Did you know the worlds smallest league is in Cornwall.

The stunning Scilly Islands are home to the world’s smallest football league, where the sport plays second fiddle to gig racing. Today, just two teams compete: Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers. They face each other in a fourteen-match league season, as well as in three cup competitions: the Charity Shield, the Gallery Cup, and the Scillonian Club Cup.

The earliest known report of football on the islands dates from 1895, when the Cornishman recorded that Tresco played St Mary’s at the Garrison on Boxing Day, with St Mary’s winning 1–0.
By New Year’s Eve 1902, the Cornish Telegraph was reporting another Boxing Day match, this time on Abbey Green, where St Mary’s Bulldogs beat Tresco Terriers 5–1.

In the 1920s, the Lyonnesse Inter-Island Cup was established, bringing together teams from St Mary’s, Tresco, St Martin’s, Bryher, and St Agnes.

By 1933, the Cornishman noted that football had once been very popular on St Mary’s and Tresco, with three clubs competing for a seasonal trophy, and reported rumours that the game might be revived.

Immediately after the Second World War, the Cornish Guardian reported that the Isles of Scilly had written to the Cornish F.A. seeking affiliation to insure players. The letter also stated that the islands had a three-team Sunday league made up of Tresco, St Mary’s, and St Martin’s.

By 1949, the St Mary’s derby between Rovers and Rangers saw the sides meet three times in four weeks. Rangers then beat St Martin’s 4–1 in the knock-out cup semi-final. The season ended with the first mainland visit to the islands, when St Leven defeated a combined St Mary’s team 2–0, according to the Western Morning News.

The Cornishman reported that the 1951 Isles of Scilly Cup semi-final between Rovers and Rangers drew a very large crowd. Although league leaders Rovers started as favourites, Rangers won 3–1. Five weeks later, the final produced another surprise as St Martin’s, from one of the off-islands, won 3–2.

Later that year, the Western Evening Herald reported that at the AGM of St Mary’s Rangers, the club announced plans for a mainland tour to face Falmouth Town and another Senior League side. Since reforming in 1946, membership had reached record levels, and the club had built up a bank balance of more than £50. Three weeks later, the players boarded the Scillonian for the 28-mile trip to the mainland to play matches against Falmouth, Helston, and St Austell.

By 1953, former Manchester City forward Dave Roberts was living on the Scillies and playing for St Mary’s Rovers while working at the island airport. He told the Daily Mirror that the teams played each other six times in the league and again in the cup. He also described the three grounds: the Garrison Ground on St Mary’s, a pitch on Tresco in front of the Abbey ruins, and the ground on St Martin’s, beside a pond that often delayed matches while the ball was retrieved.

Jumping ahead to 1990, the Cornishman reported that gale-force winds turned the weekly match between Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers into a classic game of two halves. The score was 1–1 at half-time, but the match finished 11–1.

In December 1990, fifteen-year-old Jan Rutkowski was selected as Cornwall Under-15 goalkeeper for a match against Somerset. To practise, he relied on invitations to join the men’s weekly matches at the Garrison Ground between Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, 127 years after football was first played there. Jan had attended Cape Cornwall Primary and Senior Schools before moving to Scilly.

Bringing to story up to date and today’s league features Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, who play each other between fourteen and twenty times, usually on Sundays. Officially, both sides belong to a single club, St Mary’s Football Club. The season begins with the Charity Shield and includes the Wholesalers Cup and the two-legged Foredeck Cup. An “Old Men v Youngsters” match is played on Boxing Day. All matches take place at the Garrison football field on St. Mary’s.

Team line-ups are redrawn at the start of each season. Before the opening match, players gather at a local pub to choose two captains, who then pick their squads one by one. The league is played through the winter, from October to March or April.

A combined Isles of Scilly side occasionally plays Newlyn Non Athletico, a club at level 14 of the English football league system. In the past, a team from Truro also visited each year to face a combined islands team.

The Lyonesse Cup was resurrected in 2012. It began as a six-team competition before becoming an annual match against West Cornwall side Dynamo Choughs. After a break from 2015 to 2022, it returned in 2023. The winners receive a 6-millimetre trophy, nicknamed the “world’s smallest cup”. A replica is displayed at the FIFA Museum in Zürich.

The Isles of Scilly are struggling to retain young people. Because there is no sixth form on the islands, many leave for the mainland at 16. High house prices also make it difficult for them to return until later in life. Between 2011 and 2021, the population fell by 6.8%, and the league’s player pool has shrunk with it. In 2008, referee and secretary Howard Cole estimated the average age of both teams to be in the mid- to late 30s. As of 2023, one player in his 70s still occasionally appears in official matches. Because of the league’s small size, on-duty firefighters, police officers and RNLI volunteers sometimes play in official matches, occasionally leaving teams short if they are called away to an emergency. Travel to the Isles of Scilly is often difficult and unreliable because of frequent fog and storms, so bringing in players from mainland England is not a realistic option.

2025-26 final league table was...

Pd W D L F    A  Ps
14  7  1 6 38 48 22 Woolpack Wanderers Champions
14  6  1 7 48 38 19 Garrison Gunners

CHARITY SHIELD, Last season’s result was Garrison Gunners 9-1 Woolpack Wanderers
GALLLERY CUP, game played in two legs; away goals do not count double as both teams play at home. Woolpack Wanderers 3-1 Garrison Gunners, the first leg was postponed only one game was played.
SCILLONIAN CLUB CUP Last season result...Game was not played, to be played.

A massive thanks to exiled Cornishman John Treleven for allowing us to reproduce his excellent article first published on Non-League Matters.