Saturday 24 September 2016: Preview

The 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Vase takes place this weekend and the CCL has 15 clubs competing to see who will join the 4 exempted clubs in the 1st Round Proper.

There are 2 all CCL ties, the first one involving Abbey Rangers and Badshot Lea. Abbey have been finding their feet in the Premier Division whilst Badshot are doing their best to overcome a poor start to the season.

The other all-CCL tie sees Walton & Hersham, yet to lose a league match, making the journey to Division One Frimley Green, who will certainly relish the encounter.

AC London, making their FA Vase debut entertain Littlehampton Town at Banstead Athletic. Littlehampton play at one step higher than AC London but have not made a good start to their season and currently sit in 18th spot in their table.

Ash United have another home tie against fairly long distance Step 6 opponents Milton United from the Hellenic League, Division West. Milton who sit in mid table will travel around 50 miles to get to Ash.

The next tie sees Bedfont & Feltham, under new manager Joe Monks, take on Sun Sports from the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League. This is their third season in their League since achieving promotion from the Herts County League in which they had played for many seasons.

Eversley & California have a journey of 60 miles plus to play Buckingham Town from the United Counties League. They are a fellow Step 6 club and sit in 7th place in their division.

Cobham play at home to Lingfield who are based in Surrey but play in the Southern Combination (Sussex) League, Division One, in which they sit in 6th place, despite playing all their league games away so far this season.

Banstead Athletic make the fairly short journey to play Holmesdale who play in the Southern Counties East (ex Kent League) and from the Bromley area. They are doing well this season as are Banstead, so a close tie looks on the cards.

Horley Town play at home to Selsey, Surrey v Sussex and Horley can expect a visit from the Vice Chairman of the League who lives in Selsey. It is Step 5 v Step 6, with Selsey halfway down their division.

Up to the other end of the League and North Greenford United will entertain Oxhey Jets from the Spartan South Midlands League. This looks another close one with Oxhey in 10th place in the table, Step 5 v Step 5.

CB Hounslow have the shortest straw journey wise as they make their way to Thrapston Town, members of Division One of the United Counties League, where they are mid-table. Thrapston is not too far from Kettering and means a 90 mile plus journey for CB, which is a bit tough after their journey to Bedford in the previous round.

Westfield unbeaten in league matches and with maximum points to boot, entertain Haywards Heath who have made their way back to the Premier Division of the Southern Combination, in which they sit in 2nd place with just two league defeats and six wins. Given the respective positions in their divisions, this game could possibly be regarded as the “match of the day” as far as CCL clubs are involved.

Finally we have Bedfont Sports who will be travelling to Wellingborough Town in Northants on Sunday afternoon, due to ground sharing. Wellingborough narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier Division of the United Counties League last season but despite the threat of possibly losing their ground at the end of the current season, are doing far better this time round, sitting in 7th place at the present time.

Good luck to all our clubs.

There are six Premier Division matches tomorrow as well, with some intriguing clashes, not least the fixture that sees Epsom & Ewell entertaining Knaphill, and Hanworth Villa playing at home to Colliers Wood United. The latter narrowly bowed out of the FA Cup on Wednesday in a 2nd Qualifying Round replay against Step 3 Merstham, who needed extra time to progress but the Wood have this season’s honour as the final CCL club in the competition and did the League proud.

In Division One, there are just four league matches due to the FA Vase whilst Worcester Park, who have made an unusually indifferent start this season entertain Dorking in the 1st Round of the Cherry Red Records Premier Challenge Cup, to see who will go through to entertain Cove in the 2nd Round.

All the weekend’s matches can be viewed on the fixtures page of the site.

We would like to acknowledge the superb information in the Football Club History Database (http://www.fchd.info/)that has gone towards this article.