The South Western Football League was an English association football league composed of clubs from Cornwall and the far western part of Devon. It consisted of a single division at the eleventh overall tier of the English football league system, the seventh and lowest "Step" of the official National League System. The East Cornwall League and Cornwall Combination ranked below the South Western on the overall pyramid, and in turn have feeder leagues of their own.
Champions of the South Western League, whose last principal sponsor was the Carlsberg beer brand via St. Austell Brewery, were eligible for promotion to the lower division of the Western League, but the difficulties Cornish teams have travelling further afield have discouraged applications for promotion. Truro City took this step in 2006. The lowest-ranked clubs in the 2004–05 FA Cup all came from the South Western League, no other clubs from leagues at that pyramid level having been accepted. Among them were St. Blazey, whose record for longest unbeaten streak in league football anywhere in the United Kingdom (75 games) stood until it was broken by AFC Wimbledon in 2004.
The league was formed in 1951 but foundation dates of the member clubs range from the 1880s to 1980s. The league disbanded in 2007, with a merger with the Devon County League to form a new competition covering the whole of Devon and Cornwall called the South West Peninsula League. The new competition's top division will be at Step 6 of the National League System, feeding directly into the Premier Division of the Western League.
Read more about South Western Football League: Recent Champions
Famous quotes containing the words south, western, football and/or league:
“The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“It appeared that he had once represented his tribe at Augusta, and also once at Washington, where he had met some Western chiefs. He had been consulted at Augusta, and gave advice, which he said was followed, respecting the eastern boundary of Maine, as determined by highlands and streams, at the time of the difficulties on that side. He was employed with the surveyors on the line. Also he called on Daniel Webster in Boston, at the time of his Bunker Hill oration.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)