1949–50 Western Football League

Western Football League
Season	1949–50
Champions	Wells City (Division One) Barnstaple Town (Division Two) Bideford Town (Division Three)
← 1948–49 1950–51 →

The 1949–50 season was the 48th in the history of the Western Football League.

This was the first and only season in the history of the Western League in which it consisted of three divisions. Division Three was created largely from reserve sides of existing members, but was abandoned at the end of the season.

The champions for the first time in their history were Wells City, and the winners of Division Two were new club Barnstaple Town. Bideford Town won Division Three, only dropping one point.^[1]

Final tables

Division One

Division One remained at eighteen members with two clubs promoted to replace Clevedon and Bristol City Colts, who were relegated to Division Two. Weymouth had moved up to the Southern League and were replaced in Division One by their Reserves.

Cheltenham Town Reserves, runners-up in Division Two
Chippenham United, champions of Division Two

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv¹	Pts²
1	Wells City	34	22	7	5	87	43	2.02	51
2	Poole Town	34	22	7	5	88	45	1.95	51
3	Glastonbury	34	23	4	7	78	38	2.05	50
4	Trowbridge Town	34	22	5	7	104	40	2.6	49
5	Cheltenham Town Reserves	34	21	4	9	91	58	1.57	46
6	Chippenham United	34	16	8	10	57	49	1.16	40
7	Bristol Rovers Colts	34	15	7	12	54	50	1.08	37
8	Chippenham Town	34	13	7	14	77	70	1.1	33
9	Street	34	12	9	13	71	75	0.95	33
10	Weymouth Reserves	34	13	5	16	67	49	1.37	31
11	Salisbury	34	14	3	17	64	66	0.97	31
12	Yeovil Town Reserves	34	13	5	16	55	102	0.54	31
13	Paulton Rovers	34	12	3	19	60	76	0.79	27
14	Peasedown Miners Welfare	34	8	9	17	56	82	0.68	25
15	Portland United	34	8	6	20	44	74	0.59	22
16	Clandown	34	8	5	21	46	80	0.57	21
17	Soundwell (R)	34	6	6	22	61	116	0.53	18
18	Bath City Reserves (R)	34	5	6	23	45	103	0.44	16

Division Two

Division Two remained at eighteen clubs, after Cheltenham Town Reserves and Chippenham United were promoted to Division One, and RAF Melksham left the league. Three new clubs joined:

Bridgwater Town
Bristol City Colts, relegated from Division One.
Clevedon, relegated from Division One.

Swindon Town replaced their Reserves with their Colts.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv¹	Pts²	Notes
1	Barnstaple Town (P)	34	23	7	4	102	41	2.49	53
2	Dorchester Town (P)	34	21	8	5	96	51	1.88	50
3	Welton Rovers	34	20	7	7	87	63	1.38	47
4	Stonehouse	34	19	6	9	83	63	1.32	44
5	Bridgwater Town	34	17	8	9	86	49	1.75	42
6	Trowbridge Town Reserves	34	17	8	9	81	53	1.53	42
7	Clevedon	34	18	6	10	92	61	1.51	42
8	Weston-super-Mare	34	16	9	9	86	73	1.18	41
9	Bristol City Colts	34	14	8	12	89	60	1.48	36
10	Cinderford Town	34	13	9	12	82	80	1.02	35
11	Chippenham Town Reserves	34	14	4	16	74	73	1.01	32
12	Frome Town	34	12	7	15	72	74	0.97	31
13	Radstock Town	34	10	7	17	72	98	0.73	27
14	National Smelting Company	34	8	9	17	69	99	0.7	25
15	Swindon Town Colts	34	9	3	22	58	89	0.65	21
16	Hoffman Athletic	34	4	13	17	33	69	0.48	21
17	Bristol Aeroplane Company	34	3	6	25	43	138	0.31	12	Left at the end of the season
18	Douglas	34	3	5	26	49	114	0.43	11	Left at the end of the season

Division Three

Division Three consisted of eleven clubs, all of which were new to the Western League except Bristol Rovers "A", this side rejoining the league having left in 1939. Seven of the other ten clubs were Reserve sides of clubs in Divisions One and Two.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv¹	Pts²	Notes
1	Bideford Town (P)	20	19	1	0	103	20	5.15	39
2	Ilfracombe Town (P)	20	16	0	4	74	37	2	32
3	Minehead (P)	20	11	5	4	49	30	1.63	27
4	Clevedon Reserves	20	9	7	4	50	41	1.22	25	Left at the end of the season
5	Chippenham United Reserves	20	8	2	10	45	48	0.94	18	Left at the end of the season
6	Weston-super-Mare Reserves	20	7	3	10	44	64	0.69	17	Left at the end of the season
7	Bristol Rovers "A"	20	5	6	9	36	43	0.84	16	Left at the end of the season
8	Barnstaple Town Reserves	20	5	5	10	31	45	0.69	15	Left at the end of the season
9	Welton Rovers Reserves	20	5	2	13	36	64	0.56	12	Left at the end of the season
10	Bridgwater Town Reserves	20	5	1	14	38	62	0.61	11	Left at the end of the season
11	Stonehouse Reserves	20	2	4	14	19	69	0.27	8	Left at the end of the season

^{1 The system of using goal average to separate two teams tied on points was used up to and including the 1976–77 season.}

^{2 The points system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for losing.}

^{3 The tables as published at the time contained errors, hence the totals do not balance in some columns.}^[1]

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 Robinson, Michael (ed.), Non-League Football Tables 1889–2006, Soccer Books, 2006

Western League

Premier Division	Bishop Sutton Bitton Bradford Town Bridport Brislington Bristol Manor Farm Buckland Athletic Cadbury Heath Gillingham Town Hallen Longwell Green Sports Melksham Town Odd Down Shepton Mallet Sherborne Town Slimbridge Street Willand Rovers Winterbourne United

Division One	Almondsbury UWE Ashton & Backwell United Barnstaple Town Calne Town Chard Town Cheddar Chippenham Park Corsham Town Cribbs Devizes Town Hengrove Athletic Keynsham Town Oldland Abbotonians Portishead Town Radstock Town Roman Glass St George Warminster Town Wellington Wells City Welton Rovers Westbury United Wincanton Town

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1949–50 in English football

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