Tiverton Town will be playing Southern League Premier Division football after all next season – to the delight of long-serving manager Martyn Rogers.

The league constitution was released yesterday and Tiverton – who finished fourth from bottom in the Premier Division in the season just ended – were among those named in the 22-team top flight. So were relegated Blue Square South sides Weymouth and Weston-super-Mare.

A clue to Tiverton's reprieve could be the omission of Midland One champions Bury Town, whose two-year spell in the Southern League is over following their placement in the Ryman League Premier Division, the same step three level as the Zamaretto top flight.

Rogers said: "Obviously it's great for the club, it will be our tenth season in the Premier Division – it's taken us a long time to get here and we wanted to stay in.

"It was a nice surprise because we have all been waiting to see what was going to happen and the thing we all wanted to happen has happened, although we are still not quite sure how it has come about.

"Now we will all be working our socks off to ensure that we are not in a similar situation next season but it's a tough league there's no two ways about it and there is no way you can take any game in the Premier Division for granted. I think last season has proved that."

Rogers added: "We haven't even started organising pre-season friendlies as yet. Everything has been put on hold until we knew what division we were going to be in."

Western League champions Bideford have had their promotion to the Southern League rubber-stamped and will compete in Division One South & West when the 2010-2011 season kicks off.

Bideford boss Sean Joyce, 43, is looking forward to playing a host of local teams. The Yorkshire born former Doncaster Rovers and Torquay United midfielder has led the north Devon club to five titles in nine seasons.

"There are two sides to it and both of them good," he said. "On the one hand we will be playing some new teams that we have never met before. It's going to be great playing sides like Abingdon and Stourport Swifts.

"Then we have got a number of teams that we will be playing on our doorstep so to speak, the likes of Bridgwater, Clevedon, Taunton, Paulton, Frome and Mangotsfield. I like the fact that we are flag bearers for Devon in the division."