Author: Mike Birchall

by Mike Birchall

BRAND NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE – THE FORMAT

So, we were extremely pleased to be able to be able to return to 4 divisions for the start of the new Sunday league which kicks off this weekend, and we know a lot of the new teams are reliable as they have been playing friendlies for weeks. Happy days!

But then more teams kept getting in touch wanting to get involved for the new season, so at the end of the current season we were left with 26 teams for 24 slots, and in the last couple of days we’ve had a couple more enquire about joining up. We find it very hard to say no to people, so here’s the plan…

We are still going to have 4 divisions. The top two divisions will be made up of 6 teams playing each other twice (nice and straightforward). The bottom two divisions will be made up of 8 teams. Each team will play each other once, then the top 4 and bottom 4 will be split with the teams in each half playing each other a second time. Both formats make it a 10 week season. We know we will have to add weeks on for games missed, especially as April contains City v Liverpool at 4.30pm on Sunday April 10th and Easter Sunday on 17th April.

As we also don’t want to have to start games at 4.30pm or 9pm, we are having a play with the kick off times, and this is very important. Where we have previously fit a 50 minute game into an hour long slot, we are now going to be fitting them into a 55 minute slot. This means there is NO SCOPE FOR GAMES RUNNING OVER IF TEAMS ARE LATE. If your game kicks off late it will still need to finish by the time of the kick off time of the next game.

The new kick off times are going to be as follows:

5pm, 5:55pm, 6:50pm, 7:45pm and 8:40pm

Once your game is done, please vacate the pitch as quickly as you can so the next game can get kicked off, out of respect to the other teams.

We are so grateful to be having to work out a problem of this nature. To have too many teams is something we could only have dreamed of, and though we got to 5 divisions last summer we know a lot of that was down to the release from lock down meaning everyone wanted to play. To get back to those team numbers is a vindication for the work we put in, and in no small part an indication of the quality of our referees, as teams wouldn’t stick around if our refs weren’t up to scratch!

We can’t wait to get going for the new season. Let’s have a good one!

by Mike Birchall

NEW LEAGUE START DATES

Before the end of the year 4 of our leagues will be starting fresh new seasons. If you want to be a part of our leagues come the start of 2022, don’t assume the spaces will be there if you choose to wait!

We’ll be calling time on our leagues for the year in the middle of December, so we won’t be expecting anyone to put a team out in the direct run up to Christmas, or between Christmas and New Year. After the last 18 months we’ve all had to go through, we; get the feeling a lot of people will be wanting to let off some steam over this festive period!

So, in date order, here are when our new leagues will be restarting and what spaces we have…

REDDISH TUESDAY LEAGUE

STARTING 30TH NOVEMBER

A couple of recent drop outs have meant that we have immediate availability to get any new teams started with friendlies from as soon as the 16th November. Numbers will dictate whether we remain at two divisions, or go for one big division for the new season when it kicks off.

WOODLEY WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

STARTING 1ST DECEMBER

Barring any late drop outs, anyone wanting to join the Woodley Wednesday league will be having to go on our waiting list for a spot. Sorry… If this is the league that best suits you, don’t let it put you off getting in touch for details.

REDDISH SUNDAY LEAGUE

STARTING 5TH DECEMBER

Our ever popular and biggest league night will be starting a new season in early December, and with pitch space not a massive issue we always have the option of adding more teams in at the start of any new season. If we were to keep with the current 4 division format, we currently have ONE SPACE AVAILABLE. This also means that options are there for any new teams wanting to start straightaway to come in and play a couple of weeks of friendlies to get themselves up to speed…

REDDISH MONDAY LEAGUE

STARTING 13TH DECEMBER

The Monday league will remain at two divisions for the start of the new season, just before our Christmas break. Chances are you’ll play one game then won’t be back until the new year! Friendlies are an option for any new teams over the next few weeks as we currently have a space available. Or if you fancy your teams chances you can take up a slot in the top division for some competitive action…

All league games are priced at £5 per player, but game lengths and kick off times vary depending on venue and night.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM:

  • COMPLETE A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE
  • CALL OR TEXT 07809252658, or

by Mike Birchall

NEW WOODLEY LEAGUES

Both the Wednesday and Thursday league seasons at Stockport Sports Village in Woodley have been a massive success since the latest lock down eased off (remember lock downs?!).

Both leagues are on the brink of finishing, with both nights set to start new leagues in the coming weeks

All Woodley league games are 40 mins in length, priced at £5 per player, per game. Kick off times on both nights are 7, 7.45, 8.30 and 9.15pm on a random rotational basis

NEW WEDNESDAY LEAGUE – KICKS OFF 2ND DECEMBER

NEW THURSDAY LEAGUE – KICKS OFF 4TH NOVEMBER

Spaces on either night are likely to be extremely limited, so to register your interest get in touch asap!

FILL IN A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE, CALL OR TEXT 07809252658 OR EMAIL [email protected] FOR FURTHER DETAILS

by Mike Birchall

REDDISH LEAGUE SPACES

If we choose to play right through to Christmas week, there’s 8 full weeks worth of fixtures that can be played between now and the festive period. That’s a fair few calories you can shift before the festive excesses kick in! If you’ve been thinking about putting a team together and joining a league, here’s the spaces we currently have in our Reddish leagues:

As a general rule, all of the Reddish leagues are made up of 50 minute games, all priced at £5 per player per game

SUNDAY

The Sunday league is our biggest league night, with 4 divisions allowing for the greatest variety of standards that we can offer.

We have ONE SPACE in the top division, but as we approach the end of the season, this is probably the best option a new team would have of securing their space for the new season when it restarts towards the end of the year.

Games kick off between 5.30pm and 8.30pm, but if you might struggle for the earlier or later games we do our best to accommodate

MONDAY

You might need to fancy yourselves if you want to take up the challenge of the Monday league. Our only space is in the top division, which is probably the highest standard we have across our league nights. Again, by signing up now you’re securing your space for the new season which will also start before the end of the year.

Games kick off at either 8pm or 9pm on a random rotational basis

TUESDAY

While we currently, on paper have no spaces, we are keen to get back to divisions of 7 for the new season which will start (you’ve guessed it) before the end of the year! Fill in friendly games for teams waiting for a space can be arranged while we wait for an actual league spot.

Games kick off at either 8pm or 9pm on a random rotational basis

WEDNESDAY

Our ‘late night’ Wednesday league is currently full, but without any teams on standby we could find space for a new team at any time.

All games kick off at 9pm, which works well for some teams based on work shifts, and offers a fixed weekly time for their game

FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM, COMPLETE A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE, CALL OR TEXT 07809252658, OR EMAIL [email protected]

by Mike Birchall

HELP US TO HELP YOU…

So, we’re basically a month away from the due date of the Ballers baby. Without being dramatic (I’m not the first person to ever have a baby to look after…), one of my biggest stresses at this time is how I’m going to be able to keep the business running smoothly at a time where my personal life is going to be facing a massive (but happy!) change. I’m a bit worried about a lack of sleep too…

I want the leagues to continue with minimal disruptions, but I’m going to need all the help from you, the teams, to make that happen. I have people who can cover the evenings in terms of taking the payments and being a point of contact if there’s any issues on the nights, but in terms of the day to day organisation, that will continue to be all me.

Over these next couple of months, for the sake of all the other teams, I’m begging you to manage your teams by getting the numbers confirmed extra early, getting your squad lists to us in plenty of time, or letting us know of any issues as soon as is humanly possible,

From my end, I’m going to try and ensure I’m getting the kick off times out as early as possible, so if you’re getting your kick off time 4/5 days before your game, try and start organising your numbers there and then. If you struggle for time to start organising the numbers in advance, give me the number of another lad from your team who I can include in the confirmation texts so they can help you. I don’t mind sending the text to as many people as is needed, if it helps.

It’s doubtful that I’m going to have the time to be scrambling around for players in the hours leading up to the games, but if you tell me a day or two before your game that you’re struggling, I’ll find the time to ask around, but please ensure that you’ve exhausted all of your options before you put it on me to help you out. We have over 100 teams now, it’s a lot to manage… Don’t forget we have the SK Ballers Player Pool on Facebook that you can use to ask about for players yourself (request to join if you aren’t already in it).

As things stand, I don’t intend to cancel any league nights, but without knowing exactly when the event is going to take place it’s hard to guarantee. If Hayley goes into labour at a time and on a day where a lot of work needs doing to confirm games for that night, that night may be cancelled. In an ideal world she’ll go into labour on a Friday morning…

Life feels like it has fully returned to normal now, and the heady days of Ballers being one of the only things people can do seems like a long time ago. We have teams having issues with holidays, isolation, the return of the Premier League and 11-a-side football etc, so I understand at times it’s difficult to get the numbers.

I apologise in advance (and retrospectively) if I’m not as quick at getting back to people at the moment. I’ve been trying to find some time over Fridays and Saturdays to get things ready for the new arrival. If anything is urgent I will regularly be checking the phone and will get back to you as soon as I can.

If you and your lads really want to play football, we all need to work together to ensure that the leagues run as smoothly as possible going forward.

Mike

by Mike Birchall

NEW LEAGUES STARTING THIS MONTH!

We have several leagues that are heading into the final stages, meaning we have options for any new or returning teams wanting to get signed up for an Autumn of football.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

Our Tuesday league will be finishing up in two weeks time, with the NEW LEAGUE set to start on 31ST AUGUST. At the moment we know we have space for at least ONE NEW TEAM. Our Tuesday league is made up of two divisions, with all games kicking off at either 8pm or 9pm.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

Our ever popular Sunday league is also set to restart on 29TH AUGUST (possibly the week after, given that this is a bank holiday!). We currently have 5 divisions, which we hope to maintain, so we should be able to find space for ONE OR TWO NEW TEAMS for the new season. Game kick off times range from 4.30pm to 8.30pm, but we can accommodate requests for earlier or later games.

All of the Reddish league games are 50 minutes in length, all priced at £5 per player, per game.

For further details or to register your team, call or text 07809252658, or complete a ‘Join A League’ form from the homepage.

by Mike Birchall

THE 100 CLUB!

We are roughly 6 weeks away from marking a significant milestone of 5 years in business, but before we get to celebrate that, we have something else to feel pretty pleased about.

Having recently restarted a number of our league seasons across our two venues, and having been in a position to add extra teams to each of these leagues, we have hit triple digits in our league team numbers for the first time!

To be able to say that we now have 103 teams across our 6 leagues feels like a significant achievement, and should certainly cement our position as a major player in the small sided football game in the Stockport area! Hopefully a few of you will see that number and realise just how many teams we have to juggle around on a weekly basis!

If you have been with us or were with us since day 1, we couldn’t have done it without you and we’re so grateful to you all. If you’ve only recently discovered us and are part of the new batch of teams, we’re glad you were able to find us as we continue to build our dynasty. Every piece of social media commenting, liking or sharing has helped us keep spreading the word, as we don’t exactly have a massive advertising budget, so if you could all continue to do your part it would be appreciated.

Potential further venues could be in the pipeline going forward, so it’s time to start aiming at 200…!

by Mike Birchall

SUNDAY LEAGUE – AN UPDATE

To all Sunday league teams,

The last few weeks have seen numerous disruptions to what seemed like being an extremely competitive Sunday league season. It’s reached a point where we want to give you a little update as to how the league, and in particular your division, is currently up to.

When the season started, we’d made it to 5 divisions, we’d worked out how we were going to cope with teams wanting later or earlier kick off times, and we were feeling fairly pleased with ourselves. However, there have been very few ‘clear’ weeks where we would realistically have a chance that all teams could play. We know that we have some teams that will field a team, no matter the occasion, but we also acknowledge that not everyone is in a position to put a game of 6-a-side on a Sunday evening above all else in their lives. On week 1 we had to cope with the final day of the Premier league season, with fans back in stadiums and City lifting the trophy. Week 2 saw the bank holiday, week 3 was fairly clear, and on week 4 we had England playing. We’ve even had Fathers Day, then the Euros Final! These are things we just have to cope with, but it will go some way to explaining the difference in the number of games certain teams have played. Every season we expect teams to play 10 league games in a 12 week period, we expect that this season may be slightly longer. We would always rather have leagues decided on games played, rather than forfeit wins, but we know seasons can’t go on forever and we don’t want those teams who smash out their 10 games in 10 weeks having to play 4 weeks of friendlies while everyone else catches up!

Fingers crossed, all the major issues are now behind us until the new Premier League season kicks off, so we need to make some headway into getting this season back on track!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the how each division is currently looking, and the issues that have faced teams so far.

PREMIERSHIP

Despite telling us the lads were keen to carry on, Dunno 2.0 dropped out of the league before they had kicked a ball, leaving a space in the top division. Top division gaps are notoriously difficult to fill once we’re into a season, as it takes a team that fancies their chances to step up to the top flight straightaway. This past week we have found such a team, but with them joining so far into the season they will play just one round of fixtures. This means all the other teams in the league will finish their season having played 9 games, and the new team playing 5.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Long standing Bangers & Pash left us just before the season started, meaning we had a space heading into the season. After a heavy defeat in their opening game, we had to drop The McMuffin Men down a level in order for them to be able to continue. This has left the Championship with 4 teams for a while, but we have now filled both of those spaces. With one new team taking over The McMuffin Men’s fixtures, there’s a chance they could play all of their remaining games. The other new team will play one round of games, again meaning that most of the teams will finish their season having played 9 games.

LEAGUE ONE NORTH

This division has been mostly fine, there’s just a couple of teams who could really do with getting some games played in the coming weeks…! The McMuffin Men jumped in after the first week, and It Wasn’t A Foul FC came in when Team Tom dropped into League Two in order to give them a chance to survive.

LEAGUE ONE SOUTH

No major issues here either. Cale Green Canaries joined us a few weeks ago to replace Making Emile Of It, who dropped out after the first game, but they will be on course to complete the remaining fixtures.

LEAGUE TWO

This is where we got greedy… With teams waiting to join, we added two extra teams to League Two after the first week, with the idea being that all teams play each other once, then the league splits in two with the top 4 and bottom 4 playing each other for a second time to make a 10 game season. Pathetico Madrid dropped out early, and have only recently been replaced by Exeter Gently. But with Exeter being 4 games behind Holland FC, who have played every available week, it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to get them to catch up all of their missed games before we have to split the league. Our priority is to establish a top 4 and bottom 4 in the next couple of weeks so we can get the second part of the season started without having to make some teams wait around.

So there we have it. There is a chance that if all of the top places in each division are clear and sorted before everyone has played their fixtures, we may even call the season a little early so we can get the new one set up, but that depends on the results of upcoming fixtures!

If you have any questions about your division, or your team, feel free to ask away. Whatever patience you can show while we try and get certain teams caught up over the next few weeks would be very much appreciated.

by Mike Birchall

BALLERS RE-ASSEMBLE!

It’s almost time for us to wheel out all the ‘Sixes’ related puns again (we’re bringing sixy back, let’s talk about six, baby etc etc)!

From today, Monday 1st March, we are back on it! We’ve taken the opportunity during the latest lock down to have a break, do some housework etc, but from today we will be regularly checking the Ballers phone and social media pages. We’ll work out where we were at the time of lock down, work out what league spaces we have to offer, and try and make sure they are filled in time for the return! If you weren’t playing with us at the time of lock down, you best get onto us quickly as spaces will be extremely limited.

As things stand we are due to start back on Monday 29th March at Reddish, and Wednesday 31st March at Woodley.

All leagues will continue from where they left off, so you don’t need to worry about losing whatever progress you had made at the time of lock down.

As we receive any further updates on the protocol surrounding covid measures, we’ll be sure to let everyone know.

We haven’t completely switched off during the lock down, as work has continued on what will become our BRAND NEW WEBSITE, which will hopefully contain enough new aspects to keep even the hardiest of geeks happy!

With gyms, pubs and restaurants remaining closed, and crowds still unable to attend football matches, this is your best bet for catching up with the boys…

Don’t hang around!

by Mike Birchall

CHRISTMAS CUP 2020

The annual SK Ballers Charity Christmas Cup took place on Monday 21st December, with 11 teams taking part to raise money for MIND on a cold, damp winter evening. Here’s how it went…

GROUP A

At the halfway point of Group A, it was apparent that qualification for the semi finals was going to come down to 4 of the 6 teams, as Holland FC and Phantom Brailians failed to pick up a point from their first three games. The McMuffin Men and Sale Madrid had taken early control of the group, with McMuffin Men beating RNE Albion Blue 1-0 in the opening game, and Sale Madrid beating Stroke Titty 3-0 in their second game. RNE remained in contention with a 1-0 win that effectively ended Stroke’s hopes, before McMuffin Men ran out surprisingly comfortable 3-0 winners over Sale to take a firm grip on the group and confirm their qualification. The second qualification spot came down to RNE and Sale, and Sale clinched their spot in the semis with a 3-1 win. All McMuffin Men had to do to top the group was avoid defeat in their final game with Stroke, and they just about did it as they played out a 1-1 draw.

Qualifiers:

1st: The McMuffin Men

2nd: Sale Madrid

GROUP B

Group B never seemed as straightforward, despite Buttner Ballers getting off to a flyer with a 4-0 win over Workies Bogs in the opening game. RNE Albion Purples took control with a pair of 1-0 wins, against Blue Riz and Ballers, before Blue Riz pulled off a surprise, beating fellow Tuesday league side and current Champions Deportivo La Corona 1-0 to keep themselves in the running. Workies Bogs were out after they lost their third game, 2-0 to RNE, while Ballers got back in contention with a 2-0 win over Blue Riz, which dented their chances of progressing. Deportivo found some form to shock RNE with a 2-1 win to give themselves a chance of making the semis, but they ended as they were beaten 1-0 by Ballers in the final game which saw Ballers top the group on goal difference.

Qualifiers:

1st: Buttner Ballers

2nd RNE Albion Purples

SEMI-FINALS & FINAL

Having kept things tight throughout most of their group games, it was no surprise that RNE Albion Purples were involved in a tight semi final against Group A winners The McMuffin Men. Having gone through the group stages unbeaten, McMuffin Men stumbled in their first knockout game, as RNE ran out 1-0 winners. Sale Madrid and Buttner Ballers are fairly familiar with each other, having faced off in the Monday league on a couple of occasions. Both of those full length games have resulted in draws, so we expected this to be tight, but Buttner Ballers adapted to the shorter format of the game to pick up a 2-0 win.

So to the final and it was Ballers who started the better and went 1-0 up as they attempted to reverse the result from the group stages against Purples, but they couldn’t see it out as Albion hit back to level things up and take the final to penalites. In the shootout it was Albion who held their nerve as two misses from Buttner Ballers handed them a 2-1 victory and the Christmas Cup trophy.

WINNERS: RNE ALBION PURPLES

Obviously the tournament is secondary to the money raised for charity, and we’re pleased to announce that the tournament cleared £340.18 which will be donated to MIND at the end of what has been a very difficult year for many, many people.

Many thanks to all teams who took part, and congratulations to RNE Albion Purples on their win.

A very Merry Christmas to all of our current, former and (hopefully) future customers, and here’s to brigher days ahead in 2021!