Reserves come up, along with third-placed AFC North Kilworth, who took the place of Glenfield United who folded over the summer after the failure of their ground-sharing arrangement, with the players and coaches leaving to go to Ellistown. The Prem now features 16 teams, as was the League's intention.

However, it's a different story for Divisions One and Two. With no teams coming down from the Premier, and three teams being lost from Div1, having finished with only 13 teams at the end of last term, there were a number of vacancies in Div1, which then increased when last season's bottom finisher Barlestone St Giles left the LSL during the summer to enter a side in the Leicester City Football League, the County's Veterans League, and Kibworth Town requested demotion to Division Two.

Div2 Champions Hinckley LRFC Reserves were promoted into the division. The runners up spot was eventually awarded to Sutton Bonington, along with promotion, after disciplinary action against Lutterworth Town Reserves was resolved. Lutterworth requested a personal hearing at County FA., against a charge of playing an ineligible player, which saw them have 3 points deducted from their total and thus slipped down into 3rd spot. Lutterworth Town Reserves decided to decline promotion from 3rd place and withdraw from the LSL after a close-season player exodus. The departure of Kibworth opened up another vacancy, which went to fourth-placed Leicester Atletico, despite some late drama when Atletico were investigated for a breach of player eligibility rules at the end of the season- although there was a points adjustment, Atletico stayed above Bottesford and went up. That leaves 11 teams in this year's Div1.

Everards Division Two lost three of last season's 11 finishers on promotion, and a further three on League withdrawal- the already-mentioned Lutterworth, Anstey Nomads Reserves, who were wound up as part of the agreement between Nomads and Anstey Town, and Rugby Borough Development, who also wound their second team up completely, choosing not to enter a side in the UCL's Reserve Division despite their first team entering the UCL Premier at Step 5. However, they made it back up to 11, with Kibworth coming down, Mountsorrel Amateurs and St Patrick's joining the LSL from the County League, and some Pyramid club reserve sides joining the LSL- GNG Oadby Town Development, Loughborough Students Development and Melton Town Academy.

Unfortunately, before a ball has even been kicked, Div2 has been hit by a continuation of the merry-go-round. Melton Town Academy have been forced to move ground owing to issues with their pitch and ground which has seen their first team go to Loughborough Dynamo and the Academy to a ground-share at Khalsa's Judgemeadow College ground, whilst Kibworth's drop down wasn't enough to stabilise them, with them resigning from the LSL, whilst Bottesford have also finished shortly before they were due to go to post. With a week to go, it looks as though Div2 will start with just 9 sides.

That's a total of 36 sides on opening day across the 3 divisions, down from 46 just 12 months ago, and 13 sides short of the current maximum capacity of 49. The League is currently looking at ways to try and reverse this decline-, the LSL will run with three divisions with an additional league cup for Div1 and 2 sides to ensure that all clubs and players are involved to the end of April 24. The new cup will be based on a 4 divisions with clubs playing each other twice before moving to a knockout completion to finalise a winner.