The final whistle is to be blown on the Southend and District Football League at the end of the current campaign -- just two years short of the competition's centenary.

Full-time has finally arrived for the midweek event because there are no longer enough teams able to take part.

"I'm afraid it's reluctantly been decided that we can no longer go on," said well-known local soccer official Alan Watkins, whose association with the league stretches back to 1979 when he first joined the committee.

"This season started a bit brighter than some recently with eight competing teams, but one by one they've fallen by the wayside and we've effectively finished with just four.

"I suppose looking back the beginning of the end was when shops generally stopped having early closing on Wednesday afternoons.

"Certainly there have been other major contributory factors such as schools and colleges stopping entering sides and the army pulling out of Shoebury."

The league got underway in 1905 with just a handful of participating clubs, but soon mushroomed and enjoyed big success between the two world wars.

The heyday came after the Second World War with up to 30 teams competing in three divisions.

Published Thursday, April 17, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo