LUSL team entries guide
In 2016, the London Universities Sport Leagues piloted a new entry system for teams.
Following examples of other social sports leagues, we introduced a tiered league
structure that allows teams to compete at the level that is right for them. Hopefully that
will mean players, captains and administrators know exactly what they’re signing up to
at the start of the season.
The LUSL leagues offer entries across our 14 sports in the following tiers:
This guide is designed to give you further detail on these tiers and help you and your
teams decide what is the right fit for them. A few general disclaimers to start:
Provisional leagues
All entries in May reflect your preferred tier and are provisional. Once all entries are in,
we will construct provisional leagues to send back out to you for review before they are
finalised. Depending on the number of entries, we may not be able to fill a league for
every tier in every sport.
For example, if you enter a badminton team into the Recreational tier but there aren’t
enough entries to construct a recreational league, we will provisionally enter your team
into the next closest tier (most likely Intermediate). You will be able to see this once the
provisional leagues are published and feed back to us whether your team is happy to
play in the newly assigned tier or whether you would like to withdraw instead.
Teams will not be charged until the league has started. Therefore you can still enter
and withdraw teams until the start of the season in October. However, any entries after
the official deadline (2nd June 2017) are non-guaranteed – we will have to check if we
can comfortably fit them into a league.
Promotion/relegation and movement between tiers
The top team from every league is promoted into the next higher league in the same
tier. The bottom team is relegated into the next lower league in the same tier. We do not
move teams between tiers automatically.
E.G. if your team has won Intermediate Premier in 2016/17 you will have to decide
whether they want to continue playing in the same Intermediate league in 2017/18 OR
whether you want to enter them into Competitive instead. If they are entered into
Competitive but have not previously played there, they will be drafted into the lowest
Competitive league available.
It is up to you and your team to decide what tier is best for them. If they haven’t enjoyed
their tier last season (for example because it was too competitive), then just enter them
into a different one this season!
Departmental, staff or society teams
You may wish to enter a team into one of our leagues that does not fit into your normal
sports club structure. For instance, your law society may want to start a football team.
Obviously it’s difficult for both you and us to estimate how good this team will be in
comparison to other football teams in the leagues. For these sort of teams we would
always recommend that they are entered into Recreational or Intermediate leagues to
start with. It’s worth noting as well that we can change the name of these teams on
BUCScore to reflect who they are (e.g “UCL Law Society” rather than “UCL Men’s 5th”).
UCL have created a new page on their website for any departmental teams that might
want to enter LUSL. It offers a really good example how this can be managed by an
institution.
Joint teams between institutions
Our LUSL eligibility regulations allow a collection of LUSL member institutions to enter
joint teams into our leagues. For instance, if you only have 3 women at your institution
who are interested in playing in a rugby team, why not contact some of the other
institutions and create a joint team? They would have to be entered by one institution on
LUSL who would be financially responsible and make sure that the team competes and
has appropriate facilities. Of course, the institutions can work out between themselves
how best to manage this. Again, we can change the team name on BUCScore to reflect
their identity (e.g. Lil Babas Women’s Rugby).
The tiers
This is designed to give you an idea of what level of ability and competition each tier
operates at and how much commitment is expected from the teams. Have a look and if
you are still unsure, give us a ring!
Recreational
Creating a new team in your club to get players that first competitive experience?
Looking for a regular sports league for your society or study group? Hunting for
something fun to do with your mates or colleagues?
This is the league for newly established teams or those who are just out for some
casual play. Ideal for players who are new to the sport or have played occasionally in
informal settings. The focus in this league is to get matches played and to take part!
Rules are more flexible to allow matches to go ahead and to create a friendly
atmosphere. Rule of thumb: if both teams agree, anything goes.
Case study: Roehampton Netball
Although they are called the University of Roehampton 1st and 2nd team in LUSL they are in fact
our 5th and 6th teams here. We enter the ‘Recreational’ leagues in LUSL as this is ideal for the
players at our club who either don’t want to or didn’t make it into one of the four BUCS teams
we have at Roehampton. The standard of play is great for those either new to the sport or those
who have little experience of it, it is also a great development tool and we have had numerous
players go through the LUSL programme up into the BUCS teams.
Intermediate
The original LUSL ethos: an alternative, more casual league that allows people to
continue their sport in a less formal setting than BUCS Wednesday leagues. Perfect for
development squads and social teams. Players will have played the sport before (for
instance at school or in local league or club) and know the rules of the game. While the
standard of play will be higher than in the Rec leagues, the focus is still on social sport everyone is here to have fun and get matches played. Rules are slightly stricter than in
Rec to make sure proper laws of the game are followed but let’s keep it friendly.
Case study: Imperial Men’s Squash 3rds
This team play in BUCS Tier 3 so they do compete already but entering LUSL Intermediate fits
well with the aims of the team - as one of the lower teams but still competing regularly it allows
the team to introduce social and development players who need more match experience. LUSL
Intermediate is a great ladder for these players that have some game experience, whether that
be in BUCS, within institutions or even from school. They have an awareness of the rules and
match play is the next step in development to increase game experience and further rule
knowledge. The players are committed to the games but are more flexible. They appreciate the
social element and are keen to get the games played, however that might be - whether it’s
slightly reducing the number of sets or moving the day of the game. Any experience is good
experience at this level.
Competitive
Already compete in BUCS Wednesdays but want more match-play? Want to play interuniversity sport but don’t have time on Wednesday afternoons? Ready to face off
against other London teams?
Then this is for you. While the league is still self-administered by captains and the spirit
is more casual than in BUCS (no BUCS points!), rules and regs will follow BUCS
models. Players and teams are expected to know and follow the laws of the game and
may have played in a competition before. Sport appropriate officials and facilities are
required.
Case study: UCL RUMS (Medics) Women’s Football 1sts
Our RUMS (Medics) Women’s Football 1st team participate in LUSL Competitive Div 1. This
team also competes in weekly BUCS fixtures as our UCL 2nd (RUMS) team in SE3B. But due
to their degree commitments, many players are on placements around Greater London during
the week, they regularly struggle to get a consistent roster of players out every Wednesday.
This year they finished bottom of their BUCS league, but 1st in their LUSL competition.
The LUSL competitive tier provides our medics students with the opportunity to not only
participate regularly in fixtures each week with the aim of completing their fixture list, it also
ensures that our players face opposition teams of a similar ability, commitment level and mind
set, making the experience better for all involved.
Walkovers for failing
to rearrange
Walkovers for rule
breaches
League points lost if
concede a walkover
League points
awarded if win a
walkover
Team sheets
Fines for missed
matches
Recreational
Intermediate
Competitive
X
X




0
0
-3
3
3
3
X
X

X
X
X
The rules and regulations
The rules and regulations for LUSL are adjusted to meet the levels above, in
consultation with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and the LUSL Management
Group. They will be updated over the summer.
As a rule of thumb:
Competitive follows BUCS rules for tier two or below.
Intermediate is more flexible and encourages rearrangement rather than walkovers.
Recreational encourages people to have fun and be lenient on the rules to allow
matches to happen, as long as both teams agree.
Officials
See the Officials Guide on the LUSL Rules and Regulations page for guidance split by
tier.
Still unsure?
If you are still not sure which tier to enter your team(s) into, just get in touch with us at
the BUCS Office to advise you. For another perspective as well, feel free to give some
of the institutions a ring to see how they are managing the entry process. St Mary’s,
Imperial, UCL and LSE all have representatives on the LUSL Management Group who
are ready to help.
Jason Michalski
Local Leagues and BUCS Competition Co-ordinator
[email protected]
Tel.: 0207 633 5080