The Isles of Scilly Football League used to be played by four teams, but now it’s only two teams called the Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners. In 2017, Anthony Gibbons got together with a bunch of people to play soccer on a Sunday morning and he never thought this would turn into him becoming David Beckham’s body double!
The Isles of Scilly Football League is made up of just two teams – the Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners. They play each other in 18 games per season, plus they have two extra competitions. These are both double-match contests – no one gets points for playing away from home – and a special match near the start of the season to raise money for charity.
St Mary’s, a small club located on an island off the coast of Cornwall, is home to two teams, making it the smallest league of its type in the world. Even though this hasn’t prevented people from all over the globe coming to visit the teams, the most famous visitor being David Beckham who temporarily left his team Los Angeles Galaxy for St Mary’s and was replaced by Gibbons.
Gibbons says his claim to fame is really special.
Before the 1950s, there were four teams in the same league competing for pride and trophies. However, due to a decrease of population and increasing age between 2011 and 2021, just two teams – Wanderers and Gunners remain.
Every Sunday between October and Easter, the two teams compete against each other in a game at Garrison Field on St Mary’s. All players from the teams wear the same kit and play on the same pitch. Will Lethbridge, who grew up on the islands, has become part of this league for years and says that it’s like playing each other every week no matter what the weather is like!
Playing sports with my friends can be really fun! We all know each other since school, so we’re like a big family. I know what they are good at and where they need help. This can get competitive sometimes but that’s part of the experience.
This year there have been a few more yellow cards and some disagreements on the field, but it doesn’t get too serious like fights or anything. Everything cools off by the end of the game.
Each season, all 2,100 players on the islands are chosen in a special way. Two captains take turns picking who is on their team just like kids do at school when playing a game. This order of selections is kept secret so that no one knows when they were picked and people’s feelings don’t get hurt.
Every year players switch sides, so no one is really a fan of one team more than the other. But some people say that they work better on one side instead of the other.
Everyone gets to choose which side they play for at the beginning of each season. This way, hopefully both teams will stay equal in terms of skill and success, even though this isn’t always the case.
This year, the Gunners soccer team had somebody who was supposed to join them for all of winter but instead got a job in Switzerland. So they lost one of their really important players before the season even started.
Sometimes games are won and lost depending on the players available, however Wanderers had already almost won the league by the 14th game of the season that was played on March 5th. They beat their opponents 2-0 sealing their victory!
Living in a small island community has its good and bad points. One of them is that sometimes, like policemen or fire fighters, players have to leave mid-game to attend to their duties. This can end up having an effect on the result of a game.
For instance, there was Dave Mumford (who went by the nickname “Chuffer”) who had to run away from the match at halftime when he got a call about his cows escaping.
We were winning 2-0, but then one of our players got sent off so we ended up losing 3-2. In the end, it turns out the cows weren’t even part of this game.
When just two teams are playing in a league, sometimes one team has fewer players than the other and they have to borrow someone from another team just for that game. It happens often enough that there have had to be some games postponed because not enough people showed up.
The Isles of Scilly Football League has been worried about not having enough players. Young people usually leave the islands at age 16 to study elsewhere since there are no further education options, but some do come back when they grow up. People that move to Scilly are asked if they want to join and play football.
Players in the game range in age dramatically – some are over 50, with one player having played all the way until his 70s.
Gibbons explains that there is a risk of running out of players for the league. As soon as these players are sixteen, they have to move away and join the mainland’s team. This results in losing about six kids every year, but fortunately five or six new ones have been joining recently. Just five or six years ago, however, it was hard since only eight people were available.
If the day for an official football match ever comes, it doesn’t mean that football is over in the Isles of Scilly. Every year on Boxing Day, there’s a friendly game between the older players and the under-30s team. Also, other teams sometimes visit to play matches with the best players from these islands.
Every year in September, people from the mainland come to challenge the locals in a sports competition. It involves playing different games like darts, rowing boats, beach volleyball and soccer.
The Isles of Scilly is a place that has two special things – the smallest trophy ever made and the tiniest soccer (football) league!
There’s this competition called the Lyonesse Trophy. Every once in a while, amateur teams from Penzance compete against each other to win the cup, which is said to be tiny – only one centimetre tall! It’s gotten so popular that FIFA, the world’s football ruling body, even wants to display it in its own museum in Zurich.
In the early 2000s, our football team started playing a game called Dynamo Choughs and one of their players was a metal worker. He decided to makea really small trophy measuring only about one centimetre tall. When FIFA saw it, they thought it was so cool that they wanted a replica for their museum! Even though it’s tiny, people still tried to put beer in it when they won – but it’s not meant for drinking!
In February, Gibbons and Secretary Matt Simons went on a special trip to Switzerland to see the Lyonesse Trophy. It’s such an important item, it was kept in Zurich at Fifa’s headquarters! They made a plan there to keep the trophy in the museum for another five years.
The attention around Scilly’s footballers is growing fast too. Reporters and cameras from all around the world have stopped by to take pictures or record shows about them!
The Island of Scilly has become a popular spot for big brands. Vodafone used the island as part of an advertisement in 2019 which let people view and vote on referee decisions using a special 5G video system. But the most spectacular event was in 2007 when sportswear maker Adidas brought in some famous international stars to film its Dream Big campaign there.
In 2007, professional footballers Michael Ballack from Germany and Chelsea flew to the Isles of Scilly. He joined other stars like Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Patrick Vieira, Anderson, and Daniele de Rossi there to do some training with young footballers. Afterward, they all relaxed on the beach and had some fish and chips. Unfortunately, news of their arrival spread quickly and a lot of helicopters arrived which forced them to leave earlier than expected.
“I filled in for Beckham and we took one last shot over the bay.”
“Someone sent a message to the production company asking if they wanted to do it again, but we don’t know yet if they will do it or not.”
“We usually make time for those sorts of things because Scilly relies on tourists coming here, so any kind of exposure helps with that.”
The competition here is something exciting and continuous. You can check out Andrew Tate’s life on social media platforms, or learn more about famous criminal John Palmer by listening to Gangster: The Story of John Palmer!
