The length of the M23

I've just been watching Crystal Palace play Brighton. These two football clubs like to term their regular Premier League match "the M23 derby". Presumably to make up for any lack of a traditional rivalry, such as you might get with Arsenal and Tottenham, whose mutual antipathy derives from Arsenal moving from South London (originally as Woolwich Arsenal) to North London in 1913, onto Tottenham's "turf".

The term "derby" is normally used for teams in locations more or less geographically adjacent. Manchester United vs Manchester City (4 miles) is most definitely a derby; Man U vs Liverpool (33 miles) is not. No-one calls it the "M62 derby". Chelsea vs Fulham (1.8 miles) is; Chelsea vs Brentford (5.4 miles) is not. The term is most usually "local derby". Everton v Liverpool (0.9 mile) may be the closest.

How far from Crystal Palace to Brighton? 46 miles. Up the M23. Geographers amongst you may also have noticed that the M23 doesn't go to Brighton, so "A23 derby", anyone? What nonsense.

Maybe every club feels they should have a derby match in the schedule so, for Brighton, Palace are the nearest. But Newcastle don't think of their match vs Leeds as a local derby.

The term derby in this context goes back at least to the mid 19th century. Possibly down to some weird local rivalry (a village vs village punch-up?) which has been lost in the mists of time. In other words, I have no idea where it came from. Which is a pity because that's what this post was going to be about. Maybe I should do the research before I start.

In Spain, Real Madrid vs Barcelona is known as El Clásico - fierce rivalry but not a local derby.

If you were a football supporter in Wellington, New Zealand, your local professional team is Wellington Phoenix and their "derby", in terms of nearest competitor team (they play in the Australian A League), would be Sydney FC. 2,224 km away. Now there's a local derby!