Men’s League restructure
Season 2018/19 will see a completely new league structure for SEMLA, instead of the usual two competitions (League and Flags) an extra Local league competition has been formed. To make room in the fixture list for this, the SEMLA leagues have been shrunk to 7 teams and the two regions below into 4 regions, roughly quartering the original areas. Flags is now on a cascade system with losers of the first round of each Layer falling into the next, i.e. Senior losers into Intermediate and Intermediate losers into Minor. Bath’s 1sts will be placed into the Senior Flags (1st teams only) and the 2nds into the intermediate Flags.
To accommodate the new London Raptors team, Bath are required to play a “Play In” game (hosted in Bath as the existing team). This game on the 22nd September will determine which SEMLA league Bath are to compete in; either in D1 or D2 dependant on the result. This game is also doubling up as the first round of the senior Flags, quite a tough opener to the season.
D1 would be:
- Spencer 2
- Bristol Bombers
- Hillcroft A
- Reading
- Cardiff Harlequins
- East Grinstead
D2 would be:
- Purley
- Cheltenham
- Spencer 3
- Oxford Uni
- Epsom
- Hillcroft 3
2nds are in a small division with:
- Southampton Uni
- Bristol 2nds
- Oxford Owls (formally Iroquois)
In the local competition Bath 1sts are in the Cotswold league D1 with
- Bristol Bombers
- Cardiff Harlequins
- Oxford University
2nds are in D2 with
- Cheltenham
- Bristol 2nds
- Oxford Owls
The Raptors game is a senior Flags game, the losers dropping into the Intermediate Flags. The 2nds are automatically in the Intermediate Flags.
Losers if the first round intermediate Flags drop into the Minor Flags
There’s some repeat in this system, but travel is much less generally.