Letcombe whose 1-0 win at Trowbridge maintained their leadership of the Premier Division

Action this weekend in the Premier Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League got underway on Friday night under lights at Calne Town where Calne Town Reserves were home to Blunsdon. It was a tight affair in the first half and it remained goalless until three minutes before the break, but two goals in those final three minutes from the home side through Ethan Jones and Sean Bailey saw Calne with a 2-0 lead at the interval. If the last three minutes of the opening half had belonged to Calne, the first three minutes of the second half went the way of Blunsdon and Eliot Wheatley in particular. Wheatley pulled one back for the visitors a minute after the restart and then added a second two minutes later to level matters up at 2-2.  It remained that way until 20 minutes from time when Jamie Ballinger restored Calne’s lead. Four minutes from time Calne effectively wrapped up the points when Blunsdon’s veteran stand-in keeper Kevin Purnell lost sight of the ball in the lights and gifted Troy Parfitt a fourth goal for Calne. However, there was still time for one more goal, Zach Bruce firing in for Blunsdon against his former club to reduce the deficit but that was to be the end of the night’s scoring as Calne held out for their second win of the season after what had been an entertaining seven goal game.  

The top match on Saturday, on paper at least ahead of kick-off, looked to be the game at Woodmarsh between league leaders Letcombe and Trowbridge Town who were looking to move to within two points of the leaders with a win. The game in front of a three figure crowd didn’t quite live up to expectations not helped by an early sending off. It started well for the visitors Letcombe as Dan Trimbell fired them in front within the first seven minutes of the game. The closest Trowbridge went to scoring in the opening half hour was when Nick Taylor hit the crossbar with an effort, but it looked like things might turn Trowbridge’s way when on the half hour mark Timbrell was controversially shown a red card which meant his side would have to see out the remaining hour of the match one man light. Trowbridge sought to take advantage of the extra man and went close to the equaliser five minutes after the restart, Thomas Stocks seeing his headed effort come back off the crossbar following a corner.  Nick Taylor then blazed a shot over after good work from Charlie Maddison. The one-man advantage that Trowbridge had been playing with since the half hour mark was to come to an end midway through the second half, the advantage being nullified when Trowbridge’s James Cox was shown a second yellow card and was dismissed. Despite matters being evened up in terms of numbers Trowbridge continued to create the better chances and substitute George Bendle went close on a couple of occasions to getting that elusive equaliser. Trowbridge then hit the crossbar for a third time, on this occasion Maddison’s cross coming back off the fame of the goal. Despite sustaining a lot of Trowbridge pressure the Letcombe defence held firm to ensure a fifth clean sheet of the season for keeper Harry Whitehead as Letcombe opened up a three point lead at the top of the table.

Pewsey Vale sit second in the table after they recorded their second 5-2 win of the week. They were in front within 42 seconds of the start against Faringdon Town with leading scorer Josh Fowler firing the home side in front with a strong run through the middle and powerful finish. Fowler doubled the Pewsey lead on eight minutes, the Pewsey dangerman capitalising on an error in the Faringdon defence to make it 2-0. Captain James Guthrie then made it 3-0 on 25 minutes as Pewsey looked to be cruising to another comfortable win. However, Faringdon rallied and two minutes later reduced the deficit, a neat one-two in the centre of the park put Daniel Loyden through and he finished in style to make it 3-1 at the break. It remained that way until just before the hour mark when the game was to see two penalties both of which were put away. The first went the way of Pewsey and it was captain Guthrie who put his side 4-1 up. However, within a minute there was another spot kick at the other end. Faringdon’s leading scorer Kyle Bowyer took the responsibility and like Guthrie he put the spot kick away to give Faringdon renewed hope with half an hour to go. It remained 4-2 until a minute from time when any hope of a Faringdon comeback was ended, young Ben England with a fifth for Pewsey. The win saw Pewsey climb above both Wroughton and Kintbury Rangers in the table, both inactive as a result of their respective opponents being unable to fulfil their scheduled fixtures.

Melksham Town Reserves sit fifth in the table after Justin Flowers side picked up their fourth and probably most impressive win of the season, a 5-2 home success against Larkhall Athletic Development. The goals were shared around the team with one apiece for Kegan Smart, Jake Dodge, Ben Wickens, Olly Clarke and Liam Brooks.  The two goals for Larkhall were scored by Raphael Oppong and Thomas Dowell, the latter scoring against his former club.

Kingsdown have had something of an up and down start to the season but Saturday was to see their best result of the season so far as they returned from the long trip south to take on Bemerton Heath Harlequins with all three points following a 4-0 win, with all four goals coming in the second half. Skipper Tyler Wilkinson put them one up on 55 minutes and they then had a helping hand with the second with a Bemerton player scoring an own goal to make it 2-0. Kingsdown effectively ended the game as a contest with a third goal scored by Ollie While and the same player then got his second of the game and his fifth of the season to make the final score 4-0. A bad day at the office for Bemerton who will look to get back on track when they entertain Shrivenham in midweek.

More of Tony Smith's pictures from this game can be found at www.efc.smugmug.com

Shrivenham will go into that game on the back of a disappointing result of their own at home to Park United. Three first half goals for Park saw Shrivenham with a big task to turn things round and whilst they improved in the second half the damage had already been done in that opening 45 minutes. Two goals for Ben Pring and one from Jamie Norman for Park who climbed into the top half of the table as a result of the win.

The final game of the day was at the Sustain Stadium, home of Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development where the visitors were Shrewton United. The home side were looking to build on their useful point against Wroughton in midweek whilst visitors Shrewton were looking to bounce back from their narrow defeat at the hands of Bemerton. The first two chances in the game went the way of Royal Wootton Bassett's  Flynn Walters, the first seeing him just fail to get on the end of a Sam Case cross to the far post. The second did see him getting a shot on target forcing Shrewton keeper Kameron Wise into a full-length dive to turn the effort away. The opening goal of the game came in the 17^th minute, and it went the way of the home side after a foul in the box saw the award of a penalty. George Lance took responsibility for the spot kick and hit the penalty low in the bottom corner to the keeper’s right and into the net for 1-0. The home side continued to have the better of things, Ben Spackman went close with a header at the back post and Dale Richards should have done better when put clean through but blasted over as Wise came out to close him down.  In the second half the home side continued to create the better chances, Spackman was denied by the feet of Wise with a low shot when he got clear of his defender and Richards went close with an effort from distance after a clearance from Wise went straight to him. However, the home side would be ruing those missed chances when the visitors Shrewton got themselves back on level terms, a cross from the right-wing finding Charlie Utterson at the far post and his powerful header into the roof of the net gave home keeper Dan West no chance. The home side were reduced to ten men five minutes from time when Afonso Ferreira was shown a red card. There were chances at both ends in the closing stages but there were to be no further goals as it finished 1-1. Your Sport Swindon were at the game with their cameras and subscribers can view highlights from the game by clicking on the link below or by using the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of the League Website where all other games covered by Your Sport Swindon from the league can be accessed.

Division One

Six games were played in Division One of the league on Saturday and those six games produced 39 goals with three matches seeing eight goals scored in each game. One of those games was at Cricklade Leisure Centre where Cricklade Town found themselves four goals to the good against Bradford Town Reserves with just 16 minutes on the clock. Harry Ayers opened the scoring on three minutes and then added a second two minutes later. The Robinson brothers Zak and Kai then added two more for Cricklade to give them that 4-0 lead. Bradford managed to stem the flow of goals and got to half time without conceding again. They made a much better start to the second half and pulled one back through Jimmy Redfern. It was to then remain 5-1 until three minutes from time when Scott Chilcott added a sixth for Cricklade and then netted again two minutes later to make the final score 7-1. The win maintained Cricklade’s 100% winning start to the season but they sit sixth in the table with games in hand over the teams above them one of which they will play in midweek when they entertain near neighbours Purton. Your Sport Swindon were again at this game with their cameras and subscribers can view highlights from the game by clicking on the link below or by using the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of the League Website where all other games covered by Your Sport Swindon from the league can be accessed.

Purton were also involved in an eight-goal game on Saturday and will go into that midweek encounter having suffered another heavy defeat with Pewsey Vale Development having scored all eight of the goals in the match. Both Kierron Kiff and Liam Wood scored twice with further goals from Dominic Terrett, Jay Roden, Ollie Ford and Rhys Armstrong as Pewsey Vale Development picked up their first win of the season. 

The other game to see eight goals was at Moredon where Redhouse entertained Lambourn Sports. Having dropped points in midweek Lambourn returned to winning ways by inflicting Redhouse’s heaviest defeat of the season so far, putting seven goals past Warren Fuller’s side. Lewis Shaw added two more goals to his tally to move onto seven for the season, two goals also for last season’s joint top scorer Scott Garrett, with further goals from the other joint top scorer last season Jamie Stones, Ben Curtis and Dillon Gibbs. The consolation goal for Redhouse was scored by Cameron Shrubb which saw him become the division’s joint top scorer this season with eight goals, the only bright spot on a disappointing day for his side. The win for Lambourn saw them move up to second place in the table.

Marlborough Town retained leadership of the division but were made to work hard for the three points by the young Kingsdown Development side at Southbrook Recreation Ground. Goals from Carl Marsh and Liam Geraghty saw Kingsdown lead 2-0 but Jake Farrell pulled one back for Marlborough to give them a foothold back in the game going into the half time break at 2-1. Farrell then added a second for Marlborough to level matters up and take his personal tally for the season to eight, and joint leadership of that divisional goal scoring chart. There was to be one more goal and it went the way of Marlborough, Zach Symon with the winning goal as Marlborough opened up a three-point lead at the top of the division.

Down Ampney had that big win in midweek against Purton and were once again amongst the goals at home to Shrivenham Development running out 5-2 winners to move third in the table, four points behind Marlborough but with a game in hand. Charlie McCuish hit five in midweek, and he scored two more against Shrivenham to become the third player sat on eight goals at the top of the goal scoring chart. Further goals from Harry Sealey, Daniel Lambton and Thomas Austin completed the scoring for Down Ampney, Lewis Mokler with the consolation goal for Shrivenham.  

Bratton bounced back from the heavy defeat they suffered in midweek at Devizes Town Reserves with a hard-fought 3-1 win away at Stratton Juniors. Two goals from Max Bishop plus one from Jack Booth did the damage for Bratton, Corey Cullen with the Stratton goal as he moved onto four for the season.

Devizes Town Reserves postponed their game against Kintbury Rangers Development and the league await the official postponement form ahead of the next committee meeting where all postponements are discussed, having had a pitch inspection carried out by one of the league’s registered match officials ahead of the scheduled kick-off time.

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24 August 2024