BRIDGWATER & ALBION ANTICIPATED RELEGATION FROM REGIONAL 2 SOUTH WEST TO WESTERN COUNTIES WEST (PROBABLY)

I hear that various pundits/sceptics around the club (some who should know better as they were involved in earlier times) are saying that the club has produced its worst position in league terms with the anticipated relegation from Regional 2 SW this season. Sadly, this is a fact but it somewhat undermines the extreme efforts of the players, coaches and others concerned in the management who have stuck manfully to the task in the face of difficult circumstances with substantial distortion to our team’s fielded on a week by week basis. Sadly, some of those who are now venting criticism do not have long memories – either of the actual earlier positions and perhaps their involvement therein.

When leagues were formed in 1987/88 it took Albion some time to get to grips with them and those first few seasons saw the club tumble from South West 1 (SW1) (where we were pleased to have been placed in the first place) through to Western Counties in a matter of three seasons. In those early days, there were only 11 teams in a league and one fixture between the competing clubs each season. The games were also spread right through the season meaning that traditional friendlies which we had always enjoyed were then intermingled with league games.

In 1987/88 Albion just about held on but were relegated from SW1 in 1988/89 going through the league season without a victory whatsoever. The double whammy occurred in the next season in SW2 – we again performed poorly and went down. The playing records for these three seasons were:-

Whilst it is extremely difficult and indeed unfair to compare teams and players and indeed fixtures lists from those days, those with appropriate memories will think that the team which played the last match of the 1989/90 season against Torquay Athletic and won 32-17 was not a bad one. It was:-

Box; Spencer D Buller Tanner N Burne; D Wardle Wright; G Buller Lovell M Tompkins Colburn Rackham Harris (captain) Spranklin Whitcombe. Replacements: White Speed.

Other notable players who appeared substantially in this season were N Edmonds, S Edmonds, C Gooch, L Pimm, J Biddiscombe and KJ Innalls.

Our actual league opponents were Henley, Gordon League, Newbury, Abbey (Reading), Barnstaple, Bournemouth, Banbury, Cinderford and Torquay Athletic. Remember this was SW2. Wait until you see the fixture outside of the league which included Worcester, Exeter, Clifton, Lydney, Redruth, Redingensians (now Rams), Launceston, Weston-super-Mare, Esher. Not a bad list.

Albion’s overall playing record that season was:-

P40 W14 D2 L24 F632 A800

Clearly high-scoring both ways. Hence those who seek to denigrate the efforts of this year’s team may wish to reflect on what has happened before when these things do appear to frustrate us but that 1989/90 side showed how to come back from disappointment as spending two years in Western Counties, we gradually made our way back through SW2 into SW1 again in 1995/96 and lo and behold at the end of the next season 1996/97 came our promotion to N2S – Level 4 for three seasons. We will of course hope that our current squad will be of similar mind and to revive the form for upward progress over the next few seasons.

The club enjoyed three seasons at Level 4 – N2S – before relegation at the end of the 199/2000 season but reconsolidation in SW1 over the next few seasons saw a further return to promotion at the end of the 2004/5 season – who can not forget the play-off match at Worthing. That lead to five further seasons at N2S level before relegation in 2009/10 when the fall out of established players was significant. This did not help our reconsolidation in 2010/11 and the club went down again at the end of the 2011/12 season from what was then N3SW (the old SW1). For the record, the playing details for those two precarious seasons were:-

So, there is the history and of course all factual. What for next season? Well we are presuming that we will be Western Counties West bearing in mind that we are currently playing at a level where there are three South West leagues. If that is the case, then we can look forward to being on the road quite a lot next season. Ironically it may be that Torquay Athletic – our opponents when we were relegated to Western Counties West last time – will be amongst our opponents next year. They have gone down one league further previously and struggled to reclaim but may be coming up. We are also likely to encounter St Ives who are resuscitated from their semi-demise a few seasons ago. Get out your maps of Cornwall and Devon as we are likely to be down there rather a lot with perhaps our local derbies being Tiverton and Wiveliscombe see what I mean.

Whatever happens and wherever we go, the world of rugby football is full of anticipation, spirit and enthusiasm – it is only a game after all. Scribe