The Sevenoaks & District Football League have finally decided to finish their league season with a Points Per Game (PPG) system. This means that St Lawrence FC won the Premier Division, their first league title in their 72 year of trying. Other divisional titles went to Dartford Celtic (D1), Seal (D2), Penshurst Park (D3) and Green Street Green Rovers (D4).
Kevin Turner, the Secretary of the league said: “The league has obviously been affected by the Coronavirus in that the Government, in the guise of The FA, have stopped all gatherings and applied social distancing and so we are unable to play any form of competitive or organised sport.
“We were able to play on Saturday 14th March, this being the last day, when professional football had been stopped, so this felt like a bonus, but was very short lived.
“The season ended abruptly and was terminated for us when we would all have liked to have been able to play out the season, but as time passes and the restarting date gets pushed further and further away, it seems that The FA did the right thing, although the manner in which the end was forced upon us feels a hastily decided upon one”.
He continues: “The option of declaring the season null and void or to allocate PPG on a simple calculation, provides little context to the final standing of the divisional table. Perhaps a slightly more complex way of calculating PPG using some form of weighting (depending upon the opponents played) would have been a fairer way – if more complicated – to conclude the season”.
2021 season
Turner stated that the league have scheduled a virtual Annual General Meeting for 10th July and that they intend for the 2020/21 season to kick-off, subject to Government guidelines, on Saturday 5th September.
He added: “We hope (subject to ratification at the AGM) to be incorporating
the eight new teams who have already applied to join the league. We intend, if time allows, to conclude the 2019/2020 season by playing out all of our cup competitions”.