The wettest March for many a year once again took its toll of this weekends fixtures on what was the first day of April. Unfortunately, the rain on Saturday morning added to that in the preceding week and meant all seven of Saturday’s Premier Division fell victim to waterlogged pitches. In the end just one game on grass survived the deluge, that being the Division 1 fixture between Ludgershall Sports and Purton, the other two games that ended up being played this weekend in Division 1 and the Fountain Trophies Cup were on 3G surfaces at Frome and Kingsdown School.

Selwood Academy at Frome was the stage for the first of this season’s Fountain Trophies Cup semi-finals with home side Frome Collegians entertaining Premier Division league leaders Devizes Town who are the only side still unbeaten in the two Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League divisions. When the two sides had met in the league a fortnight earlier it had been a comfortable afternoon for Devizes who had run out 5-1 winners but it was to be a much closer affair in this cup encounter with a place in the final at stake. Devizes had much of the possession and the better of the chances in the first half but a combination of poor finishing and looking to overplay in front of goal saw them fail to find the net in the opening half. At the other end, whilst Frome sat deep for much of the half, they sought to play on the counter-attack and created a couple of shooting chances that forced saves from the Devizes keeper Tom North but were also unable to find the net as the sides turned round with the game still looking for the first goal.

Nine minutes into the second half Devizes were given a golden chance to open the scoring when they were awarded a penalty for a foul in the box on Rhys Talmash. However, Devizes saw their spot kick saved by Ben Forester in the Frome goal, and it remained 0-0. The major turning point in the game came shortly after when two Frome Collegians’ players, Joe Rendle and George Holland, both saw red cards produced and the home side were reduced to nine men. The deadlock was broken almost immediately after the dismissals, a low cross to the far post finding Matt Russell whose volley was deflected in for 1-0 to Devizes. However, despite the numerical disadvantage Frome were back on level terms fifteen minutes from time through leading scorer Jack Newman, an attempted clearance from the Devizes keeper Tom North striking Newman who was charging the ball down, with the ball falling kindly for Newman who was able to roll the ball into an empty net for 1-1. Parity did not last long though as Devizes were back in front within two minutes, a poor defensive clearance from Frome being smashed back into their net by Jordan Kirk for 2-1 to the visitors. Devizes continued to push for more goals and confirmed their passage into the final five minutes from time, Kieron Gleed getting on the end of a cross to make it 3-1 which is how the game finished. With the quarter final tie between Trowbridge Town and Wroughton postponed last week due to a waterlogged pitch, it will be a while before Devizes know their final opponents, the winner of that quarter final tie set to play Larkhall Athletic Development in the other semi-final.

Division One

There were two league games played in Division One this weekend, with one of them involving league leaders Kingsdown Lions at home to Pewsey Vale Development. With their first team game postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, Pewsey augmented their side with several first team players and it was of those players, Andy Rossiter who put Pewsey in front. Rossiter had fired over with Pewsey’s best chance shortly before a defence splitting pass beat the Kingsdown offside trap and, whilst Rossiter’s initial shot was saved by the keeper, the ball rebounded off him into the empty net to make it 1-0. Oscar Aspey doubled their lead, finishing off a neat move down the right hand side to make it 2-0 at half time. Pewsey continued to have the better things after the break and Rossiter bagged his second of the game, getting on the end of an excellent ball into the box from the left to make it 3-0. The scoring was rounded off by an individual effort from Jude Cawley, his run to the edge of the box and resulting low shot deceiving the Kingsdown keeper to make the final score 4-0 to Pewsey Vale. The defeat for Kingsdown put a major dent in their league title aspirations, whilst they lead Larkhall Athletic Development by nine points, Larkhall have six games in hand, with Kingsdown having just one game to go which is against their rivals for the league title. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and subscribers can view the highlights by clicking on the link below or clicking on the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of the website.

With games elsewhere being postponed Ludgershall Sports had the chance to move into the top three with a win against bottom of the table Purton and that chance was well and truly taken, with Ludgershall also improving their goal difference in the process. In the only game on grass to survive, two early goals from Marcus Read set them on their way before it very much became the Luke Holden show. Holden also scored two first half goals to send his side Ludgershall into the half time break 4-0 to the good. A Lewis Pickernell goal early in the second half was then followed by five more goals all scored by Ludgershall’s leading scorer Holden to give his side a 10-0 lead. Marcus Read, having started the afternoon’s scoring, rounded off a good afternoon for himself with his hat-trick goal five minutes from time. There was still time for one more goal and once again it went to Holden who ended the game with eight goals to his name, making it 22 goals for the season, although he had also scored two more against Kintbury Rangers Development which have been expunged from the record books. The win saw Ludgershall move into third spot and make their goal difference identical to that of their nearest rivals for that third spot Devizes Town Res.

Ludgershall Sports who recorded their biggest win of the season against Purton

2 April 2023