Kent Invicta Football League

The Kent Invicta Football League was a football league in England, formed in 2011 to commence operations for the 2011–12 season.^[1] It covered the traditional English county of Kent, some of which is now in Greater London. It merged with the Southern Counties East League in 2016, forming its lower division.

Kent Invicta Football League

Founded	2011
Folded	2016
Country	England
Divisions	1
Number of clubs	20
Level on pyramid	10
Promotion to	Southern Counties East League
Relegation to	Kent County League
Domestic cup(s)	Kent Invicta League Cup
Last champions	Bearsted (2015–16)

History

Negotiations began in 2009 to form a new Step 6 division (level 10 in the overall English football league system) to make promotion and relegation between the Kent League (Step 5, now Southern Counties East Football League) and Kent County League (Step 7) a less steep transition. There had not been a relegation to the Kent County League for a number of seasons and promotions had been infrequent.^[2]

Founder Clubs

The inaugural 2011–12 season of the league featured the following sixteen clubs, fourteen of which were from the previous season's Kent County League (KCL) together with two other clubs.

From KCL Premier Division: Bearsted Bly Spartans Bridon Ropes Hollands & Blair Lewisham Borough Phoenix Sports Rusthall Sutton Athletic Woodstock Park

From KCL Division One West: Crockenhill Orpington From KCL Division Two East: Lydd Town From KCL Division Two West: Meridian S & S Seven Acre & Sidcup (formerly Seven Acre Sports) Others Ashford United, re-formed club Erith & Dartford Town, from South London Football Alliance

2012 to 2015

During the five seasons of its existence the league took a further seven clubs from the Kent County League (four promoted from its Premier Division and three elected to membership in 2015 from its lower divisions) and three clubs from elsewhere. In the first four seasons four clubs (in irregular quantities) were promoted to the Kent League/Southern Counties East League (SCEFL) and two gained promotion to the newly named SCEFL Premier Division coincident with the leagues' amalgamation.

From 2014–15 the league was sponsored by Pain & Glory Sports.^[3]

Final clubs

After the 2015–16 season, the league merged with the Southern Counties East League (SCEFL) and became its lower division (Division One).^[4] In order to be accepted into the SCEFL clubs were required to have floodlighting at their grounds.^[5] All but one (AC London) of the twenty clubs from the final Kent Invicta League season became SCEFL members for the 2016–17 season and these included twelve clubs who had been founder members of the league (including Phoenix Sports whose Reserves team were now members following earlier promotion of their first team).

AC London, to Combined Counties League APM Contrast Bearsted† Bridon Ropes† Crockenhill† Eltham Palace FC Elmstead Forest Hill Park Glebe Gravesham Borough

Kent Football United (formerly Erith & Dartford Town)† Lewisham Borough† Lydd Town† Meridian VP† Orpington† Phoenix Sports† Reserves Rusthall† Seven Acre & Sidcup† Sheppey United Sutton Athletic† † = Founder clubs

Challenge Trophy

The league organised a knockout competition, the Challenge Trophy. During the 2011–12 and over the 2012–13 seasons this was sponsored by Sandom Robinson.^[6][7] In the following season, 2013–14, sponsorship was provided by Pain & Glory Sports^[8] and this continued over the following two seasons.

List of League Champions and Challenge Trophy winners

Season	League Champions	Challenge Trophy Winners
2011–12	Bly Spartans	Bly Spartans
2012–13	Phoenix Sports	Hollands & Blair
2013–14	Hollands & Blair	Sutton Athletic
2014–15	Hollands & Blair	Hollands & Blair
2015–16	Bearsted	Glebe