PREMIER END: VASE WON; TROPHY NEXT

I could get excited about the final day of the season....Spurs scoring loads and putting Arsenal in its place....., the clambering for the top of the Premier League, Liverpool, City, Martin Tyler!! BUT this next lot interests me more.....The 2021–22 FA Vase (Known for sponsorship reasons as the Buildbase FA Vase) is in its 48th season and is an annual competition for teams playing in Levels 9 and 10 (steps 5 & 6) of the English National League System, including the Isle of Man and Channel Islands. This competition was originally known as the FA Amateur Cup but was modernised when the FA made the game "OPEN" and amateurism was lost as a concept. The Amateur was staged for the first time in the 1893-4 in response to the increasing domination of the sport by professional teams. The first winners of the Amateur were THE OLD CARTHUSIANS (old boys of Charterhouse School), who beat The Casuals (origins of the Corinthian Casuals) 2-1 on April 7th, 1874. 

The competition was discontinued after the 1973-4 when the FA abolished the "semi-pro" policy, whereby all clubs were officially considered to be either professional or amateur in status.

The Vase competition is played with two qualifying rounds followed by six proper rounds, semi-finals, and the final played at Wembley. All ties this season were played to a finish on the day, meaning no replays. The first winners of the Vase were Warrington Rylands from the North-west Counties and "most" winners have been Whitley Bay, four times.

Only five teams have won the FA Vase more than once. Whitley Bay are the only team to win the FA Vase three times in successive seasons, while Billericay Town, Tiverton Town and Halesowen Town have won back-to-back titles. Northern league clubs seem to have had a dominance in the recent finals. In 2017 Forest Green Rovers became the first FA Vase winners to go on to play in the EFL, while one former Football League team (Glossop North End a long while back!!) have been beaten finalists. In September 2021 Hinkley AFC set a new record score in the competition, beating St Martin's from Oswestry, Shropshire, 18-0. 

For this season there were no replays in any of the rounds to minimise fixture congestion due to late start of the football season brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. I have just watched Newport Pagnell (United Counties Premier Southern), The Swans, founded in 1963,

from Hertfordshire beat Littlehampton Town FC, The Marigolds, (founded 1896) from West Sussex (Southern Premier Combination),

3-0 in a pulsating game.  NEXT The Trophy.....