BRAVE Beacon Sunday League have taken the unprecedented decision of reducing the number of teams that feature in their ranks each week.

While most leagues up and down the country are desperately trying to increase their numbers, Beacon have adopted the opposite approach as the result of a shortage of match referees.

Founder member and general secretary David Clinton said: “We wanted to make sure we had enough match officials to fulfill all our fixtures.

“There’s nothing worse when there’s no officials available and the problems it can cause.

“Clubs aren’t geared up to referee their own games as people don’t want to do it . They never have!

“So we had to make some harsh decisions - but the clubs have backed up 100 per cent.

“It’s no good having 40 or 50 teams but not enough officials to go round.

“We also have to show that we are supporting our referees at the same time. So we did a straw poll of referees to see how many games we could cover each week

“It’s the first time in our 47 year history that we’ve not actively encouraged teams to join us. But by offering clubs in the league a new slimmed down service, we believe we’ve made it more enjoyable for them.

“We spoke to clubs back in March about our decision to revamp the league and they’ve been very supportive. Some people may look at the move as a backward step, but we believe we’ve taken a step backwards to go forward in the future and I feel we’ve taken the right decision.

Clinton confirmed that the Beacon League had retained a good percentage of sides from last season with 15 clubs competing in the open age division with another 10 signed up for the increasingly popular Over-30s section – a category that looks set to grow in the coming years.