Combined Counties Football League
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The Combined Counties Football League is a regional English football league comprised mostly of teams in Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, London, Middlesex, Oxfordshire and Surrey. Its current guise can be traced back to 1978 when the Surrey Senior League underwent a metamorphosis in order to try to attract clubs from outside the county. The new league was initially called the Home Counties League, but there were objections to the proposed title, so in 1979 it adopted the current title.
For one season only, 1981-82, the league had too many clubs to operate a standard league season, so the clubs were split into two equal sections, Eastern and Western, with Ash United from the Western Section beating the Eastern Champions Malden Town 3-0 in a two-legged play-off.
The league was adopted as a feeder to the Isthmian League, but until recently, few of the Champion clubs have had the necessary facilities to progress upwards. Since the F.A. restructuring of the National League System, clubs can be promoted to either the Southern League or the Isthmian League, depending on geographical considerations. From 1982, a similar arrangement below the Combined Counties League existed with the Surrey Senior County League (formerly the Surrey Premier League)), but in 2003 the two leagues merged and the former Surrey Senior County League members formed a new Combined Counties League Division One, with the previous members forming a Premier Division. There is automatic (depending on facilities) promotion and relegation between the two divisions the two sections are officially at Steps 5 and 6 of the National League System. Division One is now "fed" by a number of local leagues, such as the Crawley & District Football League, East Berkshire Football League, the Reading Football League, the Surrey County Intermediate League West, the Surrey South Eastern Combination and the Middlesex County League.
It has had a succession of title sponsors, most recently a company called Seagrave Haulage (during this period the league emblem was a moving truck on a shield with the letters SHL, for Seagrave Haulage League, superimposed) and after a period without such a relationship has signed a new deal with Cherry Red Records, and is officially known as the Cherry Red Records Combined Counties League.
As with most leagues at this level, players are as a rule only paid expenses, and attendance at league games averages approximately seventy. The league saw a welcome exception to this for two seasons from 2002, when AFC Wimbledon were offered a place in the league and took crowds well into four-figures to the grounds of the Combined Counties League.
The league also organises a number of League Cups, ranging from the Premier Challenge Cup to one for reserve teams of first-division clubs.
[edit] List of champions
- 1978-79 (Home Counties League) - British Aerospace (Weybridge)
- 1979-80 Guildford & Worplesdon
- 1980-81 Malden Town
- 1981-82 Ash United (Western) and Malden Town (Eastern)
- 1982-83 Hartley Wintney
- 1983-84 Godalming Town
- 1984-85 Malden Vale
- 1985-86 British Aerospace (Weybridge)
- 1986-87 Ash United
- 1987-88 British Aerospace (Weybridge)
- 1988-89 British Aerospace (Weybridge)
- 1989-90 Chipstead
- 1990-91 Farnham Town
- 1991-92 Farnham Town
- 1992-93 Peppard
- 1993-94 Peppard
- 1994-95 Ashford Town (Middx)
- 1995-96 Ashford Town (Middx)
- 1996-97 Ashford Town (Middx)
- 1997-98 Ashford Town (Middx)
- 1998-99 Ash United
- 1999-00 Ashford Town (Middx)
- 2000-01 Cove
- 2001-02 AFC Wallingford
- 2002-03 Withdean 2000
- 2003-04 AFC Wimbledon
- 2004-05 Walton Casuals
- 2005-06 Godalming Town
