Busy early season schedule has put Lincolnshire League in strong position - chairman

Chairman Julian Rinfret believes the decision to begin the season with a packed fixture schedule has paid off, leaving the Lincolnshire League in a strong position if action was forced to be put on hold.

The past two league seasons were unable to be completed due to Covid.

With that in mind fixture secretary Terry Knott put together a hectic schedule for when the 2021-22 season kicked off in August.

At present, rumoured post-Christmas restrictions have not been announced by the Government.

But with many league and cup games banked, Mr Rinfret believes the step seven league is in a strong position to be completed were football to be put on hold.

He explained: "We took the decision to get games on, so if anything does come after the festive period we've got a bit of breathing space to look at what we can do, rather than thinking 'oh no, we could never finish'.

"If there was a circuit breaker then we would still be good after it."

Going into the Christmas break, Appleby Frodingham, Grimsby Borough Reserves and Horncastle Town had all completed 20 of their 32 league matches.

A further 11 clubs had completed between 16 and 19 matches, at least half of their scheduled contests.

Wyberton, Lincoln Moorlands and Brigg Town CIC have all played 15 league matches - the fewest number of games - with county cup matches and postponements both playing a part.

"There is a little backlog with one or two teams but they understand that and will get those games played," Mr Rinfret added.

"I'm not duly concerned about that.

"I know some clubs were saying they were playing too many (matches early on) but you're better to bank them in and get them done rather than, at the end of the season, playing three games a week.

"It's a nice competitive league again. We've had one or two Covid issues but we've been able to work with clubs.

"Terry Knott did a very good job of getting plenty of fixtures played early and that's paying dividend. I'm happy with the way things have been run."