The football disruption of the past 18 months has led to several changes being made at Budleigh Salterton Football Club from the start of this 2021-2022 league season, writes SpursTom.
Firstly, on the down side, there is only one men’s team and a ladies team playing competitive league and cup football at the start of the campaign. Unfortunately, there are no youth teams at Under 14, Under 16 or Under 18, due to the lack of enthusiasm, plus some of last season’s managers have left the club.
In 2020-2021 the U14’s played only two games before lockdown (drew 1 and lost 1) and their 3 goals were scored by Freddie Shipway. The U16’s completed 5 out of 18 games (Won 2, Drew 0, Lost 3, Goals For 8, Against 11). The U18’s played 4 league games (Won 3, Drew 1 Lost 0, Goals for 17, Against 3). There were also 2 Cup matches (Won 1, Lost 1, Goals For 14, Against 6).
Finally, Exmouth Spartans have moved and vacated using the Budleigh Salterton FC facilities.
On the positive side, Luke Kelsall is running an Under 8 squad to compete in the Exeter and District Youth League.
Andy "Benno" Bennett is in the process of putting a Veteran squad together. There is a possibility of a Men’s Reserves being revived. If so, they will begin with friendless, then maybe 2022/23 league.
Could silverware be attained by the men, one of 13 teams which kicked off the Scott Richards Solicitors Devon Football League, North East Division. Now reduced to 12 because Chudleigh Athletic dropped out after 4 games (now void, with BSFC losing the 3 points won in August). In fact, two teams dropped out of the original 15 just before the campaign even began.
The Ladies continue in the Devon Womens Football League, Eastern Division. The league changed the format from Premier and Division One, to DWFL Eastern Division (8 teams) and DWFL Western (9 teams). Budleigh Ladies’ first match should have been on Sunday, but was called off due to Seaton Ladies being unavailable.
We can all hope for an uninterrupted full season of football.
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