World Footy News

Although the details are still being negotiated regarding who will play in which league for the 2010 footy season, regional England has a number of new clubs warming up for their league debut.

WFN reported on the Wolverhampton Wolverines and Cambridge Hippos late last year, and while the Hippos look like they may still be short of players, the Wolverines are poised to be the West Midlands' third club.

Further east, the Peterborough Lightning are recruiting, as are the Oxford Beavers. In West Yorkshire, university club the Leeds Met Taipans are also set to take the field.

Peterborough Lightning

Andrew Solesbury was born and raised in the United Kingdom, discovering Australian Rules Football via the weekly highlights on Sky Sports back in 2003. “I started followed it passionately when Setanta picked up the rights a few years ago and broadcast the games live. I am a huge fan of the Brisbane Lions.”

“I’ve always wanted to play Aussie Rules but there isn’t a club within easy reach around here, so that’s why I decided to set my own team up! There has been a lot of interest in our team and have over fifteen people now interesting in participating in our team. This number is set to grow – we have been signing people up daily to join our team.”

“We have finally chosen a name for our team. We are going to be called the ’Peterborough Lightning’. For our team colours we have yet to clarify this. Most likely we will be black and white but we are discussing this at the moment.”

Solesbury is currently in contact with other English footy clubs and working to arrange a friendly match before the season starts. Assuming that all goes according to plan, the club will be in the newly-expanded Central league. Solesbury says that Peterborough is quite isolated but easily accessible due to the A1 motorway – usually a “forgotten city” in the UK.

Leeds Met Taipans

Leeds Metropolitan University - generally known as 'Leeds Met' - is one of the growing number of unis in England with an Aussie Rules club.

Leading the Leeds Met Taipans is Joe Walford, a Briton who first saw the game when traveling around Australia at age 19. "A friend and I went and saw Collingwood play Hawthorn at the MCG. From then I was considering playing it and after finishing my first year, I looked up teams in London, joined the North London Lions and never looked back.

Although the University's traditional colours of green and purple had him consider taking on the Dockers moniker, Walford eventually chose the name Taipans as it was a fairly unique piece of Australia - the Taipan being an outback inhabitant that holds the title of world's most venomous snake. So far, they have around 25 interested players in the squad, mainly Englishmen, with a few Welsh, Irish and one Kenyan player.

Leeds was last year home to ARUK Central side the Leeds Jets, but the Jets aren't yet firm starters for the 2010 season. However, Walford says that the Taipans may compete in their place.

"We are, I think, entering the league as the Leeds Jets, but then when our Uni season starts we become the Taipans and we just hope for a good turn out and finish to the season."

"We also hope to get more Unis up here to play it, but it's hard to in a Rugby League area. We are just hoping for a little bit of funding of the Athletics Union, like getting us a Rugby Pitch and also possibly a bit more like funding for a coach."

"It is hard if we are at a Rugby-based Uni, however we are hoping they see the future if they take a risk and may appeal to more Aussie students to come over here and also encourage more British-based players to play."

Oxford Beavers

Oxford University is home to one of England's oldest Australian rules clubs, with the annual Varsity matches against Cambridge dating back to the 1920s.

However, whilst the student club has increasingly started playing matches other than the Varsity challenge, the city of Oxford has not had a regular season club to date.

Australian Laurence Benn is working on founding the Oxford Beavers, named for one of the city's traditional symbols. A few of the players from the university have put their hands up for the team, but Benn says the bulk of the side is still to be recruited.

"So far we have about a dozen guys, so we may be good for this year. Unfortunately I think quite a few will struggle to be regulars so some more players on our list would be great. We haven't had any training sessions yet, but hopefully we can get together soon. There is a carnival in Portsmouth in late April, so I hope we can get on the field then for our first game."

While the respective draws haven't yet been finalised, Benn says if the Beavers can confirm for the season they would be either in the Southern or Central divisions. Geography and logistics suggest the southern division might be more likely, as having Oxford in the central division could mean a lot of traveling if the North West and Midlands teams play together as was the case in 2009.

Wherever everyone ends up playing, the Beavers, Taipans and Lightning are just three of more new clubs to take the field in England in 2010. Stay tuned - we'll hopefully have a few more new English club previews and news on league structures on WFN in the coming weeks.

The clubs above can all be contacted via their Facebook pages: Peterborough Lightning, Leeds Met Taipans and Oxford Beavers.