IT is an exciting time for one of the country's top junior football leagues.

The Bolton, Bury and District Football League continue to produce ideas to try to encourage more participation in the sport and this season looks set to be no different.

Chairman Warren Barlow returns with his weekly column discussing the major developments in the Your Sport supplement.

OUR league season started on September 10, when Moss Bank took to the field against Mace in our very first Under-21s game, which took place at Atherton Collieries Alder House ground.

We would like to thank the Cols for supporting the league with this and allowing us to stage our first match under lights at this excellent facility.

Further matches are planned to take place here and down the round at Atherton LR's Crilly Park ground and we hope to give you more details of how the U21s are progressing as the season unfolds.

The rest of the league commenced the following Saturday and our new u7s teams of which 47 have joined the league to date this season were involved in a wonderful football festival at Bolton Wanderers Eddie Davies Academy.

I have to say a huge word of thanks to Bolton Wanderers for making the first weekend for these new players so special.

47 teams of around 350 players aged u7s and 54 teams of around 450 players show the strength of the game at grassroots level in this area.

The BBDFL caters for u7s through to U21s and currently we have over 600 teams registered to play in this league, which for a league with a radius of only nine miles from Bolton Town Hall is potentially the highest concentration of teams in the country.

All these teams play their football on a Saturday between 9am and 12 midday, which means over 300 games, with over 8,000 players around 1,500 coaches and 180 referees take to the field in this three hour window ever week.

I do smile when people say that grassroots football is in decline and everything is doom and gloom, because we can assure you, this is not the case in the BBDFL area.

Why are we so successful, whilst others struggle to attract people and teams to the game?

We don't have a magic formula, but we have great people with drive, enthusiasm and determination to do the right things, we strongly believe you should not use a league rule book as a big stick to beat people with.

However we instead use diplomacy, positive messages and education to achieve your goals.

We are still very proud that the BBDFL has never issued a fine in its history, a record no other league in the country can match.

We are innovative and hence the futsal cup we staged this year with the support of Warburtons as the sponsors, our patron Kevin Davies and Mark Foster from Eagley FC who was the organiser.

We also ran a hugely successful summer football event over a 10-week period with support from Bolton Council and many helpers which attracted 180 teams and over 2,000 players.

We ran a coach development day, again ably supported by Kevin Davies and we are building a coach development programme with bursaries and a pathway in order to support the coaches in this area.

We have a partnership with Bolton Referee Society in order that our officials may be mentored and supported to climb the refereeing ladder and we urge all referees to register with your local society today. Bolton Referee Society is free to join for Under 16s and details can be found on their website at http://www.law5.co.uk/site/

There have been many firsts this year and we are planning many more.

2016 will be the 20th anniversary year for the BBDFL and the committee, its members and supporters are looking at ways we can continue our year on year improvements and growth in order to make it a very special year indeed.

If you have any ideas please check out our website at www.bbdfl.org and drop us a line