Your league NEEDS you! (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Your league NEEDS you!

8:00am Saturday 9th February 2013 in Sportsview

WYRE Forest team are being urged to sign up to the Kidderminster and District League’s Saturday Premier Division next season in a bid to bolster its ranks.

The competition currently boasts just 10 teams and chairman Ernie Pyke is eager to increase that number.

Four new sides are believed to be joining for the 2013-14 campaign but more will be needed to arrest the decline of the competition, which has been running since 1894.

At its peak, the Saturday league had seven divisions but it has not been able to escape the changes in national playing habits and alterations to society.

The Saturday Premier is only one of a handful nationally that still survive, with many forced to close down.

“It is not that the Saturday Premier is in decline on its own, it is nationally that football on a Saturday is dwindling,” said Pyke.

“There are more family pressures and obligations and football has also changed.

“But we want football on a Saturday to do well and there are advantages to playing on that day, there are no shortage of pitches in comparison to Sundays.”

The deadline for new teams is traditionally in March but clubs wishing to sign up to the Saturday Premier are can join at any time before the league starts in August.

For more information contact Pyke on 01299 823869 or email to erniepyke193@btinternet.com