With the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup scheduled to get under way next Saturday a number of clubs from the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League have used this week to play either a friendly or a competitive game in the Cricklade Town Supreme Trophy ahead of the league’s cup competition.

The Fountain Trophies Senior Cup sees 14 teams, initially split into two groups of seven, playing each other once with the top side in each group after the six games for each side in the mini-leagues then competing in a final scheduled for May 29^th. The two groups have been broadly based on geographic location. In scheduling the fixtures due regard has been given to whether teams had played home or away already to a particular side in the league games that had been played prior to lockdown, as well as pitch availability, with some clubs losing their pitches due to pitch maintenance and cricket meaning that clubs do not necessarily end up with three home and three away fixtures.

North Group

The favourites in the North Group will be Pewsey Vale who were six points clear at the top of the Premier Division at the time the league season was curtailed. They returned to action last Thursday night with a 4-0 win in a friendly over Swindon & District League Division One side Ramsbury. On target for Pewsey in this warm-up game were Connor Marsden, Ollie England, Ryan Thomas and Eden Bunce. Pewsey will have to wait a week before they commence their cup challenge as they are the odd one out in the North Group with no cup fixture next Saturday. They open the following week with a tasty looking local derby away at Marlborough Town.

Cricklade Town are expected to be one of the main challengers to Pewsey Vale in the North Group. Their last two games played prior to lockdown had seen them defeat two top five sides in Frome Collegians and Royal Wootton Bassett Town and they warmed up for their cup campaign with an inhouse friendly against their Reserve side who play in the Hellenic League Division Two West. Cricklade open their Fountain Trophies Cup campaign next week with a visit from Devizes Town Res to Cricklade Leisure Centre.

Purton will be hoping to be more consistent in the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup competition, having failed to win half of their eight league fixtures played prior to the league season being curtailed. They had been hit with a high number of injuries in the league campaign and will be hoping that injury jinx is now behind them. Purton warmed up for the Fountain Trophies Cup with a group match in the Cricklade Supreme Trophy, a post-lockdown cup competition being run by Cricklade Town, where they met Swindon & District League Premier Division side Redhouse. Redhouse have aspirations of gaining promotion to the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League and were looking on track to possibly achieve that before lockdown curtailed the 2020-21 Season. They showed that they would not be out of place at Senior level with an impressive 4-1 win over Purton, who will be aiming for a better result when they open their Fountain Trophies Cup campaign against Stratton Juniors next week.

Marlborough Town have made some astute signings ahead of the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup with Richie Saunders and Harry Etheridge, who both have experience at Step 5 level in previous seasons, joining the club to boost their chances of challenging for cup honours. They warmed up for their opening cup game against Malmesbury Vics Development next week with a narrow 2-1 friendly win over Swindon & District League Premier Division side NALGO Sports, Jamie Conway and Kimber with the Marlborough goals.

Malmesbury Vics Development warmed up for that cup game against Marlborough next week with a trip to fellow Premier Division side Frome Collegians who will be playing in the South Group in the Fountain Trophies competition. A poor first half from Malmesbury saw them trail 3-0 at the break but goals from Danny Cook and an own goal pulled it back to 3-2 but two defensive mistakes led to two more Frome goals as the Collegians ran out 5-2 winners.

Stratton Juniors open their Fountain Trophies Cup challenge next week with that visit from Purton. Stratton Juniors, who have recently been advertising for a new manager, prepared for that game with a match against Swindon & District League Division One side Lower Stratton and they secured a confidence building 3-1 win against their near neighbours. The juniors goals were scored by Jordan Taylor, Ollie Surridge and Matt Bugden, Lower Stratton replying from the penalty spot. Whilst Stratton Juniors had won just two of their opening nine league games at the time the league season was brought to an early end, they had faced a particularly difficult fixture schedule featuring a lot of the top sides and will no doubt be anticipating a more successful run in the Fountain Trophies Senior Cup.

The other side who make up the North Group will be Devizes Town Res who had seen a marked improvement in their form following the appointment of new manager Ollie Gee. Whilst they had won just one of their twelve league games played their last two fixtures prior to lockdown had seen them lose narrowly to league leaders Pewsey Vale (0-2) and sixth placed Odd Down Reserves (0-1). Devizes will hope to continue that improved form in the cup competition where all seven teams in the group start on level terms with aspirations of making it through to the cup final. They started their preparations for the Fountain Trophies Cup with a fixture against one of the early favourites for the Fountain Trophies Cup, Melksham Town Reserves, who will be playing in the South Group, going down 1-6 against the strong Melksham side.

South Group

In the South Group it is Melksham Town Reserves who will start as favourites to make the final. Melksham sat second in the league table at the time the 2020-21 league campaign was brought to a premature halt and were on a ten-game unbeaten run, nine of which had been won. They open their Fountain Trophies Senior Cup group stage games with a trip to Ludgershall Sports next week, a side they defeated 9-0 in that unbeaten run prior to lockdown. Their preparations for the Fountain Trophies Cup began with that 6-1 away win against Devizes Town Reserves on Saturday and will continue with a home game against Trowbridge & District League side Hilperton United on Tuesday night.

Ludgershall Sports warmed up for that encounter with their opening group match in the Cricklade Supreme Trophy against another side who will join them in the South Group of the Fountain Trophies Cup, Shrewton United, the two sides set to meet in the final cup group game on 22^nd May. In the Cricklade Cup game it was Shrewton who came out on top, goals from Kieron Diaz-Benetiz and Robbie Owen giving Shrewton a 2-0 win, avenging the 2-1 league defeat they suffered against Ludgershall back in December. Shrewton will be one of the sides likely to challenge Melksham for that place in the final, whilst Ludgershall, whose only league win prior to lockdown was that success over Shrewton, will be looking to continue the improvement they showed just prior to the league season being brought to a premature end. Shrewton open their Fountain Trophies Cup game with a visit from Odd Down Reserves.

Odd Down Reserves prepared for that game against Shrewton with their opening fixture in the Cricklade Supreme Trophy, securing a comfortable 11-0 win over Stroud & District League opponents Kingswood AFC. Odd Down occupied sixth spot in the Premier Division table when the league season was brought to an end and were in good form with three wins from their final four league games. They are another side expected to challenge Melksham hard for that place in the final, having already beaten Melksham at the InfiLED in the league this season.

A team who had come into their best form of the league season just prior to lockdown were Corsham Town Reserves. After just one win in their opening seven games, they lost just one of their final six games, four of which had ended in victory. They are another side likely to be challenging hard for that cup final place in what is expected to be a very competitive South grouping. They prepared for next week’s opening cup trip to Frome Collegians with a 2-2 draw against a strong Chippenham & District Sunday League Premier Division side, Corsham CC Wildcats. In visiting Frome next week Corsham will be looking to avenge the heavy defeat they suffered at the hands of the Collegians at the Southbank Ground in the aborted league campaign.

Frome Collegians were having a good second season in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League in Season 2020-21 and were sat in fifth place at the time the season was brought to a premature end. In Jake Wright they had the division’s leading goal scorer and he carried on that scoring form in that warm-up game against Malmesbury Vics Development referred to above, scoring twice in the 5-2 win. Dean Caslake also bagged a brace, Oliver Brook with the other goal for the Collegians.

The final member of the South Group are Trowbridge Town who were in eighth spot when the league season was ended with six wins and six defeats in their twelve league games played. With four of those wins coming in their final six fixtures, Trowbridge were another side experiencing an uptick in form just prior to lockdown and the South Group is certainly expected to produce a lot of close games between the seven competing sides.

The results in the preparatory games played this week are shown below along with all the scheduled fixtures in the Fountain Trophies Cup.

Results Week Ending 03 April 2021