Today's New York Times reports on what it calls "the world's smallest soccer league," the Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, who battle each other, and only each other, over a 20-game season on St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern coast of England. "No derby in world soccer is played quite as frequently as that between the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers," writes Rory Smith.
The five inhabited islands have a year round population of about 2,200, with St. Mary's the largest at about 1,650. The league used to have four teams, two from St. Mary's and two from other islands, until the 1950s when a dwindling population forced it to shrink.
Each summer the team captains meet at a local pub for choose sides for the coming year, a tradition that keeps the games competitive.
It turns out the league is not even officially the world's smallest. To save costs, the two teams register as one with the English Football Association so in the eyes of English soccer the games are considered intramural matches,
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