CLACTON Rugby Club will start life back in Essex League division one with a home fixture against Braintree.

Both clubs began last September in the London Leagues, but the Seasiders were relegated at the end of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Braintree pulled out of their division and so will be starting a new life in the county leagues.

The sides will meet in their first games of the new season at Valley Road on September 19.

They then visit Bancroft on September 26 before the first of three October fixtures at home to Ilford Wanderers.

In all, there are 14 clubs in the division and 26 Saturday league games was considered too many fixtures.

Unfortunately, 14 teams is not enough to give two meaningful divisions and so the sides will all play each other once up until January.

The division will then be split, with the top eight teams all playing each other again, and the bottom six playing each other again, effectively giving either 20 or 18 games for each club.

For Clacton, after a season trekking around Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, it will be a return to the more familiar surroundings of the A12 and trips to the likes of Maldon and Millwall.

Clacton’s fixtures for the first part of the season are: September 19 - Braintree (home), September 26 - Bancroft (away), October 3 - Ilford Wanderers (home), October 10 - East London (away), October 24 - Writtle Wanderers (home), November 7 - Millwall (home), November 14 - Kings Cross Steelers (away), November 21 - Pegasus Palmerians (home), December 5 - Maldon (away), December 12 - Dagenham (home), December 19 - Canvey Island (away), January 9 - Billericay (home), January 16 - Stanford-le-Hope (away).