Just a short blog for April and I wish to pose a question I am stuck on.

Why do local leagues and their members happily play a two-a-side summer league and are more than happy to do so BUT why won’t they play this format during the winter main season?

I understand that a shorter evening match in the summer might mean a trip to beer garden or similar to catch the last bit of the summer sun and have a chat over a bag of crisps but surely this social aspect could be duplicated in winter (indoors of course). Maybe an early finish is more suitable to new player who might want to join a league but are put off but a late finish?

I visited a club recently in the Black Country and had this very discussion. The club wanted to enter more teams in the league, I think they have six already, but the club members wanted a much earlier finish time, mainly because they are new players to the game. Both the league and players lost out because nobody was prepared to budge.

Please email in your thoughts about this as I am keen to understand this [email protected]

Do you want to train as an umpire and then referee? We will be holding a training session on 16th June in Birmingham at the Birmingham Closed Championship. Please email in [email protected]