The newly refurbished lights at Shrewton United

Despite another wet week, three of the four scheduled midweek games in the Premier Division went ahead including a historic occasion at Shrewton United where the home side were playing under lights for the first time in three seasons against Pewsey Vale. Work has been done in the early part of the season refurbishing the lights with the club funding and carrying out the work themselves.  The newly repaired lights were given their first outing on Tuesday night and saw Shrewton pull in their largest attendance of the season with 114 present to witness the occasion. Both teams are having excellent seasons and started the night in fourth and fifth place in the table and the two sides produced a competitive and close encounter on a wet evening. Pewsey slightly had the better of things in the first half and were rewarded with the opening goal, a first of the season from captain Liam Edmondson who headed in from a corner just after the half hour mark, his header going back across goal and just inside the far post. Second half saw Shrewton go in search of an equaliser and the closest they came was midway through the half when a header from a left wing cross skimmed the crossbar as it finished 1-0 to Pewsey who climbed a place in the table to third spot as a result of the win with games in hand over the top two.

The same night Kintbury Rangers had the chance to move back top of the league when they entertained Blunsdon at the Recreation Ground. They got off to an excellent start, Jake Allen scoring as early as the third minute to put Kintbury ahead. When Kye Williams doubled their lead with just ten minutes on the clock the home support must have been anticipating a big win to not only bag the three points but also improve the goal difference. Leading scorer George Armstrong added a third nine minutes before the break but that was to be the end of the night’s scoring as Blunsdon shut up shop second half and Kintbury were unable to add to that first half haul. The win saw Kintbury move one point clear at the top of the table having played one more game than second placed Amesbury Town. Kintbury are home again on Saturday when they entertain Salisbury Dev whilst Amesbury host Malmesbury Victoria Development.

Melksham Town Reserves are having a good season and went into their game against Odd Down (Bath) Development on the back of an 11-game unbeaten run and with eight wins in the last nine fixtures. In contrast bottom of the table Odd Down had lost all of their league fixtures this season. The game went to form as Melksham led 2-0 at half time and then added a third after the break to run out 3-0 winners on the night. Luke Ballinger bagged a brace with the other goal coming courtesy of an own goal. The win for Melksham saw them climb above Shrewton United into fifth place in the table.

The final scheduled game of the week was set to be at Larkhall Athletic Development on Wednesday night, with Kingsdown the visitors. Unfortunately, the additional rain that fell this week on top of an already saturated pitch the game was postponed. Larkhall, who are still involved in their County Cup competition, have suffered three postponed games now due to the weather and are falling behind with their fixtures but are looking to play a couple of games over Christmas and have lined up a local derby on Boxing Day against near neighbours Odd Down Development. With Larkhall having notified the league of their intention to seek promotion to Step 6 if they finish in the top five the race for that one promotion place this season is set to get very interesting with leaders Kintbury Rangers, second placed Amesbury Town plus last season’s champions Trowbridge Town also having similar aspirations.

27 October 2023