Criteria for population of Premier One

Criteria for population of Bristol Premier League Divisions One and Two

(Up to and including 2006)

The guiding principles

(1) No Premier League entrant should be more than one promotion away from Premier One.
(2) Promotion and relegation slots (between Premier One and Premier Two) in any given season should number (to the nearest whole number) one third of the membership of the numerically smaller division. In this way, there should be no bottlenecks of new talent being trapped year after year in Premier Two.
(3) Those attaining a Premier One place for the following season (either by avoiding relegation or earning promotion) will always be guaranteed their Premier One place, even if that means altering the preferred numerical balance in Table One below. As an example: in season A, 22 players take part, with the recommended split between divisions, giving 11 players in each. If the 7 Premier One players avoiding relegation and the 4 Premier Two players gaining promotion all take up their places the following season, and the total of league entrants for that season totals 25, the recommended split of 10 in Premier One and 15 in Premier Two would have to be amended to accommodate the 11 Premier One qualifiers, probably with 11 in Premier One and 14 in Premier Two.
(4) Should there not be sufficient Premier One qualifiers taking up their rightful places in any season, then vacancies would be filled according to the criteria in Table Two below.
(5) The total number of matches to be played in any season should be a balance between what is realistically attainable and what constitutes a fair and rigorous test of the participants.
(6) In the rare cases where there is a conflict of interests in the staging of the two divisions, Premier One should always be given preference over Premier Two in terms of providing the most balanced conditions achievable.
(7) Premier One should always have at least 10 participants, and the number of matches to be played should ideally be between 18 and 22, and never fewer than 15. The exception to this is when there are between 13 and 15 Premier entrants in total.

TABLE ONE: Recommended splits between Premier One and Premier Two, numbers of matches to be played, and numbers of promotion/relegation slots

TOTAL LEAGUE ENTRY	PL'RS IN PREM.1	Matches against each	Total matches	No. to be relegated	PL'RS IN PREM.2	Matches against each	Total matches	No. to be promoted
10	10	2	18	0	.	.	.	.
11	11	2	20	1	.	.	.	.
12	12	2	22	2	.	.	.	.
13	13	1	12	3	.	.	.	.
14	14	1	13	4	.	.	.	.
15	15	1	14	5	.	.	.	.
16	16	1	15	6	.	.	.	.
17	17	1	16	7	.	.	.	.
18	10	2	18	3	8	2	14	3
19	10	2	18	3	9	2	16	3
20	10	2	18	3	10	2	18	3
21	11	2	20	3	10	2	18	3
22	11	2	20	4	11	2	20	4
23	12	2	22	4	11	2	20	4
24	12	2	22	4	12	2	22	4
25	10	2	18	3	15	1	14	3
26	10	2	18	3	16	1	15	3
27	10	2	18	3	17	1	16	3
28	10	2	18	3	18	1	17	3
29	10	2	18	3	19	1	18	3
30	11	2	20	4	19	1	18	4
31	11	2	20	4	20	1	19	4
32	11	2	20	4	21	1	20	4
33	12	2	22	4	21	1	20	4
34	12	2	22	4	22	1	21	4
35	12	2	22	4	23	1	22	4
36	18	1	17	6	18	1	17	6
37	19	1	18	6	18	1	17	6
38	19	1	18	6	19	1	18	6
39	20	1	19	6	19	1	18	6
40	20	1	19	7	20	1	19	7
41	21	1	20	7	20	1	19	7
42	21	1	20	7	21	1	20	7
43	22	1	21	7	21	1	20	7
44	22	1	21	7	22	1	21	7
45	23	1	22	7	22	1	21	7
46	23	1	22	8	23	1	22	8

TABLE TWO: Pecking order for offering vacancies

ORDER	PLAYER TO TAKE UP VACANCY
1	1st Premier Two player below the promotion line
2	1st Premier One player below the relegation line
3	2nd Premier Two player below the promotion line
4	2nd Premier One player below the relegation line
5, 6, etc.	Other Premier Two and Premier One players following the pattern in positions 1 to 4 above

Back to Bristol Premier League home page
Bristol Premier League rules and formats