North Wiltshire Division

The domination of the North Wiltshire Veterans’ Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League by the top three sides, Redhouse, Cricklade Town and Nationwide continued this week with all three picking up big wins.

On Tuesday night at New College league leaders Redhouse put seven unanswered goals past Stratton Juniors  to maintain their four-point lead at the top of the table. Leading scorer David Pratt led the way in the 7-0 win adding four more goals to his tally to move onto 21 for the season, Dean Hughes bagged a brace with Nolan Paul getting the other Redhouse goal, his first of the season.

The same night second placed Cricklade Town matched that Redhouse result scoring seven of their own without reply against FS Swindon. The division’s leading scorer TJ Bohane added three more goals to his total for the season, that is now 28 for the Cricklade striker, Stephen Bizley and Adam Smith both scoring twice for last season’s champions as they continued their quest to retain the title to add to the Wiltshire County Cup that is already in the trophy cabinet. Cricklade remain those four points behind Redhouse but have five games in hand with Redhouse just having the two games to play.

Nationwide  were in action the following night looking to stay in touch with the top two when they travelled out of town to the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground to take on Royal Wootton Bassett Town who have been in poor form of late, with just one point from their previous seven games going into Wednesday night’s fixture. The game very much went to form with Nationwide winning 5-1 with Paul Stonehouse leading the way getting four of the Nationwide goals, Neil Snow with the other and Jeremy Newton with the consolation goal for Royal Wootton Bassett Town.

There was a close game on Tuesday night at Moredon between ExIntel and Chiseldon. When the two sides had met at the start of the season it had also been a tight affair settled by a solitary goal by ExIntel’s Alex Rudd to give them the three points. The return fixture was again settled by a one goal margin but this time it went the way of Chiseldon, avenging that earlier defeat, goals from Alastair Drew and Rich Miles giving them a 2-1 win, Jon Lee with the ExIntel goal.

The following night at Moredon AFC Swindon entertained Penhill United. AFC Swindon led 1-0 at the break thanks to a goal from Andrew Copland but the second half very much belonged to Penhill United. Joe Anderson brought Penhill back level nine minutes into the second half and two goals in the space of a two-minutes from Daniel Hiscocks and Jamie Ashby saw Penhill open up a 3-1 lead. Anderson then rounded off the nights scoring with his second of the game and a fourth for Penhill as it finished 4-1. The win for Penhill saw them move above Swindon Rovers into fifth place in the table.

Mid Wiltshire Division

It is a similar story in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division with again three teams battling it out for honours at the top of the table with all three again picking up wins this week.

Biggest winners of the week were Devizes Town who scored 14 times against an out of sorts Bishops Cannings side in the “Devizes derby” game. When the two sides had met earlier in the season Devizes had won by a single goal margin in a 2-1 win. In the return on Friday night at Green Lane it was very much a one-sided affair. Mark Dolman, Kierron Kiffand Jonathan Scott led the way with all three scoring hat-tricks, Rob Mitchell bagging a brace with further goals from Joshua Brigham, Nathan Vellenoweth and Tim Saye. The win saw Devizes maintain their joint leadership of the division. David Giles was at the game with his camera and more of his excellent pictures can be found on the League Facebook Group page.

Earlier in the week Melksham Town had secured a 4-2 win away at Radstock Town which sees them tied with Devizes Town at the top of the table. Two more goals for the division’s leading scorer Gary Higdon, taking him onto 24 for the season, plus two for Aaron Ledgister secured the win for Melksham, Jack Broadway getting both Radstock goals in reply.

Durrington  remain just one point below the top two, having played one more game, this after a 3-0 away win against Amesbury Junior Badgers  on Tuesday night thanks to two goals from Shaune Smith and one from Jesse Walters as they warmed up for this coming Monday’s League Cup semi-final game against Melksham Town.

On Tuesday night at Green Lane, it finished all square in the game between Westbury United and Chippenham Town Yth, Wayne Wheeler and Luke Smith with the two goals for Westbury, Robert Burton getting both Chippenham goals in the 2-2 draw.

There was a controversial ending to the game on Friday night at Warminster Town where Trowbridge Town Tigers  were the visitors. With the game finely poised at 0-0 and it looking like the teams would be sharing the points, Warminster were awarded a late and contentious penalty which substitute Lee Davidson fired home to give his side all three points to maintain the seven point gap to Durrington, although Warminster have played two more games than the side immediately above them in the table.

The big game this coming week is that one outstanding League Cup semi final between Melksham Town  and Durrington with the winner set to meet Nationwide in the final.