Nationwide - champions of the North Wiltshire Veterans' Division who will go for the double on Monday night

North Wiltshire Division

It is congratulations to Nationwide who on Wednesday night wrapped up the North Wiltshire Veterans’ Division title with a narrow 3-2 win against Penhill United. Nationwide got themselves in front thanks to an early Adam Devine goal on seven minutes and it remained just the one goal in it at the break. Bradley Mildon then extended the lead five minutes into the second half, but Penhill United quickly replied, pulling one back through Matthew Horsell within a minute of that second Nationwide goal. Steve Bunting then equalised for Penhill United 13 minutes from time and, whilst a point would have been enough to give Nationwide the title, leading scorer Adam Rudman added a third to give Nationwide all three points with his 20^th goal of the season. Nationwide will now go into Monday nights League Cup Final with the title already won as they will look to complete a league and cup double when they take on Cricklade Town who themselves will be looking to complete a cup double, having already won the Wiltshire FA Veterans’ County Cup.  

The previous night Cricklade Town had warmed up for that cup final with a big 7-1 win over Chiseldon at Cirencester, the second time this season they have won by a six-goal margin against Chiseldon. There were two goals for Stuart Hughes and one apiece for Chris Greenough, Marcus Hall, Ben Snook, Adam Smith and Sam Collier, the latter taking his total for the season to 20 in all competitions, Adam O’Keeffe with the Chiseldon goal, his 16^th of the campaign. This was Chiseldon’s final league game of the season as they became the first side in the division to complete their fixtures although they were joined by the end of the week by Penhill United, AFC Swindon and Swindon Rovers.  

Tuesday night had also seen Redhouse maintain their challenge for honours with a 4-0 win over Stratton. Star of the show was Michael Jones who grabbed a hat-trick with David Pratt getting the other goal, Redhouse’s leading scorer taking his total for the season to 17 in the process. The wins for Cricklade and Redhouse see them sit level on 45 points in the battle for runners-up spot with both sides having one game to play. Redhouse will complete their fixtures this coming week when they play Royal Wootton Bassett Town at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground on Wednesday night whilst, due to the cup final, Cricklade will have to wait a week for their final game against Purton Kingsdown.

After a difficult start to the season, FS Stratton have shot up the table in the second half of the season and could yet still achieve a top five finish. On Thursday night at Moredon they set up that scenario by securing a narrow 2-1 win over Swindon Rovers thanks to goals from Richard Franklin and Ryan Mason, Lee Wilson with the Swindon Rovers reply. Unfortunately, after seven seasons, 111 league fixtures and one League Cup final appearance that will be the last game that Swindon Rovers, one of the founding members of the North Wilts Vets Division, will play in the league for a while. They have advised the league that they will be withdrawing at the end of the current season with a number of their players leaving to join another club. The League is sad to lose one of the better run Veterans’ sides and we wish the club well in the future and hope they will return at some time in the future.  

The other two games played last week saw Purton Kingsdown win 4-0 against ExIntel with Josh Paddon amongst the goals. The other match played in a full schedule of six games saw bottom of the table AFC Swindon end their season on a winning note, Mark Richards and Andrew Copland scoring in a 2-1 win over Royal Wootton Bassett Town, Jonny Aitkenhead with the Royal Wootton Bassett Town goal.

Mid Wiltshire Division

There was just the one game played in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division last week and it saw Devizes Town maintain their perfect record with win number 14 of the season as first half goals from Mark Dolman and Mark Reynolds gave them a 2-0 win away at Warminster Town to open up a six-point lead at the top of the table. Unfortunately, Melksham Town saw their game postponed due to Radstock Town being unable to raise a side.

League Cup Final

This coming Monday is the final of the League Cup, and it is an all-North Wiltshire Division affair between this season’s league champions Nationwide and Cricklade Town, the previous league champions, and the winners of the Wiltshire FA County Cup which they won for the second consecutive season last month.

Both finalists had a bye in the First Round in this season’s competition due to where they finished in the league the previous season. In the Second Round both teams had tough looking fixtures. Nationwide were up against Durrington from the Mid Wiltshire Division in what was a repeat of last season’s final. Nationwide avenged that Season 2024-25 cup final defeat with a 2-0 win which made that long journey to the south of the county worthwhile. Cricklade Town meanwhile were up against Penhill United, a team they would end up playing four times this season, with the two sides making it through to the final of the Wiltshire County FA Veterans’ County Cup. In the League Cup Cricklade ran out comfortable 3-0 winners but there were to be much closer affairs in the three subsequent meetings, with Penhill winning 1-0 in the first league meeting and then drawing 2-2 in the return, with Cricklade Town gaining revenge by winning the County Cup Final, again by a 1-0 score line.

Both Nationwide and Cricklade were to have comfortable wins at the Quarter Final stage. Cricklade Town again won 3-0 against North Wiltshire Division opponents in the shape of ExIntel. Nationwide meanwhile scored five without reply in their tie against Calne Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division.

These results set up two inter-divisional semi-finals involving what at the time were the top two teams from each division, with the two divisional leaders, Nationwide and Devizes Town playing each other, with the two sides sat second in the table, Melksham Town and Cricklade Town meeting in the other semi-final. Both games were tight affairs settled by a one goal margin, Cricklade Town beating Melksham Town on their own ground 1-0 and Nationwide defeating Devizes Town 2-1, again on their own patch to set up tonight’s all North Wiltshire Division final. Expect another close game on Monday night. In the league Nationwide have only lost twice this season, but both times this was against their cup final opponents Cricklade Town in two close encounters. Monday night’s final takes place at Calne Town FC with an 8pm kick-off.

Cricklade Town who take on Nationwide in Monday night's League Cup Final