LEYTON ORIENT WOMEN

16th April 2024

Junior Premier League (JPL) - England

The Under 18 girls play in a competition which struggles under the cumbersome name of:
The Junior Premier League (JPL) - Warriors competition - Blue section (Bracket 'A') - Under 17/18 girls.
We think there's value in understanding what all this means in order to get a good grasp of what the organisations and girl players are doing. Let's start with the name:- "Junior Premier League" (JLP). The "Junior" bit is self explanatory and refers to the many tiers of age limits currently playing in the JLP. Leyton Orient has just the one side so far, that's our Under 18s girls. The "Premier" moniker is no simple marketing tag, it means much more, here's why...
There are hundreds of little football teams of all ages doing their thing every Sunday throughout the length and breadth of the land. Most players in Orient's JPL U18s team also play in their own local Sunday team. The JPL teams only play on Saturdays, that's where the real difference lay.
JPL clubs pick and choose the best Sunday players they can find and offers them the chance to play in a so-called "Elite" team on Saturdays - This is the JPL. To emphasise the point, JPL players will have already made their mark with their local clubs and will have been selected, based on merit, to play with other youngsters of exceptional ability in a JPL team. If you will, these are cream of the crop.
Leyton Orient takes its place in the hierarchy of clubs in attracting the best youth players to play for our JPL team on Saturdays and thus those chosen youngsters can take advantage of a more professional approach, better coaching, better facilities and care - plus they get the chance to rub shoulders and play side-by-side with the other top youngsters. You may have already seen some of our U18 girls playing in the Greater London Premier league for the senior team, they are good, some look very exciting prospects indeed.
The JPL has a strict list of criteria to be met, you can see these at JPL Criteria which, to put things into perspective, includes this clear reference to their aims... "Each team applying to enter the Junior Premier League must understand that this is not a grassroots league and therefore their ability must be suitable for the league". Pretty clear that!
So there you have it! Leyton Orient's Under 18 girls team is a focused and highly professional outfit whose players have demonstrated outstanding talent, ability and application in their own clubs in order to get the chance to play in the JPL. The JPL is from where most of the future top players will come whilst the rest of us regular types will enjoy hacking a ball up and down Hackney Marshes.
The description "Warriors" refers to female teams, and "blue - Bracket 'A'" is a name given to a specific geographic location within the national set up. In keeping with the nature of the JPL, our "blue" section includes most of Greater London, Kent and Sussex. Participating clubs must possess the organisation, budget and infrastructure to support such long distance travel and the home grounds, training facilities and general infrastructure etc., are regularly inspected to ensure excellent standards are maintained.

As you'd probably expect, Orient's JPL U18 girls are pushing hard at the top of their league and, as the table (below) shows, they've played 10, won 9, drawn 1 and are in pole position to finish at the top - but there's some huge games coming up so nobody is celebrating yet.

Kings Hill (Kent) probably regarded themselves as pre-season favourites to take the title and have demonstrated why they are justified to hold that belief. However they have been beaten and that was by Leyton Orient, otherwise they have won all their games. Currently Kings Hill have dropped three points whereas the O's youngster have dropped just the two which came from a recent draw against Chatham Town. However, the team from Haringey have also drawn one game and won the rest, the fact they have only played six games skews the table somewhat but they are potentially in the same position as the O's.
Whether by design or accident, Orient's final three games are as follows:-

Apr 24, 2024 - Leyton Orient - Haringey Girls
May 04, 2024 - Leyton Orient - Kings Hill
May 11, 2024 - Haringey Girls - Leyton Orient

There are other teams who can spoil the party, despite not being famous or household names, some of these clubs have dozens of teams playing all over the home counties and are well established multi-team clubs. The season finale looks like being a clash of the junior titans.

We are always very happy to receive your news, photos and views, If you have something relative and positive to contribute about your experience around the women's teams, let us know please. There are email, 'X' and Instagram links on our home page or you can whatsapp for free on 0385913080531.