Pitching In Isthmian South Central- stat watch- attendances

When we feature attendances we like to do a little comparing and contrasting, but that's rather difficult when the last two seasons didn't end. But with help from Neil Pilcher at Folkestone, who has done much of the work you'll see here, we're going to share some lists of top attendances so far this season and then look at some averages- although to some extent with the latter, although we're not comparing eggs with oranges, we might be comparing hen eggs with duck eggs! Next up, the North Division

The Pitching In Isthmian South Central is the lowest attended of our Divisions, and we suspect that the locals don't know what they're missing as we've had goals galore! Looking at attendances alone, here's the top ten so far this season:

671 Binfield vs Bracknell Town
451 Thatcham Town vs Basingstoke Town
414 Chertsey Town vs Thatcham Town
403 Binfield vs Basingstoke Town
397 Bracknell Town vs Marlow
362 Chertsey Town vs South Park
335 Basingstoke Town vs Hanwell Town
298 Basingstoke Town vs Chalfont St Peter
290 Chertsey Town vs Chalfont St Peter
284 Bracknell Town vs Bedfont Sports

As you can see, Basingstoke Town seem to be our main attraction, featuring four times, but far and away our biggest supported match was the local derby between Binfield and title favourites Bracknell Town. The Robins feature three times in the top ten, as do the Curfews of Chertsey Town. The Moles appear twice- as do the Thatcham Town Kingfishers and the Saints of Chalfont St Peter.

If we take a look at the averages in the division- and remember that we're only two months in before we draw any firm conclusions- they look like this:

Average Attendances in the Pitching In Isthmian South Central, Aug/Sept 21-22

Binfield 398
Chertsey Town 355
Basingstoke Town 317
Bracknell Town 300
Thatcham Town 267
Hanwell Town 256
Tooting & Mitcham Utd 235
Staines Town 193
Westfield 160
Ashford Town (Middx) 154

It's worth remembering, however, that some clubs- Guernsey and Sutton Common Rovers- hadn't even had a home league match by the end of last month; indeed the Green Lions hadn't had a match of any sort. South Park have had home matches, but each has been played at someone else's home due to ongoing 3G work at Whitehall Lane.

Now comes the interesting bit, if you like statistics. Again, this isn't really a scientific comparison, as we're comparing a full season average with three or four home matches, but this is how those stats compare with the last full season we had, 2018-19.

Average Attendances Pitching In Isthmian South Central, 2018-19

Binfield 93
Chertsey Town 130
Basingstoke Town 414
Bracknell Town 256
Thatcham Town 178
Hanwell Town 133
Tooting & Mitcham Utd 212
Staines Town 184
Westfield 91
Ashford Town (Middx) 102

* note- Binfield were in the Hellenic Premier Division, Chertsey Town in the Combined Counties Premier, Staines Town were over in the Southern Premier South alongside Basingstoke Town, whilst Thatcham Town were in Southern Division One South.

If we look at the percentage increase/decrease between 2018/19 and the first two months of 2021/22, this is what we get, with the table changing a little in order:

Increase/decrease in attendances 2018-19 to 2021-22, Pitching In Isthmian South Central

Binfield- increased by 328%
Chertsey Town- increased by 173%
Hanwell Town- increased by 92.5%
Westfield -increased by 76%
Ashford Town (Middx)- increased by 51%
Thatcham Town- increased by 50%
Bracknell Town- increased by 17.2%
Tooting & Mitcham Utd- increased by 11%
Staines Town- increased by 5%
Basingstoke Town- decreased by 23.4%

It would be wrong to draw any firm conclusions from this table- and remember, not only have our clubs played a small number of home matches, but their average will also be skewed by whether the clubs visiting them have been those who traditionally bring large numbers of travelling fans- but it is worth patting rather a large number of clubs on the back for a moment!

Finally, and we'll include this table as we look at every division, here are the top twenty attended fixtures across the Pitching In Isthmian League for August and September 2021:

2,101 Worthing vs Bognor Regis Town (1)
1,214 Hastings United vs Whitehawk (2)
1,148 Worthing vs Bowers & Pitsea (3)
1,051 Lewes vs Horsham (4)
1,028 Worthing vs Corinthian-Casuals (5)
949 Hastings United vs Herne Bay (6)
852 Whitstable Town vs Herne Bay (7)
839 Folkestone Invicta vs Enfield Town (8)
836 Folkestone Invicta vs Worthing (9)
802 Bognor Regis Town vs Carshalton Athletic (10)
798 Worthing vs East Thurrock United (11)
797 Stowmarket Town vs Bury Town (12)
782 Folkestone Invicta vs Potters Bar Town (13)
772 Folkestone Invicta vs Horsham (14)
745 Bognor Regis Town vs Wingate & Finchley (15)
723 Lewes vs Cheshunt (16)
703 Lewes vs Hornchurch (17)
686 Enfield Town vs Cheshunt (18)
671 Binfield vs Bracknell Town (19)
658 Haywards Heath Town vs Burgess Hill Town (20)

Most of the stats courtesy of Neil Pilcher. Image from Neil Graham- at Binfield.

Follow the Pitching In Isthmian League on Instagram. Head here or search for theisthmianleague on your app. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.