When I was invited to join the League as President no-one, including me, could have foreseen what the following two seasons would bring.  The wonderful thing is that the teamwork from the Officers, supported by the Management Committee, kept the League ahead of the game.  I am totally impressed by the professionalism displayed by the Officers, which ensured that member clubs had the opportunity to play some football.  When the dreadful pandemic eased, players were able to pull on their boots in the Under 18’s and Veteran’s divisions as well as a revised Fountain Trophies Senior Cup.  Paul at Fountain Trophies, was very generous in sponsoring the Cup, given that the trophy trade has suffered badly through the pandemic.

Each Officer has faced problems with the stop-go playing situation, mostly unrecognised by member clubs. Without each Officer the Wiltshire Senior County League would not be as highly regarded as it is.

It goes without saying that Jim Thorn continues to keep a steady hand on the tiller to the good of everyone involved, backed by John Gingell.

We must hope that the future will see the return to some sort of normality as we move forward as an incorporated company, a true reflection of the professionalism I referred to earlier.

Ken Clarke

League President

It has been a season like no other in the history of the Wiltshire League, due to Covid-19 and the national lockdowns.

Many thanks to all the Club Secretaries and Team Managers for all their hard work in fulfilling their fixtures this season.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all the League Officers and Management Committee for all the excellent work they do.

John Gingell

Chairman

This was the 44th season of the League and this is my 18th Annual Report as Hon General Secretary.

In my Annual Report, I would firstly like to extend the League’s sincere thanks to our sponsors: Chris Perry and David Kilmurray of Corsham Print who are the main sponsors of the League; Paul and Denise Sebastianelli of Fountain Trophies, who sponsor the Senior KO Cup and Ken Clarke of Westernsport Trophies who sponsors the Referees Appreciation Award.  Without their continued support, we would struggle to keep fees to a lower level than most other Step 7 Leagues.

We lost a stalwart of the League during the season with the passing of John Northover in October.  John was League Treasurer of the League for 28 years, during which time he took the League’s assets from just over £1,000 when he first took over in 1984, to over £45,000 when he retired in 2012.  His knowledge and experience is sadly missed.

The main topic is of course the coronavirus pandemic again, which caused a late start to the season and brought a premature end to the Premier Division league fixtures.  With some great co-operation from clubs in both the U.18’s and Veterans Divisions, their fixtures were able to restart in April and complete.  Clubs are to be applauded for taking on board the constant flow of guidance that was issued and for taking all the necessary steps to help get football underway by preparing their Risk Assessments, etc and ensuring that their grounds were Covid compliant.  I’m pleased to report that I didn’t receive one single complaint about any clubs in this League not complying with the guidance.

An important event for the League during the season, was to become a Limited Company.  This followed advice from the FA that all Leagues within the National League System should become incorporated.  The main reason is to guard against litigation.  We obtained three quotations for the work, Articles were submitted to Companies House and we became the Wiltshire Senior Football League Ltd on 14th January.  The League Officers have all become Directors but, other than these titles, you’ve hopefully seen no changes in the way that the League operates.  On the agenda for the AGM, there are items to formally approve this change, elect the Directors and approve the Articles.

A welcome positive from last season was that we were nominated and named the FA and MacDonalds Grassroots League of the Year for 2019/20.  The award consisted of a certificate and a glass trophy, which are shown on the league website.  The award also included a voucher for £100, which we spent on training footballs.  When we’re able, we’ll do a draw and the balls will be passed on to the winning clubs.  We received another voucher from the FA Charter Standard scheme and purchased a further six footballs.  These will also be passed to clubs after a draw.

When season 2019/20 came to a premature end, the FA postponed their proposed restructure of the National League System.  However, they have since announced the restructure, which will come into effect from next season.  They’ve created new Divisions at Steps 4 and 5 and the number of Step 6 Divisions has been reduced, so that the FA now have a 1-2-4-8-16 pyramid.  The restructure hasn’t really affected this League, but I expect many of you will have seen that the majority of Step 5 and 6 Wiltshire clubs have been moved from the Western League to the Hellenic League.  Going forward, it’s important that we establish a good relationship with the Hellenic League with regards to promotions, relegations, Match Officials, etc.  We’re currently working with the Wiltshire FA to try and arrange a meeting.

Mark Smedley will cover results in his report but, when the Premier Division came to an end at Christmas, teams had played an average of 10 to 12 fixtures.  Pewsey Vale were leading the Division, but there were a host of clubs in pursuit.  With limited time left to restart the League after lockdown, we played the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup, albeit in a different format, to give clubs some competitive football.  Congratulations go to Pewsey Vale FC who defeated Corsham Town FC Res in the final.  I’ve had applications from both Lambourn Sports and Calne Town Res to join the League next season and we are recommending that they be elected.

The U.18’s Floodlight Division started with 10 clubs but, following a couple of withdrawals, finished with 8.  As with the previous season, this Division was extremely competitive with any one of the leading 5 or 6 clubs in with a chance of winning.  Honours finally fell to FC Chippenham Youth when they won their final fixture, just ahead of Shrivenham.  Next season will see the return of Devizes Town after an absence of a few seasons along with Calne Town, after both having a year out plus AFC Aldermaston.  Chippenham Town will not be re-entering, leaving us with 10 Clubs.  With agreement of Clubs at the AGM, we’ll leave applications open until 31st July.  In the past, we’ve split the U.18’s Division into two if membership reached 12.  If this happens for the coming season, we’ll liaise with clubs to gauge their preference.

During the season, we’ve liaised with U.18 Division clubs and it’s clear that the current U.18’s have suffered two interrupted seasons, which may have affected their progress and they may not yet be ready for senior football.  For this reason, we’re offering to run an U.20’s Division next season.  We don’t want to see any players dropping out of football and this will give players an additional season or two, playing against players of their own age.  If there’s sufficient interest, we’ll run an U.20’s Division as well as an U.18’s.  

It was pleasing to see that membership of the Veterans Divisions more than doubled to 17 teams from our initial season.  At the time of writing, I’ve had 5 new applications for next season already.  The Wiltshire FA are currently promoting the Veterans Divisions in the south of the county.  With agreement of Clubs at the AGM, we’ll leave applications open until 31st July and arrange a meeting with clubs after that date to agree the format for next season.  Feedback from Clubs so far has indicated a liking to form a Veterans Premier Division (maybe consisting of the top 3 or 4 Clubs from the current North and South Divisions) with two regionalised Divisions below, then have promotion and relegation in subsequent seasons.  It’s also our aim to have open age Divisions for the Over 35’s plus a further Division(s) for the Over 45’s.  Our initial thoughts were that this may take 4 or 5 years to achieve, but it’s currently an option for next season and, provided we can get half a dozen teams interested, we’ll run it.

The pyramid agreement with both the Swindon and Trowbridge District Leagues continues and we have good relationships with both Leagues.  The agreement allows for the top three clubs in each of the District Leagues to apply for promotion to our Premier Division.  At the same time, and providing our constitution is at our capacity, we will relegate up to three Clubs from this League.

As most of you are aware, we were awarded Charter Standard League status by The FA back in season 2012/13.  It’s imperative that at least 60% of our Clubs are Charter Standard Clubs ….. preferably 100%.  In this League, there are a few Clubs who have yet to submit their applications and I would urge them to do so.  It is a requirement in the League Rules and, with the League being at capacity and new Clubs applying, Charter Standard is one of the factors we will take into consideration when accepting a new Club or considering whether to relegate an existing Club.  Amongst other benefits, being a Charter Standard League gives us access to grants from The FA, which should mean fewer increases in fees for Clubs.  Alongside Charter Standard, the new Safeguarding requirements for Premier Division Clubs (who have players under 18 in their squads) are coming into force.  The Wiltshire FA will be running Safeguarding Courses, but these are currently on hold.  I’ve recently received some correspondence from the FA and there are plans to replace the Charter Standard scheme with an Accredited League scheme.  I will forward the information as and when we receive it.

We’ve continued to operate our Premier Division with Level 5 Referees as The FA withdrew our Supply League status some years ago.  Due to a lack of Match Officials and with Step 5 and 6 Leagues taking priority, this past season has again been a difficult one for Adie Cripps, trying to ensure that all games were covered.  This was only possible as Adie has developed a good relationship with the District Leagues and was able to move Match Officials around when postponements occurred.  It’s going to get more difficult next season as the Wiltshire FA have been unable to run courses for new Referees due to Covid.  If you have a game called off, it’s imperative that you let Adie know as soon as possible so that this can continue.  To assist Adie with the increasing workload, we appointed an Assistant Referees’ Secretary last season and Colin Nunn took on this role.  Colin has fitted in extremely well and carries out the appointments for the U.18’s and Veterans’ Divisions.

Last season was our 4th season of using the Whole Game System (WGS) for player registrations and transfers, which is now replaced by the new FA Player Registration System, which we are told is much better and user-friendly than WGS.  Last season was our first for using Full-Time for Result Sheets / Match Reports.  Thanks to clubs, this change from paper reports went remarkably well with Team Sheets being the only paper form now.  The requirement for a player’s e-mail address and a photograph continued, which helped reduce the incidents of alleged ineligible players.  Use of The FA Full-Time web site for fixtures, Match Officials’ appointments, results, tables, etc continued last season.

Mark Smedley has continued to develop the www.wiltshireseniorleague.co.uk web site.  Results, reports, tables, etc have been added to the History Section, which is now extremely comprehensive.  if you have any information, photographs, old programmes, etc I know that Mark would be keen to see them.  Mark’s match previews and reports are well received and his number of tweets on Twitter and Facebook followers continues to increase.

You will see from the Election of Officers sheet, that we have two new Club Representatives to be elected for the Premier and Veterans Divisions.  Unfortunately, Stef Kuczynski resigned from the position of League Development Secretary during the season.  Other than that, all League Officer positions remain as per last season.

Due to both Covid and a cutback in finances, the FA have suspended the award of grants for League initiatives.  However, we’ve continued to follow our League Development Plan.  As I mentioned last season, with the money received, we’ve purchased substitutes’ bibs for every team and for additional water bottles, which are for the Veterans teams and for new Clubs.  Due to Covid, these haven’t yet been distributed, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to get them to you as soon as possible.

You will see that there are a considerable number of Rule Revisions proposed.  These are almost all changes to the Standard Code of Rules issued by the FA.  The changes that the League are proposing are to amend Rule 2(D) to make reference to the Board of Directors and Rule 20(F) in the Veterans rules concerning substitutes.

Finally, I would like to thank our President, Ken Clarke, our Chairman, John Gingell and my fellow League Officers and Management Committee for all their help and assistance over the past season, especially the League Officers who have had an additional couple of months creating fixtures, registering players, appointing Match Officials and publishing match reports.  This League is held in high regard by both the FA and the County FA and that is down to the hard work of League Officers and the clubs.

Best wishes to all Clubs for a good summer break and a successful season in 2021 - 2022.  Let’s hope that the coronavirus and the weather allow us to have an uninterrupted season

Jim Thorn

Hon General Secretary

I can confirm that the accounting records of the League have been checked by John Davis FCCA of John Davis and Co.  Chartered Certified Accountants, 48 The Causeway,  Chippenham, SN15 3DD.    

This is my ninth Annual Report.

For 2020/21 the League made a loss of £4,229.00 as opposed to a loss last year of just under £2,500.00.  It is disappointing that this is the case.  However, this is to be expected as income has been hit severely this year.

The account balances remain strong and I am aware that many leagues similar to ours do not carry such healthy balances.  That having been said, the League has made losses for several years now and, over the coming months, the Board of Directors / Management Committee will need to examine how we can be put back into profit.

As usual the largest item of the League’s income is from FA Grants (£3,000).  Income has almost halved on the previous season.

Fines are understandably down from £2,391 last year to £488 this.  This is a fall of 80%. 

Expenditure reduced by approximately £5,000, and the largest item was telephone and computer which accounted for £2,522. 

The League is in a healthy position with total assets of £33,705.00.

In last year’s report I wrote:

With the best endeavours of trying to avoid the “C” word I expect 2020/21 to be a difficult year for the League’s finances; not least because of the initiatives the Management Committee are exploring to assist clubs.  It is also not yet known how the League might be affected by the financial support it receives ie: FA Grants etc.  It would not surprise me to see a loss for 2020/21 in excess of £5,000 depending upon what income can be generated.

As you may be aware due to the League’s change in status, we have needed to engage the services of Chartered Certified Accountants.  In view of this Peter Mundy has relinquished his role as auditor.  I would like to record the League’s and my personal thanks to Peter who has served the League admirably for many years.

Finally, I would like to thank the Management Committee for their assistance especially the Registration Secretary and Disciplinary Secretary who assist on the financial side of things and the Sponsors for their continued financial support.

Robert Cook

Hon Treasurer

Well, here we are at the end of another season.  Not quit the result we wanted with another season cut short.  Hopefully, it will be better next season.

I would like to thank all the Secretaries and Team Managers for their help and support this season.  Most teams now submit the team details, referee reports and the sportsmanship mark straight into the FA Full-Time website. 

This season we encountered a few problems with a slow running Whole Game System at the start of the season, but it did settle down and started working normally after a few weeks.  Then, towards the end of March, we had the upgrade to the Player Registration system.  This system has improved the way players are registered.  In the changeover from WGS to Player Registration, we have lost some of the photo ID’s, which will need to be re-entered for the start of next season. 

Now the season has ended, I would normally comment on its now time to relax and recharge the batteries ready for the start of next season but, with the way this season has been, I cannot wait to get started on the new season and hope for continuous playing all the way through.

Thanks again to everyone for all your assistance.

Brian Busson

Hon Registration Secretary

What a most difficult season for all involved in grassroots football.  The coronavirus has affected everyone in some shape or form which at our level of football.  It has seen the postponement of our league for long periods of time.  Unfortunately, we will not see a league winner this season, but happily most teams opted to enter the Fountain Trophies Cup Competition to allow players, teams and match officials some playing time after outdoors sports was allowed to resume.  Clubs in our league have done a fantastic job of putting together risk assessments and safety measures to allow teams to continue playing when lockdowns eased for a time.

In terms of match officials for this season, with less football played, that will have an impact on the promotion process to whether they completed the number of games they needed to.  For all match officials who did apply for promotion pre-season, I wish you all the best in gaining the promotion you desired.  All games in the Premier Division were covered.

Finally, I want to make a special mention of Colin Nunn, who now appoints officials to the U.18’s and Veterans Divisions and has supported me a lot in his role as Assistant Referee Appointment Secretary.    

Adie Cripps

Hon Referees’ Appointments Secretary

The number of cases dealt with by the Discipline Sub-Committee was quite low again last season, though mainly due to the late start and early end to the Premier Division.  The increased use of technology, e.g.: texting of scores, Result Sheets and Referee Reports now being done online, being able to make on-line payments, etc has hopefully reduced the workload for Club Secretaries.  The only paperwork left is Team Sheets.

The most common offence involves Clubs who fail to notify the League (Fixtures Secretary and Referees’ Appointments Secretary) that a game is postponed.  We’re sure you phone / text your players if a game is off, so please avoid fines by making those two extra calls to the League.  If we get sufficient notice, Phil Cook may be able to rearrange a game for your opponents or Adie Cripps / Colin Nunn may be able to send the Match Official(s) to a fixture that is short.  Some Clubs also fail to notify Match Officials about postponements, which resulted in them turning up, us having to chase you for payment, then you having to pay them again when the match is rearranged.  When you tell your players and the opposition that a game is off, please remember the third team and save your hard earned money.

The number of offences involving ineligible players is again very low.  It is very easy for Clubs to check a player’s eligibility.  Access to the County FA web site is available to all Clubs whereat you can see lists of players under suspension.  This also applies when you register a new player.  It isn’t the League’s responsibility to inform Clubs if a player is suspended, so please check the County FA web site at least weekly.

A few Clubs still incur additional charges for late payment of fees / fines.  All fines have been sent out by e-mail, which has reduced League expenditure on postage.  All fees / fines can be paid by Bank Transfer  and it does save you the cost of postage and the risk of things going astray in the post.

As Media Officer I am responsible for the league’s website and the social media feed.  I would like to start by thanking all the other League Officers for their support and encouragement during what has been another very difficult season.

With regard to the website, most of you will be familiar with the weekly roundups on the website and the league tables/fixtures but do not forget there is also a lot of other useful content to be found on the website. For example, all the league rules can be easily accessed from the site, Referee contact details are contained under the “League Rules and Advice” tab, as are details of FA ground grading rules etc.  There is also a dedicated Your Sport Swindon page which contains links to the games that Your Sport Swindon have filmed during the season.  The site is mobile friendly so content can be viewed on your phone easily as well as on the laptop.

The most extensive information on the website is in the History Section which I have continued to build up over the season, although unfortunately the two lockdowns has meant there have been very few visits to Swindon Library and the History Centre in Chippenham during this season.  As well as a look back at each of the individual seasons since Season 1976-77, there is also now a section featuring former member clubs.  This now features 49 different teams and further will be added during the coming summer months.  The History Section continues to be work-in-progress, but I would recommend a nostalgia trip during summer months whilst you are waiting for the new season to start.  If any clubs have historic photos of championship winning sides from the past to include on the website these would be greatly appreciated.  Just a reminder that the website can be found at www.wiltshireseniorleague.co.uk

With regard to social media feeds, this season I have been able to Tweet a preview of just about every single game played in the Premier, U.18’s and the Vets Divisions, as well as the weekly fixtures.  As the season draws to a close the number of followers of our Twitter feed has gone up to over 1,300 which is up by about 400 over the season.  Our Facebook Group currently has 497 members up from 216 at the start of the season and is also used as a source of disseminating information about updates and new information that appears on the website.

Once again we are indebted to the fantastic support of a number of regular photographers across the county who have provided pictures in support of the league over the season.  A big thank you for the use of their photos over this last season to Estelle Bowden at Starsphinx Photography, Mike Wray, Steve Green, Drew Pinnock, Corsham Town’s Jacob Price and John Cuthbertson, and our new additions this season covering the Vets games, David Giles and Dave Cavanagh.  All the photographers provide us with photos free of charge for which we are immensely grateful. 

Once again a massive thank you to Your Sport Swindon, and in particular Steve Butt and Mike Wray, who have once again extended their already superb coverage of our games during the past season.  Mike from Shrivenham videos their U18 games for Your Sport Swindon and, both he and Steve, have also covered some of our Premier League and Vets games.  Mike also did some excellent interviews at the start of the season featuring some of our Premier Division Managers.  Your Sport Swindon are keen to expand their coverage of our various Divisions, so look out next season for an exclusive preview ahead of the weekend games in the Premier Division plus a feature from the league archives each week as we expand our collaboration with them.

I would also like to personally thank all the clubs for their Twitter feeds this season which provide invaluable information to allow the roundups to be completed.  A big thank you also to all of the managers and club Twitter feed owners for dealing with all the messages from me where I am chasing any missing information on a Saturday evening or late night for midweek games.  I know some leagues make it a rule that clubs must provide goalscoring information within a set time to their leagues, but I much prefer to keep it informal as it is currently, without clubs having to worry about another rule and most weeks I have all the scorers in good time.

We joined in with the rest of UK football in boycotting social media during the first weekend in May and I certainly realised how much I rely on the Twitter feeds when suddenly there was nothing out there.  In my personal view, too much emphasis was put on racism in the boycott.  In the four seasons of doing this role thankfully I have not seen a single racist comment relating to activity on the league.  I have seen lots of abusive comments relating to referees, the FA, the league and opposition teams, as well a couple of sexist comments but no racism.  For me, the boycott should have been a little bit more about abuse in general on social media.  It should also not be forgotten that both Facebook & Twitter provide excellent platforms completely free of charge and they also provide the ability to mute and block individuals, so they do provide the tools to self-police to some extent.  For me it is the people who are making the abusive comments who are the real problem here not the social media companies.  That said I agree both could do more to manage who sets up accounts.

With football being an emotional game, it can sometimes lead to a few post-match tweets that we have to ask to be taken down, which pleasingly all clubs do straight away, avoiding further issues.  With many on the committee being former players and managers we understand that emotions can be running high after a game and our policy is to asks inappropriate tweets to be taken down rather than raising charges against clubs straight away.  Clubs should note that there are some referee support groups out there who can pick up, what can seem to you to be a mild comment about a referee and make it into a major issue.  My strong advice is that all clubs should always limit any views and comments about referees to their referee report and avoid saying anything about referees on social media.  With all our clubs having made such strong statements in support of the boycott I am anticipating social media as far as our league goes being a much pleasant and friendly place next season.

Finally, whilst the league season in 2020-21 in the Premier Division has once again been curtailed, like Season 2019-20 I will be including the results during the season and the league tables at the time of suspension in the History Section of the website.  As last season, I will also include the team record for Season 2020-21 for the Premier Division teams in the summaries on each team’s directory entry with a note saying the season was not completed and that the entry represents the team’s record at the time of the suspension.  Hopefully, next season will be less difficult for all of us.  Enjoy your short summer break.

Mark Smedley

Hon Media Officer

This season saw 158 fixtures postponed for various reasons, an increase of 22 on last season.  There were 106 in the Premier Division, 48 in the U.18’s Division and 4 in the Veterans Divisions.  The Premier Division runs with a policy of deducting points from Clubs found guilty of postponing games without a satisfactory explanation and this has continued this past season.

Results Report (written by League Media Officer)

This time last year it was noted that Season 2019-20 became the first football season since 1939-40 to be stopped early and not completed and the first incomplete season in the 44-year history of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League.  Unfortunately, as far as the Premier Division is concerned, that is now two incomplete seasons.  Once again it is Covid-19 that has resulted in this outcome, although at least as far as the U.18’s and Veterans’ Divisions, it was possible to complete the U.18’s Division and it should be possible to complete the Veterans with the co-operation of the clubs.  If anything, this season has been more difficult than last season for all involved in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League with the delayed start due to the first lockdown before we then once again went into lockdown in the winter months.

At least this time round, learning some of the lessons from the previous season, both we and the clubs were able to be involved in the decision making as to how to finish the season once football was allowed to resume in the Spring.  As far as both the Veterans’ and U.18 competitions were concerned, the decision of the clubs was to continue the seasons to conclusion.  An advantage with the Veterans’ Divisions was that we were not constrained by the normal football season cycle hence, despite a lack of venues, particularly, in the North Division, we should be able to complete the Veterans’ Divisions.  Whilst the FA granted to the end of June for completing the U.18 Division, a decision was made to try and complete this as close as possible to 31st May and this was achieved to within a couple of days thanks to the co-operation of all the clubs.

For the Premier Division, after a consultation exercise with the clubs there was limited appetite amongst our sides for completing the league season, with some clubs still having 22 league games to play.  The challenges with cricket and other sports, pitch maintenance and holidays meant realistically the season could not go on beyond the end of May and this was too short a time period to complete the league campaign.

 Premier Division and Fountain Trophies Senior Cup 

At the time the season was curtailed the title race was developing into a four-team contest.  Pewsey Vale led the way having won 12 of their 14 games, losing just once.  Melksham Town had started badly losing four of their first five games but had picked up and gone on a tremendous ten game unbeaten run, nine of which had been won to sit in second place, six points behind Pewsey having played one game more.  Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development were three points behind Melksham but had three games in hand on Melksham and two on Pewsey Vale.  Wroughton, champions in the last completed season in the Premier Division, sat fourth having won eight of their opening ten games.  Whilst Pewsey led the way they had not played either Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development or Wroughton and still had another game against Melksham to come and so the title race was still very much all to play for.

At the other end of the table Ludgershall Sports, Devizes Town Res and Marlborough Town were all struggling with just one win each to show for their efforts at the time lockdown was imposed, although Devizes Town under their new manager were showing positive signs of improvement.  The 12 games that Devizes Town Res had played meant they became the first side to play 1,000 games in the top division of the league since its formation in 1976, the landmark being achieved in their final game before lockdown.

Whilst there was no real desire to carry on the league season, there was appetite amongst most of the clubs for a cup competition of some sort to finish the season.  In response to this the league proposed that the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup be competed for but with a changed format starting with a group stage where teams played each other once, allowing games to be completed utilising the available Saturdays.  Entrance was optional given the challenges of recommencing football at such a late stage and both Royal Wootton Bassett Town Dev and Wroughton opted not to take part leaving two groups of seven, split based on geography.  In a desire to ensure the competition ran for players who were involved in our league prior to lockdown, and not players from Step 6 or higher, rules were introduced around player eligibility.  The initial rule around eligibility being based on appearances in our league games but at the request of the clubs this was changed to being based on appearances at Step 6 or higher during Season 2020-21.  Unfortunately, some clubs were either not paying attention, thought the rule did not apply to them or did not realise how readily available the appearance information is in the public domain (the data was also effectively static apart from in the Hellenic League who were also running a cup competition). 

The competition did not get off to the best of starts with all the winning sides in the opening week of fixtures in the North Division fielding an ineligible player.  With limited time available to replay the games all three fixtures were awarded to their opponents.  Seeing that clubs were struggling to raise sides the league sought to assist by extending the league transfer deadline by a month but in the end both Marlborough Town and Purton pulled out.  Marlborough’s challenges were partly caused by rules in other competitions which resulted in reserve team players not being willing to play for their first team, whilst Purton had struggled with injuries in the curtailed league season were still struggling to raise a side but did disappointingly continue in an outside competition whilst Marlborough Town first team simply played friendlies.  In the end just ten of the scheduled twenty-one games were played with only seven of the results standing due to that ineligibility issue in the first week.  Pewsey Vale won all the three games they actually played to make it to the final finishing six points clear at the top.

In the South Group it was a much happier story with all but two of the fixtures being played, the two games not completed being at the end when the qualification for the final had already been decided.  In an exciting group it came down to the final game between Corsham Town Res and Odd Down Res as to which side would make the final.  Corsham went into that final game unbeaten and knowing that they needed to avoid a defeat by five or more clear goals to progress to the final.  Odd Down went ahead early in the second half but were unable to add to the tally to get to the necessary five goals and a last-minute equaliser ensured that Corsham retained their unbeaten record and progressed to the final which would be played on their own ground the following Saturday.  Given at the time the league season in 2020-21 was brought to a premature end Pewsey Vale were league leaders and Corsham Town Reserves had been the league leaders in Season 2019-20 at the time that season was curtailed, it was perhaps fitting that it was those two sides who competed in the final for the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup.

In the final itself it was a very tight contest between two evenly matched sides.  Whilst Pewsey created the better goal scoring chances in open play the game was ultimately to be decided by an incredibly special set piece.  Awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area Pewsey’s Ryan Thomas fired the resulting free kick into the far top corner of the net for what would ultimately prove to be the winner for his side.  Well done to both teams for fully committing to the competition and for their performances on the day in the final.  A big thank you also to all the other sides who completed their commitments in the competition in what has been a difficult season for all.  Hopefully Season 2021-22 will be better for everyone and most importantly will get completed.

Under 18 Division

This time last year it was noted that the Under 18 competition was shaping up to be the most exciting yet since the competition transitioned to the league from the Wiltshire FA.  Well, that has been well and truly repeated this season with six sides still having title aspirations when the action re-started in April after lockdown.  Melksham Town had started their season with three straight wins before having a bad patch either side of lockdown, suffering five straight defeats.  They finally ended that run with a narrow 1-0 win at Pewsey and then never looked back after that, defeating Chippenham Town twice and winning five of their last six games.  Their only dropped points came in a 3-3 draw at Royal Wootton Bassett Town.  That bad run during mid-season meant they missed out on honours but a good season for Colby Cain’s side.  Radstock Town remained in the mix until late on, but in the end too many drawn matches early in the season saw their chances disappear and Royal Wootton Bassett Town fell away when they were unable to win games at the back end of the season against the top sides.

This left Chippenham Town, FC Chippenham and Shrivenham to battle it right to the end for the league title. The teams entered May with Chippenham Town and Shrivenham level on 23 points at the top with three to play.  FC Chippenham were some 13 points adrift but had four games in hand.  That first week of the month saw Chippenham Town travel to Shrivenham for a game which was expected to have a big say in the destination of the title.  A win for either side would put them in pole position for the title, but a draw had the potential to put FC Chippenham’s title aspirations back in their own hands.  At the end of the ninety minutes the sides could still not be separated and more importantly this then put FC Chippenham’s destiny back in their own hands.  Shrivenham won both their last two games to finish on 30 points, losing just two games all season, both by a single goal in the away games against the two Chippenham sides.  Chippenham Town lost to Melksham Town in one of their remaining two games meaning the title would go to either Shrivenham or FC Chippenham.  By the time both Shrivenham and Chippenham Town had finished, FC Chippenham still had two games to play and were on a winning run which stretched to five games with just Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Pewsey Vale to play.  They needed to win both games to win the title.  In the first game on the 3G at the Gerard Buxton they found themselves 3-1 down and, whilst they pulled one back, with five minutes to go they still trailed.  However, the award of a penalty saw them get back on level terms and an excellent late free kick fired into the top corner saw them take all three points.  The final game against Pewsey saw them go behind again but six unanswered goals later they were champions.  Their run at the end of the season had seen them win seven straight games to pip Shrivenham by a single point.  Well done to FC Chippenham on taking the title and to Shrivenham on achieving runners-up.  In fact, well done to all the Under 18 sides who played their part in what was a fascinating, if difficult and disrupted, season, with all the fixtures being completed.

Veterans’ Divisions

The Veterans’ category grew in number from the first season with new teams meaning we were able to run two divisions, retaining the one in the North based at the New College 3G facility in Swindon and establishing a 10-team division covering Mid Wiltshire utilising the Wiltshire FA’s new 3G pitch at Green Lane Devizes.  In addition, in the Mid Wiltshire Division a number of clubs utilised their own pitches, initially at Melksham Town and Corsham Town, but latterly joined by Bradford Town and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs, the latter playing at Stanley Park.  Some of the clubs also allowed other teams to utilise their grass pitches which greatly assisted the job of scheduling the fixtures and meant the programme could be completed more quickly.  In the North Division, Stratton Juniors also starting utilising their grass pitch at Meadowcroft which again helped expediate matters in the North Division.  A big thank you to all the clubs who made their pitches available in this way, it was very much appreciated.  The Veterans’ sides must compete with other sides at clubs for the use of the facilities and will often be at the back of the queue behind Reserve and U.18 sides and the co-operation provided this season in staging games on pitches other than New College and Green Lane has been outstanding.

At the time of writing both Divisional titles are very much up for grabs.  In the North Division it looks to be either Redhouse or KMLC who will take the title, although Stratton Juniors were still in the mix at the time of writing these notes, though they were running out of games.  In the Mid Wiltshire Division, there is a right royal battle going on between three sides, Corsham Town, Melksham Town and VFC Devizes.  Melksham and Devizes have led the way for most of the season but a tremendous run of wins from Corsham Town means that it is anyone from three who will be crowned champions of the Mid Wiltshire Division.  All three also made the semi-final of the Wiltshire FA’s Veterans’ County Cup with just one representative, KMLC, from the North Division and it will be Melksham Town and Corsham Town who will contest the final.

With four new sides from the Swindon area joining the league next season plus another from the South of the county, the Veterans’ category continues to grow but the challenge remains the availability of facilities on which to stage games.  None of the ten sides based in the North of the county currently have the ability to use their own pitches to stage games and the search for an additional hire slots in the county to stage games continues.

No welfare issues in relation to Under 18’s have been reported to the League this year.  Invariably, any such issues are dealt with by the Wiltshire FA and no further action is normally required by the League.

Robert Cook

Hon Welfare Officer