The Veteran’s 2021-22 Season got underway this week just 41 days after the last one ended with action in both the Mid Wiltshire and North Wiltshire Divisions and also the Veteran’s County Cup.

The top match of the week was in the Mid Wiltshire Division where last season’s champions Corsham Town commenced their defence of the title against another of last season’s leading sides Devizes Town. The two sides had met three times last season, twice in the league and once in the cup. The sides had drawn one of the league games 1-1, the other league game and the cup match being decided by a solitary goal in Corsham’s favour. The latest game between the two also went Corsham’s way as they recorded their biggest win over Devizes so far, leading 1-0 at the break two further goals in the second period secured a 3-0 win. On target for Corsham were James Lye, Jonathan Scott and substitute Stephen Casey.

The same night in the Mid Wiltshire Division the two sides who had finished at the wrong end of the table last season, Chippenham Town Yard Dogs and Trowbridge Tigers met at Stanley Park. Again, meetings between the two sides last season had been close affairs, both sides winning their respective away game by a single goal margin. Monday night’s encounter was again a tight contest finishing 1-1 with Gary Knowles scoring for home side Chippenham and Ben Oakley replying for the Tigers. No doubt both sides will have been happy to get their season’s up and running with a point in their opening fixture.

The other game in the Mid Wiltshire Division on Monday night was the inhouse match between Amesbury Junior and Amesbury Junior Badgers. Leading 2-0 at the break, five further goals in the second period saw a comfortable win for Amesbury Junior over their stable mates. On target for Amesbury Junior were Jason Brice (2), Craig Clark, Glen Martin, Ben Taylor-Brown, Derek Barclay and Dean Shaw.

The North Wiltshire Division also kicked-off on Monday night with two of the new sides to the league, South Cerney Rangers and Swindon Old Boys meeting at Green Lane Devizes. It finished 1-1 with both sides picking up a point in their debut game in the league, Andrew King with the Swindon Old Boys goal, Robert Dickson with the South Cerney goal.

The following night two sides who were both in the league last season, AFC Swindon and Swindon Rovers, met at New College. Both games last season had been won by Rovers with AFC Swindon yet to score against Rovers and that trend continued on Tuesday night. A quick-fire hat-trick from Andrew Mark before half time put Swindon Rovers in control of the match before Mark Simpkins, who had ended last season in fine goalscoring form, got in the goal scoring act. Simpkins had scored in all three of Rovers final games at the end of last season, scoring six times in those three games. On Tuesday night he helped himself to four more and two late goals from Chris Doyle, one a penalty, rounded-off the scoring as Swindon Rovers ran out 10-0 winners on the night.

The other two games played in the week were both in the Preliminary Round of the Wiltshire FA’s Veteran’s County Cup. On Monday night two new sides to the North Wiltshire Division of the league, Priory Vale and Cricklade Town, met and it is Cricklade who progress to the next round courtesy of a 3-0 win, Dennis King scoring twice with the other goal scored by Matt Richards.

The final game of the week was at a busy Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night, the home side Royal Wootton Bassett Town from the North Wiltshire Division edging a close game against Mid Wiltshire Division side FC Calne thanks to two goals from Jeremy Newton, FC Calne’s leading scorer from last season Dan Allison with the reply for the visitors. Royal Wootton Bassett Town join Cricklade Town and the nine sides who were given a bye in the First Round with four more Preliminary Round ties scheduled to be completed in the next week or so. With Marlborough Town having withdrawn from the league one of the 15 teams will receive a bye once the First Round draw is made.

Last season in the Veteran’s Divisions, not only were Corsham Town and Melksham Town the top two teams in the Mid Wiltshire Division, but they were also the top sides in the overall Veterans’ category as evidenced by their progress to the final of the Wiltshire FA’s Veterans’ County Cup. An early season match-up in the Mid Wiltshire Division, just like last season, had all the hallmarks of being a close encounter between the two leading Veterans’ sides and so it proved. Melksham had won the last encounter between the two teams in the County Cup final and made it three wins in four meetings to date with a narrow 2-1 success in a very good game between two evenly matched sides on Monday night. Charlie Griffin, last season’s leading scorer in the Veteran’s divisions carried on where he left off last season scoring with a free kick. A second goal from Barry Holloway that went in off a Corsham player completed the scoring for the home side, Liam Ralph with the reply for Corsham.

Amesbury Junior are the early leaders in the Mid Wiltshire Division after they picked up their second win of the season with a 4-0 win against FC Calne on Monday night. In a game played at MOD Lyneham, a new venue to the league, Amesbury went ahead through a Martin Kitchin goal on 16 minutes, and it remained 1-0 at the break. Amesbury stepped it up second half scoring three more times through Mike Robinson, and substitutes Craig Watters and Daniel Field as it finished 4-0.

Tuesday night in the Mid Wiltshire Division saw Devizes Town bounce back from their opening game defeat at Corsham Town in style, winning 10-1 against Amesbury Junior’s other side the Badgers. Both Gary Campbell and Craig Townsend helped themselves to hat-tricks, with Jonathan Emm and Marcus Wallen both bagging a brace, Lee Bates with the consolation goal for Amesbury.

There were two games in the North Division on Tuesday night with three of the new sides in the league all in action. In a game with an early kick-off played at Chiseldon Recreation Ground between two of those three new sides, a solitary goal from Priory Vale’s James Lovell was enough to give them victory over Swindon Old Boys. Later that same evening at New College, Mark Simpkins put Swindon Rovers one nil up against another of the new sides, South Cerney Rangers. By scoring again Simpkins extended that sequence of consecutive games in which he has scored to five games. Dale Keen brought the Rangers level before Andrew Mark restored Rover’s lead. However, two second half goals from the Rangers duo of Ian McSherry and Steven Algar secured a come from behind win from the new boys who are unbeaten after their first two fixtures and are the early leaders in the division. Swindon Rovers are now in second place in the table, a point behind South Cerney.

There were four more games in the Preliminary Round of the Veterans’ County Cup this week starting on Tuesday night when Bradford Town were Chippenham Yard Dogs visitors in an early kick-off at Stanley Park. A solitary goal from Bradford Town’s Jacob Gaines was all that separated the two sides as Bradford progressed to the First Round. Also on Tuesday night two of last season’s top sides from the North Division, Stratton Juniors and Redhouse, met at New College. Last season Stratton had seriously damaged Redhouse’s title hopes with a 2-0 win, becoming the first team to beat Redhouse, but there was to be no repeat as Redhouse ran out comfortable 5-1 winners. Last season’s leading scorer David Rendle scored twice and there were further goals from Anthony McCusker, Ashley Bowes and Karl Spencer.  

Wednesday night saw Cricklade Town and AFC Swindon in action in the first fixture of the season staged on the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, a new venue for the North Division this season. It was a good night for Cricklade as they ran out 7-2 winners on the night, a hat-trick for Matt Richards,  and one each for Ryan Keech, Jamie Richards, Craig Shand and Adam Smith. Stuart Dash and Barry Clift with the AFC Swindon goals.

The fourth game was on Thursday night at Bradford Town where St Andrews were hosting Trowbridge Tigers. It finished all square at 1-1 at the end of 50 minutes and penalties were required to settle the outcome, with Tigers winning the shoot-out to progress to the First Round.

Mid Wiltshire Division

There was a full programme of games involving all the sides in the Mid Wiltshire Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League on Monday night. After the night’s activity it was Amesbury Junior who continued to set the pace at the top of the table. After finishing third form bottom last season, recording just three wins in their 18 league fixtures, they have already matched that total of last season in their first three fixtures. Clearly manager Iain Walker has recruited well in the short summer break with their latest win being a 3-2 success over one of last season’s leading sides Devizes Town. Amesbury led 3-0 at the break with Craig Watters, Mike Robinson and Dan Field scoring for the second consecutive game. Devizes came back into the game in the second half, Marcus Wallen and Jonathan Couch reducing the deficit but that was to be the end of the scoring with Amesbury taking the points courtesy of a 3-2 win.

Last season’s Mid Wiltshire Division champions Corsham Town moved second in the table with a comfortable win over the other Amesbury Junior side, the Badgers, scoring 14 goals without reply. Adam Taylor led the way smashing a double hat-trick, Stuart Skinner was not far behind scoring four and there was one apiece for Russell Lodge, Daniel Beck, Luke Chapman and Liam Brunker.

Last season’s runners-up in the Mid Wiltshire Division Melksham Town have started the season well and have now won both of their opening two games after a 2-0 away success against Trowbridge Tigers. They had started and ended last season with a win against the Tigers and they continued that winning streak, two goals from Simon Charity securing the win for Darren Perrin’s side.

Bradford Town had won last week in the Veterans’ County Cup and opened their league campaign with a 4-0 home success over former tenants St Andrews. Last season’s leading scorer Rhys Schell bagged a brace and their was a first for his new club from Steve Tweddle, having moved from Melksham Town in the summer, the other Bradford goal coming from Peter Ayrton.

Having lost their opening league game last week and also gone out of the Veterans’ County Cup, FC Calne picked up their first league points of the season with a narrow 2-1 away win at Chippenham Town Yard Dogs thanks to goals from last season’s top scorer Dan Allison and Adam O’Keeffe.

North Wiltshire Division

The action in the North Wiltshire Division also got underway on Monday night at Green Lane, Devizes, with South Cerney Rangers continuing their unbeaten start to the campaign with a narrow 4-3 win over Royal Wootton Bassett Town. The Rangers goals were shared around with Daniel Perry, Richard Edlington, Steven Algar and Craig Donnan all finding the target, Steve Howse (2) and Ben Gould with the goals for Royal Wootton Bassett Town.

After last week’s win in the Veterans’ County Cup, last season’s runners-up in the North Division Redhouse got their league campaign off to a winning start with a comfortable 5-0 win over bottom of the table AFC Swindon. Leading 2-0 at the break three further goals in the second half completed a good night’s work. On target for Redhouse were last season’s top scorer David Rendle who bagged a brace for the second consecutive game, Anthony McCusker also scored twice, the final goal coming through Chris Hughes.

On Wednesday night Stratton Juniors, who had ended last season in good form, got their league season off to a winning start with a 3-1 victory over Priory Vale thanks to goals from Jamie Ashby, Chris Quinton and Vince McMackin, James Lovell with the Priory Vale goal from the penalty spot.

Veterans’ County Cup

The final game in the Preliminary Round of the Wiltshire Veterans’ Cup took place on Tuesday night and Swindon Old Boys picked up their first win of the season with a 3-1 defeat of Swindon Rovers. Two goals from Joe Anderson plus one from Wayne Rickwood did the damage for Swindon Old Boys.

The Wiltshire FA have made the draw for the First Round of the competition and Swindon Old Boys are the lucky ones who drew Marlborough Town, who have now folded, giving Swindon Old Boys a bye into Round 2. There are also free passes to the next round for holders Melksham Town and Amesbury Junior Badgers as the two sides from the Southampton League who they were drawn against are now no longer taking part. The full draw is shown below:

Second Round Draw                           

Amesbury Jun Badgers v Alderbury (Home Walkover)

Bradford Town v AFC Swindon   

Corsham Town v Royal W. Bassett Town         

Cricklade Town v Devizes Town 

KMLC v Redhouse 

Redlynch & Woodfalls v Melksham Town (Away Walkover)   

Trowbridge Tigers v Amesbury Junior   

Swindon Old Boys v Marlborough Town (Home Walkover)   

Four of the five remaining fixtures are scheduled for Monday 4th October 2021 with the other game between KMLC and Redhouse scheduled for the following night.

Mid Wiltshire Division

There was once again a full round of games in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League on Monday night. The big game of the night at the top of the table was between Amesbury Junior and Bradford Town who both went in the fixture with 100% winning records. After the night’s action it was Amesbury who retained that perfect record, inflicting a first defeat of the season on Bradford Town thanks to a 2-1 score line. Both Amesbury goals came after the break within a minute of each other, Ben Taylor-Brown with the first and Jason Brice firing in his third of the season to secure the points, Rhys Schell with the Bradford Town goal. Next up for Amesbury Junior is a trip to Frome to play Trowbridge Tigers in the Veterans’ County Cup next Monday whilst Bradford Town host North Wiltshire Division bottom side AFC Swindon the same night in the same competition.

Melksham Town were the only other side with a perfect record in the division and they maintained that with a hard-fought win over a much-improved Chippenham Town Yard Dogs side. Last season Melksham had won 5-1 and 6-1 against the same opponents but in the first meeting of this season the Yard Dogs made one of the favourites for the title work really hard for all three points. In the end Melksham ran out 3-2 winners on the night, Simon Charity bagging a brace for the second consecutive Monday, Wayne Wheeler also finding the net for Melksham, Nicholas Still and substitute Ryan Nicholls replying for the Yard Dogs. Melksham can look to move level with Amesbury Junior at the top next week when they host FC Calne, whilst Amesbury have that Veterans’ County Cup game. Yard Dogs will also be in league action next week with a trip to play bottom side Amesbury Junior Badgers.

Corsham Town’s only defeat so far this season came at the hands of Melksham Town and after last week’s big win over the bottom side Amesbury Junior Badger they were again amongst the goals this week, putting four past St Andrews without reply. On target for Corsham were Stuart Skinner, who bagged a brace to add to the four he scored last week, Liam Ralph and Ross Hall. Corsham remain in second spot above Melksham on goal difference, but Melksham have a game in hand on both of the top two. Next week Corsham take a break from league action when they host Royal Wootton Bassett Town from the North Wiltshire Division in the Veterans’ County Cup whilst the Badgers have that league game against Chippenham Town Yard Dogs.

Devizes Town have not made such a good start to the season as in 2020-21, losing two of their opening three league games. Things were not going to plan at half time in their latest fixture at home to FC Calne with Devizes finding themselves trailing to a Ben Trafford goal. However, a much improved second half saw Devizes score three times to secure a 3-1 win, their second of the season. Player manager Craig Townsend got them back on level terms, Marcus Wallen put them ahead for the first time in the game and Darren Robison made sure of the three points with a third six minutes from time. Devizes remain in fourth spot three points behind Corsham and Melksham. Next week Devizes are up against Cricklade Town in the Veterans’ County Cup whilst FC Calne have that league game against Melksham Town.

The final game on Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Division was at the other end of the table where both Trowbridge Tigers and Amesbury Junior Badgers were both looking for their first win of the season. It was the Tigers who roared loudest Stuart McLachlan scoring twice in a 5-1 win, Tigers biggest win since they joined the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League. There were further goals from last season’s top scorer Clifford Sakyi, Luke Mattravis and Kieran Prince to add to the two from McLachlan. The consolation goal for Amesbury Badgers was scored by Jon Miller. The Tigers host league leaders Amesbury Junior next week in the County Cup and Amesbury Junior Badgers have that league game against Chippenham Yard Dogs.

North Wiltshire Division

The action in the North Wiltshire Division began on Monday night with Cricklade Town and Royal Wootton Bassett Town taking one of their turns in making the trip to Devizes for their league encounter as the Fixture Secretary continues to monitor the number of trips each side has to make to Devizes to ensure a fair allocation of such visits amongst the ten sides. It was Royal Wootton Bassett Town who returned the happier of the two teams as goals from Jeremy Newton and Ben Gould gave them their first league points of the season ahead of next week’s Veterans’ County Cup trip to Corsham Town, Adam Smith replying for Cricklade who lost for the first time this season. Cricklade are also in Veterans’ County Cup action next week when they take on Devizes Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division.

The following night Divisional leaders South Cerney Rangers took on another side unbeaten in the league Stratton Juniors. In an entertaining game that saw the two sides share eight goals it was Stratton Juniors who went home with all three points courtesy of a 5-3 win. Chris Quinton led the way firing a hat-trick for the Swindon based side, Jamie Ashby with his third goal of the season and substitute Kris Horwood with the other Stratton goals. South Cerney’s goals coming courtesy of Chris Field, Richard Sutton and Steven Algar. South Cerney remain top but Stratton moved to within a point of the leaders with two games in hand. Both sides will again be in league action next week, South Cerney meeting Priory Vale and Stratton Juniors meeting Swindon Old Boys.

Swindon Old Boys were involved in the final game of the week in the Veteran’s divisions on Wednesday night and they are still in search of their first win of the season after a narrow 2-0 defeat against last season’s runners-up Redhouse, leading scorer Dave Rendle with his fifth of the season, and Chris Hughes with the other goal. The win saw Redhouse move up into second place in the table on goal difference, a point behind leaders South Cerney and, like Stratton Juniors, Redhouse have two games in hand. Next week Redhouse meet KMLC in the Veterans’ County Cup in a tie that involves the top two sides from the North Wiltshire Division.

Wiltshire FA Veterans' County Cup

This week saw three games played in the Second Round of the Veterans’ Wiltshire County Cup and there were a couple of surprises with last season’s beaten finalists Corsham Town and current Mid Wiltshire Division league leaders Amesbury both being knocked out. Unfortunately, five of the scheduled ties in the Second Round ended up being awarded by the Wiltshire FA.

Last season it had been the clubs from the Mid Wiltshire Division who had dominated the County Cup with both finalists coming from that division. This season it looks like there has been a balancing up of standards between the two divisions with sides from the North Division doing well in games against the Mid Wiltshire Division sides in this season’s competition.

Despite Stuart Skinner scoring for the third consecutive game for Corsham Town, they fell to defeat for the second time this season as Royal Wootton Bassett Town put in their best performance of the season to win 4-1 at the Southbank Ground and knock out a team from the Mid Wiltshire for the second time in this season’s competition. Goals from Ben Gould, Chris Head, Steve Howse and a fourth of the season from Jeremy Newton did the damage for the visitors. 

After four straight wins in the league Amesbury Junior were unable to replicate that league form as they crashed out of the cup competition at the Second-Round stage, beaten 2-0 by fellow Mid Wiltshire Division side Trowbridge Tigers who had won just one of their three league games so far this season prior to Monday’s visit from the leaders. The Tigers match winner was Phil Lewis who scored both their goals.

There was another inter-divisional tie at Green Lane on Monday night between Cricklade Town and Devizes Town and in the end penalties were needed to decide matters. At the end of normal time the two sides were all square at two goals each, Andy Brien and Jamie Richards scoring for Cricklade, last season’s top scorer Nick Oram notching his first of the season for Devizes, a second of the season for Jonathan Couch for the other Devizes goal.

With last season’s North Division champions KMLC having this week taken the decision to withdraw from the league, Redhouse were awarded a walkover in the County Cup and progress to the Quarter Final. They joined Melksham Town, Amesbury Junior Badgers and Swindon Old Boys in receiving a walkover through to the last eight of the competition. With KMLC not yet having played a league game thankfully there are no games to be expunged from the league table as a result of their withdrawal.

The final game scheduled for last Monday between Bradford Town and AFC Swindon was postponed by AFC Swindon and has since been awarded to Bradford Town meaning that five of the eight ties in the end were awarded.

Mid Wiltshire Division

As well as the games in the Veterans’ County Cup there was also two games in both the Mid Wiltshire Division and the North Wiltshire Division this week. In the Mid Wiltshire Division Melksham Town maintained their 100% winning start to the season with a 2-0 win over FC Calne, last season’s overall top scorer across the two Veterans’ Divisions Charlie Griffin getting both the goals for Melksham to take his tally for the new season to three. The win took Melksham level on points at the top of the table with Amesbury Junior.

The other game played in the Mid Wiltshire Division was at the other end of the table where both Amesbury Junior Badgers and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs were both looking for their first win of the new season. It was the Yard Dogs who got the better of the Badgers scoring six unanswered goals to run out 6-0 winners, inflicting a fifth straight defeat of the season on the Badgers. There were two goals for both Gary Knowles and Nicholas Still and one apiece for Ryan Nicholls and player manager Peter Lakeland. The win lifted Chippenham Town Yard Dogs into the top half of the table. .

North Wiltshire Division

The two games in the North Wiltshire Division were both close run affairs. On Tuesday night at New College a solitary goal from Vince McMackin, Stratton Juniors top goal scoring in both the past two seasons, was all that separated the Juniors and new side Swindon Old Boys.

The following night there was another tight contest at the Gerard Buxton Ground where two goals from Richie Miles secured a 2-1 win for Priory Vale over South Cerney Rangers, Christopher Field with the Rangers goal.

Mid Wiltshire Division

The big game on Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division was at Bulford Army Camp where Melksham Town were Amesbury Junior’s visitors. The two sides started the night as joint leaders of the division having won all four of their opening games ahead of their encounter. Melksham Town had done the double over Amesbury last season but Amesbury had strengthened during the short summer break and had made a great start to the current season, However, their great 100% winning record was brought to an end by Melksham on Monday and it was a familiar figure that did the damage, last season’s top scorer in the Veterans’ Divisions Charlie Griffin helping himself to a hat-trick in Melksham’s 4-0 win, Kai Miller with the other goal for Melksham. The win lifted Melksham three points clear at the top of the table as Darren Perrin’s side became the only team to maintain a 100% winning record in the Mid Wiltshire Division.

The same night there was an entertaining game played at Melksham’s ground, with Chippenham Town Yard Dogs hosting Devizes Town at the InfiLED. Devizes had done a league double over the Yard Dogs last season but the Yard Dogs are a much improved side this season and at half time on Monday night they led 2-0 thanks to goals from Ryan Nicholls and Gino De Antonis. Just as it looked like Chippenham would win for the second consecutive game two late Devizes goals ensured the points were shared, last season’s leading scorer Nick Oram got Devizes back into the game ten minutes from time and then an equaliser four minutes from time from Jonathan Couch saw the game finish all square at 2-2.

The third game on Monday night was at MOD Lyneham and home side FC Calne picked up their second win of the season with a 4-1 triumph over Trowbridge Tigers to maintain their 100% record against the Tigers. Adam O’Keeffe helped himself to a hat-trick and a fourth from Gary Whitney ensured it was FC Calne that took all three points, player-manager Tim Brown replying for the Tigers.

The following night the two sides who were still looking for their first points of the season met at Green Lane Devizes and in a close contest St Andrews edged it by the odd goal in five against Amesbury Junior Badgers. On target for St Andrews were Oli Howe, Dom Shepherd and Jack Heard, whilst the scorers for the unlucky Badgers who put in their best performance of the season so far were Jon Miller with his second of the season and Jonathan Yeoman.

The final game of the week in the Mid Wiltshire Division was on Thursday night at Bradford Town where Corsham Town were the visitors. Corsham had the chance to go second in the table with a win, but Bradford had not read that script, the home side scoring the only goal of the game through leading scorer Rhys Schell, with his fourth of the season, to take all three points with their second league win of the season.

North Wiltshire Division

There were just two games in the North Wiltshire Division this week. On Tuesday night at New College Priory Vale picked up their third win of the season to go level on points at the top of the table with Stratton Juniors ahead of Stratton’s game the following night. Priory Vale’s latest win came at the expense of Cricklade Town, 3-1 the final score. Richie Miles bagged a brace for Priory Vale, Ian Carr with the other goal, Mike Solan with reply for Cricklade who were level at the break but two second half goals secured the three points for Priory Vale.

The second game of the week in the North Wiltshire Division was at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground where league leaders Stratton Juniors were Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s visitors. Games between the two sides have historically been close run affairs and this one was no different. Jamie Ashby put the league leaders Stratton ahead with a goal against the run of play, but Brady Lilley restored parity with a goal for Royal Wootton Bassett Town just before the interval. It remained all square until a couple of minutes from time when Dan Badman hit a winner for Royal Wootton Bassett Town bringing an end Stratton’s 100% winning record in the league. Despite the defeat Stratton remain top of the table on goal difference from Priory Vale.

North Wiltshire Division

Redhouse finished as runners-up last season to KMLC in the North Wiltshire Veterans’ Division and with their nearest rivals from last season having withdrawn from the league this season Redhouse will be hoping to go one better this time round. They maintained their 100% winning start to the season on Monday night at Green Lane as goals from Marc Connelly, Ashley Bowes, Tafari Anderson and a sixth of the season from last season’s leading scorer Dave Rendle securing a 4-1 win over Swindon Rovers. The win sent Redhouse top of the table on goal difference from Stratton Juniors and Priory Vale having played one game less than their fellow Swindon based rivals.

South Cerney Rangers had the chance to go top of the table on Tuesday night but were well beaten by opponents Cricklade Town who picked up their second win of the season to move to within three points of the top three. Ryan Keech led the way for Cricklade firing a hat-trick in their 6-1 win, Adam Smith scored twice and Darren Swadden with the other Cricklade goal, Steven Algar with his fourth of the season getting the consolation goal for Rangers. Cricklade moved up to fifth place in the table as a result of the win, a point behind their defeated opponents and those three points behind the top three.



Wednesday night at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground saw two sides at the wrong end of the table, Swindon Old Boys and AFC Swindon, looking to pick up their first league win of the season. Indeed, for AFC Swindon who are in their third season in the league they were still looking to register their first point in the league in their 24^th outing. There was to be no happy ending for AFC as they fell to a 7-1 defeat, Ryan Mason led the way for Swindon Old Boys hitting a hat-trick with further goals from Craig Gaynor, Joe Anderson, Phil Archer and substitute Martyn Roberts. That first win of the season for Swindon Old Boys saw them climb one place in the table to seventh spot.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Melksham Town continue to lead the way in the Mid Wiltshire Division with new signing Kirk Latham scoring twice on his debut on Monday night in their 2-0 home win over Devizes Town. That is now six straight wins for Darren Perrin’s side who look like they are going to take some beating this season as they opened a six-point lead at the top of the table. For Devizes that is now three defeats in their opening six games but all  three reverses have come against the top three sides and they will have the chance to avenge those defeats in the next few weeks as they play all three sides again in either the reverse league fixtures or the Wiltshire Veterans’ County Cup in the case of Melksham Town. With fourth placed Bradford Town also to play in the next four weeks Devizes certainly have some tough looking fixtures ahead of them.

The other game on Monday night saw Chippenham Town Yard Dogs as Trowbridge Tigers’ visitors at Selwood Academy. When the two sides met at the beginning of last month it had finished all square and both games last season were settled by a one goal margin, so another close game was anticipated. In the end the difference between the two sides on Tuesday night was two penalties put away by Chippenham Town’s Neil Edwards to secure a second win of the season for a much improved Chippenham side who went into fifth place in the table as a result of the win.

Bradford Town were the week’s top scorers smashing 14 unanswered goals past bottom of the table Amesbury Junior Badgers on Tuesday evening. Last season’s leading scorer for Bradford Town Rhys Schell led the way helping himself to five goals, former Melksham Town Vets player Steve Tweddle scored four, both Steve Munday and Peter Ayton bagged a brace and one from Marek Miszta completed the scoring for Bradford Town who moved up to fourth place as a result of the big win.

Both last season’s games between St Andrews and FC Calne had ended in 0-0 draws and both sides went into Tuesday night’s game at Green Lane on the back of confidence boosting wins the previous week. It was St Andrews who made it two wins on the bounce with a 3-1 victory thanks to goals from Daniel Foster, Steve Jackson and Oliver Howe, the latter scoring for the second week running, Calne’s reply came from Dan Allison.

Mid Wiltshire Division

There were just two games played in each of the Veterans’ Divisions of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League at the beginning of the week. There is a further game on Friday night but details of that will be included in next week's round-up.

On Monday night Mid Wiltshire Division league leaders Melksham Town maintained their 100% winning start to the campaign with a 5-0 home win over St Andrews at Oakfield Stadium. Last season’s top scorer in the Veterans’ Divisions Charlie Griffin fired a hat-trick as he moved onto nine goals for the season, Kirk Latham scored for the second game running and Gareth Evans was also on target as Melksham opened up a nine-point lead at the top of the table. Melksham are back at home next Monday when Amesbury Junior visit with Melksham looking to complete a league double over the side they defeated 4-0 at the beginning of October. St Andrews dropped a place in the table as a result of the defeat.

The other game on Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Division was at MOD Lyneham where Bradford Town were FC Calne’s visitors. With former strike partner Charlie Griffin amongst the goals for Melksham, Steve Tweddle is not far behind him with his new club Bradford Town. He scored twice in Bradford Town’s 5-2 success over FC Calne, helping his side to move up to second place in the table behind Melksham. Also on target for Bradford Town were David Percival and Robert Mitchell, the other Bradford goal coming courtesy of an own goal. Dan Allison and Stuart Ballinger replied for Calne. Next up for Bradford is a home game against Devizes Town whilst FC Calne make the short journey to Corsham Town, both games next Monday.

North Wiltshire Division

In the North Division Tuesday’s game at New College saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town up against Swindon Rovers. Last season the two sides had won their respective home fixtures and this season’s first encounter followed the same pattern, but it was a close run thing. Royal Wootton Bassett Town went in front after Jeremy Newton saw his shot from the edge of the box saved by the legs of the Rovers keeper, the ball rebounding to a group of players including Bassett’s Martin Ohrland who managed to get ahead of the Rovers defence and fire a shot into the net for 1-0. Royal Wootton Bassett Town then extended their lead when a ball over the top found Steve Howse who hit a shot powerfully on the half volley into the bottom corner of the net. Swindon Rovers pulled one back before the break when Andy Mark beat the offside trap and curled a shot into the far corner of the net to make it 2-1. Second half Swindon Rovers went in search of an equaliser and the closest they came was when Richie Lester fired a shot from the edge of the box that came back off the crossbar and was cleared to leave the final score as 2-1 to Royal Wootton Bassett Town. The win saw Royal Wootton Basset Town join three other teams on nine points at the top of the table ahead of Wednesday night’s encounter between Redhouse and Cricklade Town. Your Sport Swindon were at the game at New College on Tuesday night and subscribers can view the highlights by clicking on the link below.

The final game in the North Division was on Wednesday night and saw Redhouse looking to defend the only unbeaten record in the division against Cricklade Town. Cricklade had ended a three-game run without a win the previous week with a big win over South Cerney Rangers and were expected to provide Redhouse with their toughest test of the season so far. However, they were unable to make it back-to-back wins as Redhouse maintained their winning start to the season with a 3-1 success, Michael Lichota, James Turpie and seventh of the season from David Rendle securing the points, Terry Dearing with the consolation goal for Cricklade. Rendle now leads the goal scoring chart in the North Wiltshire Division and his side are also now three points clear at the top of the table ahead of next week’s top of the table clash with Royal Wootton Bassett Town, another in-form side.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Last season Chippenham Town Yard Dogs won just one of their 18 league games and finished bottom of the table. What a transformation this season with Chippenham Town Yard Dogs just behind Mid Wiltshire Division league leaders Melksham Town in both the league table and the current form chart. They were in action last Friday night at Stanley Park and registered a comfortable 8-1 win over bottom side Amesbury Junior Badgers. Leading 6-0 at the break they took their foot off the gas a little in the second period but still managed two more goals with Amesbury also finding the net through Andi Teasdale.  Nicholas Still led the way for Chippenham notching a hat-trick with further Chippenham goals coming from Gary Knowles, Steven Gawke, Gary Clarke, Gino De Antonis and an own goal.

Chippenham Town Yard Dogs were back in action on Tuesday night when they travelled to Devizes to take on a St Andrews side who had done the league double over Chippenham last season. Once again an impressive first half showing which saw Chippenham lead 4-1 at the break as good as secured the points at half time. St Andrews came back into it in the second half but with both sides finding the net in the second period it finished 5-2 to the Yard Dogs. For the Yard Dogs it was two for Ryan Nicholls and one apiece for Gary Knowles, Nicholas Still and Gino De Antonis who all scored for the second consecutive game. The St Andrew goals came courtesy of Steve Jackson and Simon Pickett.

Also on Tuesday night, Amesbury Junior Badgers were invoved in their ninth game of the season and once again they fell to a heavy defeat, this time to visitors Trowbridge Tigers. Four first half goals from Stuart McLachlan and one from Clifford Sakyi saw Tigers lead 5-0 at the break. A further goal from Lee Mattravis after the interval completed a 6-0 win for the Tigers who moved up a couple of places in the table.

The three scheduled games in the Mid Wiltshire Division on Monday night were all postponed.

North Wiltshire Division

Monday night’s game in the North Wiltshire Division was an entertaining game between the two sides who sat second and third in the table. Both Stratton Juniors and Priory Vale went into the game knowing that a win would send them level on points with the divisional leaders ahead of their scheduled game on Wednesday night. The two sides managed to conjure up a high scoring draw as they shared six goals and the points. On target for Priory Vale were Richie Miles, Jamie Williams and Colin Yates with Stratton’s goals coming from their three leading scorers Chris Quinton, Jamie Ashby and Vince McMackin. The sides both moved onto ten points and remained as they were at the start of the night in second and third place.

The following night Cricklade Town picked up their third league win of the season, goals from Ryan Keech (2) and Jamie Richards securing a 3-1 win over Swindon Rovers, Rover’s goal coming early in the second half from Andrew Mark. The win saw Cricklade move up the table to fourth spot although they were to be dislodged from that position after Wednesday night’s game.

The final game of the week saw Redhouse defending the division’s only unbeaten record, with Redhouse having won all four of their opening league games, whilst opponents Royal Wootton Bassett Town were also in-form, coming into the game on the back of four straight wins in league and cup games. It was a cagey affair with the defences on top with the two sides having to settle for a point apiece following a 0-0 draw. Redhouse remain on top of the table, three points clear of the chasing pack, with Royal Wootton Bassett Town joining Priory Vale and Stratton Juniors on ten points in what looks to be developing into a tight title race this season.

Wiltshire FA Veterans' County Cup

This week’s fixtures involving the Veterans’ sides was dominated by the Wiltshire FA’s Veterans’ County Cup quarter finals. On Monday night last season’s winners Melksham Town maintained their interest in this season’s competition with a narrow 1-0 win over fellow Mid Wiltshire Division side Devizes Town. A 13^th minute goal from Wayne Wheeler was all that separated the two sides. Whilst Melksham were on top for most of the game, they were wasteful in front of goal and were not able to add to that early strike and were nearly made to pay for failing to put their chances away when Devizes Town had a golden chance to equalise two minutes from time, but Rob Hannah was unable to put the chance away and it remained 1-0.

The second tie on Monday night saw Bradford Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division at home against Swindon Old Boys from the North Division and Bradford Town became the second Mid Wiltshire Division side through to the last four as they proved too strong for the Swindon based side, winning 4-1,  Ryan Mason with the consolation goal for Swindon Old Boys.

There were two further quarter final ties the following night and both games saw teams from the North Wiltshire Division up against opponents from the Mid Wiltshire Division and it proved to be a good night for the North. At New College Swindon a free kick from the edge of the area from Martin Ohrland put Royal Wootton Bassett Town 1-0 up but opponents Trowbridge Tigers  got themselves back on level terms when Ben Whatcott won his side a penalty, which was duly put away by Clifford Sakyi for his third of the season. It remained a tight affair with Trowbridge Tigers having a chance for a winner late on, but the chance was not taken, and they then suffered the agony of seeing Royal Wootton Bassett scoring at the other end through Chris Head two minutes from time, Head firing in with a great strike following a fast break down the right to make the final score 2-1 to Royal Wootton Bassett Town.

The second inter-divisional tie saw North Division leaders Redhouse make the long journey to the Bulford Barracks Ground to play Mid Wiltshire Division side Amesbury Junior Badgers and it would have been a happy camp that made the return journey after Redhouse secured a 7-1 win. Top scorer David Rendle led the way scoring four times, taking his total in this competition to six and his total for the season so far to eleven, Ashley Bowes bagged a brace and a second of the season from Michael Lichota completed the scoring for Redhouse who maintained their unbeaten start to the season, Lee Bates with the consolation goal for the Badgers. With both Tuesday nights inter-divisional ties being won by North Wiltshire Division sides it means it is two teams from each division in the semi-final.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Back in the league there was just the one game played in the Mid Wiltshire Division this week and it saw last season’s divisional champions Corsham Town return to winning ways after a couple of defeats, one in the County Cup and one in the league.  They were up against an in-form Chippenham Town Yard Dogs who went into Monday night’s game on the back of a five-game unbeaten run, having win four of those five games, but that run was finally ended as Corsham returned to form. A second goal of the season from Luke Chapman plus further goals from Ibrahim Bigger and Bryan O’Donnell who both scored their first goals of the season did the damage for Corsham.Gino De Antonis netted for Yard Dogs scoring for the third consecutive game as his fine goal scoring form of late continued.

North Wiltshire Division

In the North Wiltshire Division on Monday night Stratton Juniors had the chance to go level on points at the top of the Division with Redhouse with a win against Swindon Rovers. The two sides had met four times in recent seasons and matters had always been close between the sides with two draws and one win apiece. It was not a good night for Stratton as Rovers put four unanswered goals past them to now lead the head-to-head record and also move up a place in the table as a result of the win. Two goals for Andrew Mark saw him move onto eight for the season, whilst Mark Simpkins took his personal tally to seven and a first of the season from Lee Holland completed the scoring.

The final league game of the week in the North Division was at the Gerard Buxton Ground where Priory Vale and Cricklade met for the third time this season with both sides having won one game apiece prior to the latest encounter, Cricklade having won 3-0 in the County Cup and Priory Vale having won 3-1 in the league. A goal in each half from Richie Miles, who took his total for the season to seven, saw Priory Vale secure all three points and move level at the top of the table with Redhouse. .

This week’s games in the Veterans’ Divisions of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League stretched from Monday through until Friday and details of Friday night’s game between Melksham Town and Amesbury Junior Badgers will be included in next week’s round-up. On a foggy Monday night in Wiltshire that caused the postponement of the game between FC Calne and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs three of the scheduled four games across the two divisions still went ahead despite the difficult conditions.

Mid Wiltshire Division

At Corsham’s Southbank Ground last season’s champions of the Mid Wiltshire Division met Bradford Town and it is looking like they are going to struggle to hold onto their title after they fell to their third league defeat of the season. It was all square at 1-1 at the half time interval but a second goal for Bradford Town completed a quick-fire league double over the champions for Bradford Town. It was their two leading scorers, Rhys Schell and Steve Tweddle who did the damage, Schell taking his league goal tally into double figures with Tweddle just two behind on eight, Jonathan Scott with the Corsham Town goal. The win lifted Bradford Town up into second place in the table and they are looking to be Melksham Town’s main rivals for the league title this season.

Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Division also saw Devizes Town return to the form that had seen them challenging for honours last season, their 5-1 home success over Amesbury Junior ending a run of four games without a win. Player manager Craig Townsend got them on their way with the opener before Stephen Campbell made it 2-0. A second of the game for Townsend saw his side lead 3-0 at the break. Townsend then completed his hat trick just after the half hour mark to put Devizes 4-0 to the good. A second of the game for Campbell put Devizes 5-0 ahead before a late consolation from Derek Barclay for Amesbury saw it finish 5-1. Despite the win Devizes remain sixth in the table one place and two points behind a Amesbury side who have now lost their last three games in all competitions after starting the season with four straight wins.

The following night St Andrews recorded their best win of the season with a 3-0 success over Trowbridge Tigers, the side who had knocked St Andrews out of the Wiltshire Veterans’ County Cup. Steve Jackson bagged a brace for the Saints as he moved onto four for the season, the other goal coming courtesy of an own goal. The win saw St Andrews climb a couple of places in the table moving above their opponents on Tuesday night.

As noted above the final game of the week involving Melksham Town and Amesbury Junior Badgers is on Friday night at the Oakfield Stadium.

North Wiltshire Division

There were three games in the North Division this week and all three games saw wins for sides challenging at the top of the table. On Monday night Royal Wootton Bassett Town overcame the fog and opponents Swindon Old Boys to record a 5-1 win that took them into second place in the table, level on points with both Redhouse and Priory Vale who were both playing later in the week. Jeremy Newton scored twice for Royal Wootton Bassett Town, taking his total for the season to six. The other goals for Royal Wootton Bassett Town were scored by Martin Ohrland, Chris Head and Ben Gould, Andrew King with the consolation goal for Swindon Old Boys.

The following night saw Priory Vale in action and an impressive first half showing saw them lead 4-0 at the break against South Cerney Rangers, Richie Miles and James Lovell both scoring twice for the in-form Priory Vale side. Two late goals from Rangers Harley Coram and Dale Keen were not enough as Rangers fell to their fourth straight defeat. The win for Priory Vale saw them move top of the table overnight but they were to be dislodged the following evening.

The final game of the week in the North Division saw Redhouse up against an AFC Swindon side still looking for their first point in what is their third season in the league. There was to be no happy ending for the bottom of the table side as they were comprehensively beaten by a rampant Redhouse side who hit eight unanswered goals. Leading the way was the leading scorer across the two Veteran’s Divisions David Rendle who hit four goals for the second consecutive game to take his total for the season to 15. Chris Hughes also hit a hat-trick and a Tafari Anderson goal completed the scoring as Redhouse went back top of the table on goal difference from Priory Vale.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Last week’s final game of the week was played on Friday night and not included in last week’s round-up. It saw top of the table against bottom of the table in the Mid Wiltshire Division with league leaders Melksham Town hosting Amesbury Junior Badgers at the Oakfield Stadium. The game very much went to form with Darren Perrin’s side running out comfortable 10-0 winners with both Wayne Wheeler and Gareth Evans scoring four times, two from Simon Charity completing the scoring for Melksham as they made it eight straight league wins to move nine points clear at the top of the table with second placed Bradford Town having two games in hand.

This week’s fixtures in the Mid Wiltshire Division saw three games take place. Unfortunately for Melksham Town they were unable to extend their lead at the top as their game against St Andrews was postponed by their scheduled opponents. The game between Bradford Town and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs was also postponed. The games that did go ahead commenced on Monday and saw Devizes Town starting to return to the form they had showed last season as they made it back-to back victories with a 2-0 away win against FC Calne at MOD Lyneham. Two second half goals secured the points for the visitors. Player-manager Craig Townsend opened the scoring on 37 minutes, notching his eighth of the season and a second from Doug Imrie eight minutes from time, his first for his new club following his move from Marlborough Town Vets made sure of the points for Devizes who, whilst remaining in sixth spot, moved to within two points of second place.

Last season’s Mid Wiltshire Division champions Corsham Town were also in action on Monday night when they travelled to Frome to play Trowbridge Tigers. Last season Corsham had completed a league double over the Tigers but the second meeting of the two sides had been a close-run thing with Corsham edging it by the odd goal. This season’s first meeting of the two sides followed a similar pattern on a night which saw Trowbridge pick up their first points against Corsham, Lee Mattravis scoring in a 1-1 draw against the reigning champions, whose title is defence is now starting to look very difficult, James Lye with the Corsham goal.

Tuesday night saw the second leg of the “Amesbury derby” with Amesbury Junior meeting their stable mates the Badgers. The Badgers have yet to pick up a point so far this season and were on the wrong end of another big defeat against their club mates, Junior winning 9-1. Craig Watters led the way scoring four times to take his personal goal tally for the season to six, Paul Matthews notched a hat-trick and there were further goals from player-manager Iain Walker and John Cowell, Michael Broad with the Badgers consolation goal six minutes from time. The win for Amesbury Junior saw them move up to third place in the table level on points with second placed Bradford Town but having played one more game.

North Wiltshire Division

There were also three games in the North Wiltshire Division on Monday night with a game at the top end of the table between Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Priory Vale at Green Lane, Devizes. In an entertaining encounter it was the Swindon based side who claimed all three points thanks to a hat-trick from their leading striker Richie Miles as he took his personal tally for the season to 12 to close in on Redhouse’s Dave Rendle at the top of the goal scorer’s chart. Whilst Miles has now scored more league goals, the six that Rendle scored in the Wiltshire Veterans’ Cup so far sees him continue to lead the way on 15. The win saw Priory Vale move three points clear at the top of the table but Redhouse, who sit second, have two games in hand.

Tuesday night saw Stratton Juniors looking to move into the top three with a win at New College against a Swindon Old Boys side who they had beaten by a solitary goal back at the beginning of October. In another close game Swindon Old Boys avenged that earlier defeat winning by the odd goal in five, two goals for James Roberts and one for Martyn Roberts in their 3-2 win, Jamie Ashby and Vince McMackin replying for Stratton Juniors. Swindon Old Boys remain second from bottom as a result of South Cerney Rangers and Swindon Rovers finishing all square the following night. The game at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night saw both defences on top as the division saw its second 0-0 draw of the season so far and a point for both sides. It is all very congested above bottom side AFC Swindon with just three points separating five sides in what is proving to be a very even division this season.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Both Veterans’ divisions of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League are just two games short of the half-way mark in the season with that milestone set to be reached next week.

In the Mid Wiltshire Division, it looks like to be a battle between Melksham Town and Bradford Town for the league title with last season’s champions Corsham Town having possibly already lost too many games, although they just have the one game left against Melksham in terms of fixtures against the other top two sides. Melksham made it nine straight wins on Monday night with a couple of goals in each half in their 4-0 win over Chippenham Town Yard Dogs. An own goal and a first of the season from Adam Gingell put them 2-0 up at the break. Further goals in the second half from Wayne Wheeler and Gareth Evans, the former taking his total for the season to seven and the latter taking his tally to six, completed the 4-0 win. The win increased Melksham’s lead at the top of the table to eleven points and their lead over Bradford Town to 12 points, although Bradford Town have three games in hand and the two sides have yet to meet so far this season.

Reigning champions Corsham Town moved above Bradford Town on Monday night as a result of a hard fought 1-0 win over St Andrews. The only goal of the game came early on through Ross Williams with his first goal of the season. The two sides met three times last season and St Andrews failed to score in any of the games with Corsham scoring four twice and five in the other game. There was to be no repeat of that sort of score line in this season’s first encounter between the two sides, but St Andrews were unable to get that first goal against Corsham that would have given them a share of the spoils on the night. It was their best performance so far against Corsham, but they are still in search of that first goal.

There was just one more fixture that went ahead in the Mid Wiltshire Division and that saw FC Calne pick up their third win of the season with a comprehensive 9-0 win over bottom side Amesbury Junior Badgers. It was close at half time with just the two first half goals, but FC Calne stepped up their game second half and scored seven more unanswered goals for their biggest win of the season. Adam O’Keeffe led the way scoring four times to double his total for the season, Dan Slade fired a hat-trick, Gavin Wyllie added another with the final goal coming courtesy of an own goal.

Of the other sides not playing this week, Amesbury Junior remain in the title race but have a tough looking set of fixtures in the second half of the season with six of their remaining eleven games against fellow top five sides.

North Wiltshire Division

Monday night saw AFC Swindon return to action after a couple of postponements but they are still searching for their first points since joining the league. They did however equal their highest goal tally in a game matching the three goals they scored in a game against Royal Wootton Bassett Town in Season 2019-20. Unfortunately for them Swindon Old Boys scored eight goals of their own to run out 8-3 winners. Andrew King hit a hat-trick, Ryan Mason bagged a brace, there was one each for Andrew Fleming and James Roberts, with the final goal coming courtesy of an own goal. On target for AFC Swindon were Jason Ranford, Jason Cobb and Andrew Buss.

Just a single point separated Stratton Juniors and Cricklade Town ahead of their encounter at New College in what was the first time the two sides had played each other. Cricklade took the lead in the first half, Matt Richards heading in from a cross from the right-hand side. After the break Darren Cummins extended the lead firing in after an initial Stratton header had been saved by the Stratton Juniors keeper. Mike Sloan then made sure of the three points for Cricklade, hitting a free kick over the defensive wall and the Stratton keeper to make the final score 3-0 to Cricklade Town who moved up to fourth spot as a result of the win. Your Sport Swindon were covering the game and the highlights can be viewed by clicking on the link below or from the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of the website. Stratton Juniors v Cricklade Town link.

The final game of the week on Wednesday night saw South Cerney Rangers and Royal Wootton Bassett Town meet for the second time this season. The first encounter had seen the sides share seven goals with the Rangers edging it by the odd goal, but Royal Wootton Bassett Town avenged that earlier defeat to move level on points with second placed Redhouse. Goals from Martin Ohrland, Ben Gould, Daniel Badman and Andy Huggins secured a 4-1 win.

Unbeaten Redhouse remain favourites for the title at the half-way stage of the season, but the current league leaders are Priory Vale who have played two more games than Redhouse and have a three point lead. Royal Wootton Bassett Town remain in the mix and an improving Cricklade Town could also have a big say in the ultimate destination of the North Division title.

Having to travel to Devizes to play games remains an issue for teams in the North Division but the intention is to share this burden equally amongst all of the sides in the division. Unfortunately, despite seeking additional use of facilities in Swindon, regular slots at 3G facilities are currently not available. Comments made on social media this week imply some believe this is not necessarily the case. If teams know of a facility and can hire it for regular midweek use for their fixtures,  like the sides in the Mid Wiltshire Division have done, please do it and let us know, as it would greatly assist fixture scheduling and would help reduce the overall number of trips that have to be made to Devizes by all the North Division sides.  So far 18 sides from the North Division have travelled to Devizes for league fixtures with Royal Wootton Bassett Town (4) and Swindon Old Boys (3) having played the most games at Green Lane and AFC Swindon, Cricklade Town and Redhouse the least with just the one game each so far. The intention is that this will be equalled out over the remaining fixtures.

Mid Wiltshire Division

This week’s games in the Mid Wiltshire Division of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League saw comfortable wins for all three of the sides at the top of the table. League leaders Melksham Town were in action on Wednesday night against bottom of the table Amesbury Junior Badgers. The first meeting between the two sides had seen Melksham record ten unanswered goals against the Badgers but at half time on Wednesday night a much-improved Badgers side had restricted the leaders to just two goals. However, five more goals for Melksham after the interval saw them run out 7-0 winners but Amesbury continued to battle away until the end with the keeper pulling off a number of great saves to keep the score to just the seven. Wayne Wheeler led the way for Melksham scoring a hat-trick to take his total for the season into double figures, Gareth Evans bagged a brace and there were further goals from Ash Groves and Rob Cousins.  

The win for Melksham maintained their eleven point lead at the top of the table that they had at the start of the week as Corsham Town also secured three points on their travels, returning from Lyneham with a 4-0 win over FC Calne that maintained their second spot in the table. The goals were shared around with one apiece for Ibrahim Bigger, James Lye Ross Williams and a seventh of the season from Adam Taylor.

Bradford Town remain a point behind Corsham Town after their 5-0 away win at Trowbridge Tigers. Peter Ayrton scored twice with one each for Nicholas Ross, Steve Tweddle and leading scorer Rhys Schell.

Devizes Town had the chance to move above both Amesbury Junior and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs into fourth place on Tuesday night but they are still looking for their first win over St Andrews after they were held to a two all draw at Green Lane. On target for Devizes were last seasons top scorer Nick Oram and Bradley Newman, with Jack Heard and Steve Jackson replying for St Andrews, Jackson’s goal seeing him move onto five goals for the season. The point for Devizes saw them move above Chippenham Town Yard Dogs on goal difference but they remain a point behind Amesbury having played two games more. The point for St Andrews saw them move above FC Calne in the table.

North Wiltshire Division

There was the usual full programme of three games in the North Wiltshire Division starting at Green Lane Devizes on Monday night when two goals from Dale Keen plus one from leading scorer Steve Algar secured a 3-0 win for South Cerney Rangers over an improving AFC Swindon side. The win for South Cerney saw them move above both Swindon Old Boys and Stratton Juniors.

Tuesday night saw Redhouse in action at New College against Cricklade Town looking to defend the division’s only unbeaten record and record a win that would take them back top of the table. They were up against a Cricklade Town side they had beaten 3-1 at the end of October but Cricklade had been showing improved form in recent weeks and that continued on Tuesday night as they put in their best performance of the season to record an impressive 4-1 win to end Redhouse’s unbeaten start to the season. Redhouse went in front early on when a free kick from just outside the box came back off the post and Ian Fawkes was on hand to put it away to make it 1-0 to Redhouse. Cricklade thought they had got back on level terms with a shot from just outside the area, but a linesman’s flag saw the goal disallowed. They did not have to wait long to restore parity though as a stunning strike from Andy Brien from the left-hand side of the box, this after a neat one-two on the edge of the box, put his side back on level terms. Second half saw Cricklade take the game to Redhouse, and they went in front for the first time in the match after some good build up play down the left hand side which culminated in a low cross into the box that Ryan Keech steered into the net for 2-1. Keech then put Cricklade further ahead after a powerful run through midfield from Stuart Hemsley saw him feed the ball to Keech who fired in from the edge of the box to make it 3-1. Substitute Paul Lawrence then added a fourth after good build up play involving Andy Brien to make the final score 4-1 to Cricklade who on this form could still have a big say in the destination of the North Division league title this season. The win saw Cricklade move to within a point of Redhouse and four points behind the division leaders. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and subscribers can view the highlights by clicking on the link below or on the link from the Your Sport Swindon page of our website. Cricklade Town v Redhouse link.

Wednesday night saw another game at the top end of the table when leaders Priory Vale took on Royal Wootton Bassett Town looking to complete a quick-fire league double over their opponents having won 3-0 just over a fortnight ago. It did not go to plan though as goals from Ben Gould and Chris Head saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town avenge that earlier defeat in a feisty encounter that saw a player from each side dismissed. The win saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town move ahead of their opponents on goal difference at the top of the table, with Redhouse three points behind but with two games in hand.

Mid Wiltshire Division

With just the one scheduled game next week, this week saw the majority of the Veteran’s sides playing their last game of what has been a difficult 2021. Once again, the year ends with Covid-19 causing games to be postponed and it is to be hoped that the New Year will see some respite from this dreaded virus. Three games went ahead in the Mid Wiltshire Division and with a waterlogged pitch causing the postponement of the league leaders Melksham Town’s game it meant the two sides just behind them in the table had the chance to close the gap at the top.

On Monday night Bradford Town entertained FC Calne with the chance of moving second in the table at least for one night. They made no mistake securing a 4-0 win with the division’s two leading scorers Rhys Schell and Steve Tweddle both once again amongst the goals, further goals from Nicholas Ross and Ricky Trott completed the win to send Bradford Town temporarily second in the table.

Bradford Town’s stay in second spot lasted only for 24 hours as the following night Corsham Town moved back above them with a comprehensive 11-0 victory over bottom of the table Amesbury Junior Badgers. There were hat-tricks for both Jonathan Scott and Liam Ralph, Simon Gray bagged a brace and there was one apiece for Stuart Skinner, Paul Douglass and Adam Taylor in Corsham’s big win that saw last season’s title winners move to within eight points of Melksham Town but having played one more game. Bradford Town are a point behind Corsham with three games in hand of them and two games in hand over Melksham Town and remain Melksham’s main threat to the league title this season.

The third game played this week in the Mid Wiltshire Division was at Green Lane where St Andrews were up against Amesbury Junior. The two games last season between the sides had both finished all square and another close contest was anticipated. St Andrews led 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Dominic Shepherd and a first of the season from Neil Grant but two late goals for Amesbury from leading scorer Craig Watters and Glen Martin saved a point for Amesbury as the trend of drawn games between the two sides continued.

Melksham Town made in 11 straight wins in the Mid Wiltshire Division with victory against St Andrews on Monday night in the one Veterans' game played in Christmas week.  In the end it was a comfortable 5-0 win with the goals being shared around the team with one apiece for Simon Charity, Tom Staddon, Rob Cousins, Adam Gingell and substitute Ash Groves. St Andrews could easily have taken the lead early on but were denied by a brilliant save from goalkeeper Nick Evans. Evans went on to ensure he kept a clean sheet for the ninth consecutive game, a fantastic record at any level of football and Melksham have conceded just three goals all season in 11 league games and one cup game. The win for Melksham saw them open up an 11 point lead at the top of the division although Bradford Town have three games in hand with the two teams yet to meet this season.

North Wiltshire Division

Just two games took place in the North Wiltshire Division with Monday night's game between Redhouse and Stratton Juniors being postponed.

Action in the North Division saw divisional leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town looking to open up a gap at the top of the table when they met bottom side AFC Swindon still looking to for their first point in the league. After several missed chances player manager Martin Ohrland put the league leaders ahead with a left foot shot from 30 yards out. It was not all one-way traffic through as Royal Wootton Bassett Town keeper George Boys-Stones just held onto a shot from the edge of the box to maintain his sides lead. Royal Wootton Bassett Town extended that lead before the break when a ball through the middle cut open the AFC Swindon defence finding Chris Head who slid the ball under the keeper for 2-0. Second half saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town continue to press for more goals but a combination of some stoic defending and wasted chances saw the leaders struggle to extend their lead. They hit the crossbar from a free kick but did eventually find the net again, Ohrland finding Chris Head with another defence splitting ball and Head rounded the keeper and slotted it home for 3-0. It looked like Head would then complete a hat-trick, but his goal bound effort was punched away by an AFC Swindon defender, Ben Gould put it into the net but the referee had already blown for a penalty and sent the AFC Swindon defender off. Gould was not to be denied his goal though as he took the resulting penalty to score his seventh of the season to become his sides leading scorer. The 4-0 win saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town go three points clear at the top of the table but having played three games more than Redhouse who are six points behind and one more than Prior Vale who are three points behind the leaders. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and subscribers can view the highlights by clicking on the link below or on the link from the Your Sport Swindon page of our website. Royal W.Bassett Town  v AFC Swindon link.

The other game in the North Wiltshire Division was at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night when Swindon Rovers met Swindon Old Boys. It finished honours even with both sides scoring twice, on target for Swindon Old Boys were Ryan Mason, with his seventh of the season, and a third of the season from Martyn Roberts, Mark Simpkins with his eighth of the season and a powerful free kick from Neil Feline replying for Swindon Rovers. The point for Swindon Old Boys lifted them one place in the table to fifth spot. 

Veteran's County Cup

Action involving the Veterans’ divisions this week was dominated by the semi finals of the Wiltshire FA’s Veterans’ County Cup. Both semi finals were staged at the Wiltshire FA’s headquarters at Green Lane Devizes. On Monday night the cup holders and current leaders of the Mid Wiltshire Division, Melksham Town, met the current leaders of the North Wiltshire Division, Royal Wootton Bassett Town. Melksham had won all of their eleven league games going into the game and had former England C international and Walsall, Shrewsbury Town and Oxford United striker James Constable making his debut as they looked to defend the cup they had won back in June. However, it was Royal Wootton Bassett Town who got off to the better start, Steve Howse putting them ahead with his second goal in the competition. Constable then got in on the scoring act on his debut putting Melksham back on level terms. Melksham Town then went in front for the first time through Simon Charity with his eighth goal of the season to make it 2-1. Whilst Melksham continued to have most of the possession, they were always vulnerable to the pace of Jeremy Newton and Chris Head on the break, and both were to inflict damage on the cup holders. First Newton levelled matters up at 2-2 before Head put his side ahead for the second time in the game. With 12 minutes remaining Royal Wootton Bassett Town were temporarily reduced to ten men when dissent from Justin Hyde saw him sent to the sin bin. Melksham took advantage of the extra man and within three minutes were back on level terms, Tom Stadden making it 3-3. Melksham continued to push for the winner but found Royal Wootton Bassett Town keeper Nick Warren in superb form and there was to be no further damage from the temporary dismissal as it finished 3-3 meaning penalties were required to settle matters. Chris Head, Jeremy Newton, Daniel Badman and Peter Wilson found the net for Royal Wootton Bassett Town, but Warren was to continue to be the hero on the night saving the Melksham penalties from both Constable and Charity to ensure it was Royal Wootton Bassett Town who progressed to final at the expense of the holders.

Joining Royal Wootton Bassett Town in the final will be Bradford Town from the Mid Wiltshire Division whose passage through to the final was somewhat more clear-cut as they hit five unanswered goals to defeat Redhouse from the North Wiltshire Division 5-0. Steve Tweddle scored a hat-trick for Bradford Town and leading scorer Rhys Schell bagged a brace to move onto 16 for the season. Tweddle captained his former club Melksham Town to their cup triumph last season and will be hoping he can again lift the trophy this season. The date for the final has already been set by the Wiltshire FA and is scheduled to take place on Friday 11^th March 2022 at Oakfield Stadium, home of Melksham Town, kick-off 7:45PM.

Full details of the route to the final for Bradford Town and Royal Wootton Bassett Town is shown below:

Mid Wiltshire Division

The heavy rain that had disrupted the Premier Division fixtures on Saturday also put paid to three of the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division fixtures on Monday night with just the game on the 3G at Selwood Academy going ahead. Trowbridge Tigers visitors were FC Calne and the three previous league fixtures between the two sides had all finished in draws. Whilst it was once again a close game on Monday night there finally was a decisive result in games between the two when goals from Paul Maddox and a ninth of the season from Adam O’Keeffe secured a narrow 2-1 win for FC Calne over the Tigers, Lee Mattravis with the Trowbridge goal. The win saw FC Calne move above St Andrews into seventh place.

North Wiltshire Division

The league action in the North Wiltshire Division commenced on Tuesday night at New College where Priory Vale and Swindon Old Boys were in action. When the two sides had met back in September a solitary second half goal from Priory Vale’s James Lovell was all that separated the two sides. It was another close meeting in the return match but once again it was Priory Vale who finished with the three points, two more goals from leading scorer Richie Miles, moving him onto 14 for the season, securing a hard fought 2-1 win. A fourth of the season from James Roberts replying for Swindon Old Boys. The win for Priory Vale saw them move level on points with Royal Wootton Bassett Town at the top of the table, six points clear of third placed Redhouse but with Redhouse having three games in hand on both of the top two sides.

On Wednesday evening Swindon Rovers and Stratton Juniors met for the second time this season and there was to be a repeat score of the first meeting between the two sides, with Swindon Rovers completing a second 4-0 win over their fellow Swindon based opponents. Rovers led 1-0 at the break thanks to a goal from Chris Doyle but it was very much the Mark Simpkins show in the second half as he fired a hat-trick, including one from the penalty spot to complete the 4-0 score line in Rovers favour. The hat-trick saw Simpkins take his total for the season into double figures as he moved onto 11 for the campaign. The win for Swindon Rovers saw them climb three places in the table to fifth spot.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Just two games went ahead in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division this week with both games taking place on 3G pitches on Monday night. The game at MOD Lyneham saw a big shock as Melksham Town, who had started the night with a 100% winning record from their eleven league games, were beaten by FC Calne after an impressive second half showing by the home side. Melksham led 1-0 at the break thanks to a Kai Miller goal after FC Calne spurned the chance to go into the break all square having missed penalty on the stroke of half time. They did get themselves back on level terms early in the second half with an assist from the Melksham keeper. It remained all square until four minutes from time but two late goals in the final four minutes deservedly gave FC Calne all three points and inflicted that first league defeat of the season on Melksham. On target for Calne were Stuart Ballinger, who bagged a brace, and Adam O’Keeffe, the latter taking his total for the season into double figures. Having lost last week in the Wiltshire FA’s County Cup, that is now two defeats on the bounce for Darren Perrin’s side ahead of next week’s big league encounter with their nearest rivals for the Mid Wiltshire Division title, Bradford Town. Melksham remain eleven points clear at the top, but Bradford Town can draw level with them if they win their four games in hand and next week’s encounter could have a big say in the final destination of the title. The win for FC Calne saw them move up a couple of places in the league table to fifth spot.

The other game on Monday night in the Mid Wiltshire Division was at Selwood Academy in Frome where Trowbridge Tigers hosted St Andrews. In a tight affair two goals from Trowbridge Tigers Clifford Sakyi saw his side edge it 2-1, Neil Grant with the St Andrews goal. Whilst Sakyis goals secured the win, the Tigers had keeper Ali Jewers to thank for remaining on level terms before Sakyi scored the winner seven minutes from time, the keeper pulling off a tremendous save to deny St Andrews.

North Wiltshire Division

It was a busy week in the North Division this week with just South Cerney Rangers without a game. The action got underway on Monday night when Redhouse had and took the opportunity to close in on the top two with a 2-0 win over Stratton Juniors at Green Lane, Devizes. A fourth goal of the season from Anthony McCusker plus one for Ian Fawkes securing the points for last season’s runners-up who are looking to go one better this season. The win saw Redhouse temporarily move to within three points of top two with two games in hand but the six-point gap was to be restored by the end of the week but with Redhouse having three games in hand.

Priory Vale were the first of the top two to move onto 25 points, four goals from leading scorer Richie Miles sending his side top of the league overnight on Tuesday after a 4-0 win over bottom of the table AFC Swindon at New College. For Miles that is now 18 goals this season and he is now the overall leading scorer across the two Veterans’ divisions. AFC Swindon continue to improve, and their last two games have seen them do reasonably well against the top two and those first points cannot be too far away.

The same night there was a second game of the week at Green Lane Devizes when Swindon Old Boys and Cricklade Town met with Cricklade coming out on top thanks to a 5-3 win. Remarkably Cricklade scored seven of the eight goals on the night, scoring two own goals to add to the five they scored at the right end. Leading scorer Ryan Keech led the way for Cricklade scoring twice to move his total for the season into double figures and there were further goals from Stuart Hemsley, Andy Brien and Paul Lawrence, a sixth of the season from Andrew King with the other goal for Swindon Old Boys.

The final game of the week was on Wednesday night, and it saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town return to the top joining Priory Vale on 25 points, goals from Jeremy Newton and a penalty from Ben Gould in a 2-0 win over Swindon Rovers, both scorers taking their respective total for the season to eight. With both the top two in action again next week and with Redhouse the team without a game, both the top two have the chance to increase the gap to nine points. Redhouse and Priory Vale yet to meet this season with Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Redhouse having met just the once, the three remaining games between the top three sides will have a big say in the ultimate destination of league honours in the North Division this season.

North Wiltshire Division

The headline makers this week in the two Veterans’ Divisions are AFC Swindon. Playing their 30th league game since joining the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League, they finally avoided defeat for the first time securing an excellent 2-2 draw with South Cerney Rangers at Green Lane on Tuesday night. After suffering some heavy defeats in their three seasons in the league, including at the start of this season, results have gradually been improving. The first meeting with South Cerney at the beginning of December saw AFC Swindon lose 3-0. That defeat came after AFC Swindon had conceded eight goals in consecutive weeks against Redhouse and Swindon Old Boys and the 3-0 reverse against Cerney, whilst still a defeat, appeared to be a step in the right direction. Two 4-0 defeats against title chasing Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Priory Vale followed but given how well those two sides were going in the title chase were no worse than how other sides were faring against these two. On Tuesday night against South Cerney they found themselves trailing early on, leading scorer Steve Algar scoring after seven minutes for South Cerney. However, AFC Swindon were back on terms ten minutes later Jason Cobb with his second of the season to make it 1-1. Parity did not last long though, Richard Dickson putting South Cerney back in front six minutes before the break. The second half remained a close affair, and it looked like that would be the end of the nights scoring as the game went into injury time. However, just as it looked like AFC Swindon would suffer another defeat Andy Hendry netted to make it 2-2 and give his side that first ever point. Having now finally ended the run of defeats AFC Swindon will be hoping to go one better next week when they meet Stratton Juniors.

At the top end of the table, it is as you were at the start of the week with Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Priory Vale level on points after both secured wins this week. On Monday night Priory Vale went top of the table following a 3-0 win over Swindon Rovers. Leading scorer Richie Miles set them on their way, putting them 1-0 ahead with his 19^th of the season before James Lovell extended their lead to make it 2-0 at the break. They made sure of all three points when Nick Mackey added a third after the interval.

The following night Royal Wootton Bassett Town were back in action, and they moved back above Priory Vale following a 3-1 win over Swindon Old Boys at New College. Ben Gould maintained his rich vein of form in front of goal for Royal Wootton Bassett Town, netting for the ninth time this season and his fifth in the last six games, substitute Steve Howse scoring the other two goals for the league leaders. On target for Swindon Old Boys was Steve Bunting.

The final game of the week was on Wednesday night at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground where the two sides in opposition came into the game with vastly different recent form. Stratton Juniors had lost five in a row whilst opponents Cricklade Town in contrast had won all of their last three. However, the form book went out of the window as Stratton Juniors secured a narrow 2-1 win avenging the 3-0 defeat they suffered in November to the same opponents. On target for Stratton were Chris Quinton and Vince McMackin, Ryan Keech replying for Cricklade. The win for Stratton saw them climb three places in the league table to fifth spot. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and highlights can be accessed by clicking on the link below or from the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of this website..

Mid Wiltshire Division

There was a full programme of games in the Mid Wiltshire Division this week with all ten sides in action. The big game of the week was at Oakfield Stadium where league leaders Melksham Town entertained Bradford Town. The two sides went into the game with both having lost just once all season in the league but Melksham, having lost in the Veterans’ County Cup a fortnight ago, and then in the league the following week, were in the unprecedented position of looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat. It was expected to be a close game and it certainly lived up to expectations. Bradford Town went in front from the penalty spot in the first half, Steve Tweddle scoring against his former side with his 16^th of the season. However, Tweddle’s former strike partner Charlie Griffin scored twice in the second half, including one from the penalty spot, to give Melksham Town all three points and put them firmly in the driving seat to lift the league title. Whilst Melksham have an 11-point league at the top of the table, they still have some tough looking fixtures in their last five games, including the return game with Bradford Town and trips to Corsham Town and Devizes Town.

Second place Corsham Town remained those 11 points behind Melksham with a hard-fought 2-1 away win at Amesbury Junior. A sixth of the season from Jonathan Scott and fourth of the season from James Lye did the damage for Corsham, Daniel Field with the Amesbury goal. That is now four straight wins and five games unbeaten for last season’s champions who are returning to last season’s form, their only league defeats this season having come at the hands of Melksham Town and Bradford Town.

Another team in form are FC Calne who made it three wins on the bounce on Monday night with a narrow 2-1 success over Chippenham Town Yard Dogs. Stuart Ballinger and Adam O’Keeffe, the two players who had done the damage the previous week against league leaders Melksham Town, were once again on the score sheet, O’Keeffe bagging his 11^th of the campaign, Ryan Nicholls with the Yard Dogs goal.

The final game on Monday night was at Selwood Academy where Devizes Town were Trowbridge Tigers visitors. The two sides turned round at the break with the game still looking for its first goal and it took until ten minutes from time for the deadlock to be broken, Jonathan Couch giving Devizes Town the lead with his fourth of the season. A second for Devizes from substitute David Jenkins five minutes from time made sure of the three points for Devizes who moved up to fifth spot as a result of the win.

The final game of the week in the Mid Wiltshire Division was on Tuesday night at Bulford Camp where St Andrews were Amesbury Junior Badgers visitors. It was a good night for St Andrews who recorded their biggest win since joining the league, running out 12-1 winners against the Badgers who fell to their 15^th defeat of the season. Amongst the goals for St Andrews were Steve Jackson, who with five doubled his total for the season, Dom Shepherd who hit four and there was a brace for Kye Leather and one for Carl Mackness, Michael Broad with the consolation goal for the Badgers.

Mid Wiltshire Division

In the Mid Wiltshire Division only four of the scheduled games were completed with the week’s results overshadowed by the serious injury suffered by Devizes Town player Sam Weller that led to his side’s game against St Andrews at Oakfield Stadium Melksham being abandoned on Tuesday night. It has now been confirmed that the player suffered a broken leg in four places and was operated on during Wednesday. The injury was suffered eight minutes from time with Devizes leading 1-0 at the time. An ambulance was called whilst the player was attended to by medical staff from Bristol Rovers Academy, whose Under 18s were playing on the main stadium pitch. They came over and looked after the injured player, keeping him calm and giving him gas and air to ease the pain, while they waited for the ambulance. After two hours, with no sign of an ambulance the decision was taken to get Sam to hospital using a car. The whole of the Devizes Town side remained with their player until he was taken to the hospital. After the operation he will need to remain in hospital for a number of days. Devizes player manager Craig Townsend commenting the following night said,

“We are so grateful that Bristol Rovers Under 18s were playing Oxford on the main pitch and that their academy physios came over to help us. They deserve a special mention for the assistance they gave Sam.  Thank you also to Melksham Town for allowing the use of the stretcher so we were able to get him into the car.”  

Everyone at the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League wishes Sam a full and speedy recovery from such a serious injury.

On Monday night, also at the Oakfield Stadium, Melksham Town had continued to edge towards the Mid Wiltshire Division league title with what in the end turned out to be a comprehensive win over Amesbury Junior. They did, however, have an early scare when they fell behind to a Craig Watters goal with just two minutes on the clock. With last season’s leading scorer Charlie Griffin now back in action after missing a few games, Melksham’s main man had his side back on level terms shortly afterwards. The same player then scored again before half time to give Melksham a 2-1 lead at the break. In the second half Melksham dominated proceedings and two more from Griffin and two from substitute Gareth Evans gave Melksham a resounding 6-1 win and firmly keeps their title challenge on track.

The same night second in the table Corsham Town continued their recent return to form with a 4-1 win over Trowbridge Tigers. Simon Gray doubled his total for the season by bagging a brace and there were further goals from Ross Hall and Jonathan Scott, the latter taking his total for the season to seven. Substitute Nick Rose scoring the consolation goal for the Tigers. That is now five wins in a row for last season’s champions who sit nine points behind with a game in hand but still have Melksham to play later this month. This a game that they will hope to win to enable them to make in-roads into Melksham's big lead.

Also on Monday night FC Calne made it four straight wins, their best run since joining the league, with a comprehensive 9-0 win over Amesbury Junior Badgers. Leading scorer Adam O’Keeffe scored twice to move onto 13 for the season, Kyle Balloch also bagged a brace, with the other goals coming through Dean Slade, Stuart Ballinger, Jamie Balloch, Gavin Wyllie and substitute Dan Allison.

The final game in the Mid Wiltshire Division this week was at Bradford Town where the home side continued their proud record of not conceding a goal at home so far this season thanks to a 1-0 win over Chippenham Town Yard Dogs. The all-important goal came in the second half, Nick Ross netting for the third time this season to give Bradford Town all three points and maintain their interest in the title race. They remain 15 points adrift of Melksham Town but have four games in hand and with Melksham set to visit at the beginning of next month.

North Wiltshire Division

For the second week running it is the rejuvenated AFC Swindon who are making the headlines in the North Division. After securing their first point since joining the league last week, this week they went one better securing their first ever win on Monday night at Green Lane, a narrow 2-1 success over Stratton Juniors. Two second half goals from Gareth Walton secured that first ever win for AFC Swindon, what turned out to be the winning goal coming six minutes from time. On target for Stratton Juniors was Vince McMackin with his sixth goal of the season.

The following night the league leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town were looking to open up a gap at the top of the table by doing the double over Cricklade Town. However, things did not go to plan as Cricklade avenged the 2-1 defeat they suffered earlier in the season by winning by the same score line. Cricklade’s  victory came thanks to a 12^th of the season from leading scorer Ryan Keech and another from Paul Lawrence, the winner coming within a minute of the Royal Wootton Bassett Town goal from Brady Lilley that had momentarily brought his side back level. The defeat meant Royal Wootton Bassett Town now have an identical goal difference to second placed Priory Vale but remain top having scored more goals but more importantly have now played more games than their two challengers for the title. They certainly cannot afford to drop any more points in their quest for honours.  Looking at their remaining fixtures, the victorious Cricklade side will now be eying up the potential to secure maximum points from their remaining four games but are likely to just miss out on honours even if they win all four.

The same night Redhouse kept their own challenge for the title very much on track with a 3-0 win over Swindon Rovers at Green Lane, Devizes. That completed a league double for Redhouse having beaten the Rovers 4-1 earlier in the season. Leading scorer Dave Rendle bagged his 10^th league goal and 16^th in all competitions and there were further goals from Michael Lichota and Ian Fawkes, both netting their third of the season. The win saw Redhouse move to within six points of the top two with three games in hand on Priory Vale and four games in hand on Royal Wootton Bassett Town. Their destiny is very much in their own hands but the two games they have to play against Priory Vale and the one against Royal Wootton Bassett Town will almost certainly now define the ultimate destination of honours this season.

The final game of the week was at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night when Swindon Old Boys and South Cerney Rangers were in action. When the two sides had met at the start of the season it had finished honours even following a 1-1 draw. In the return on Wednesday night a goal apiece from Swindon Old Boys two leading scorers Andrew King and Ryan Mason saw Swindon Old Boys win for the fourth time this season, the 2-0 win also seeing them climb three places in the table to fifth spot.

Mid Wiltshire Division

With league leaders Melksham Town seeing their game postponed due to a waterlogged pitch there was a chance for both Bradford Town and Devizes Town to close the gap at the top of the table and both took full advantage. On Monday night Devizes Town were back in action, playing at Green Lane and after last week’s traumatic events hoping for an incident free game against bottom of the table Amesbury Junior Badgers. Amesbury were playing their penultimate game of the season and went into the match still looking for their first points of the season. Whilst they scored two goals for only the second time this season there was to be no upset as Devizes hit six of their own with Nathan Palmer also scoring an own goal for one of the Amesbury goals. Devizes led 2-0 at half time thanks to goals from Gary Campbell and player-manager Craig Townsend. Three more goals for Townsend in the second half, as the manager led from the front and as a result took his tally for the season to 12, plus a first of the season from Craig Daykin secured the three points for Devizes, Maurice Davies with the other goal for the Badgers.

Bradford Town were up against St Andrews on Tuesday night and once again the game went to form with Bradford securing a 4-0 win. Indeed, Bradford Town have now hit four goals in each of the four games that have been played between the two sides in the past two seasons. Once more it was the strike duo of Rhys Schell and Steve Tweddle who did the damage, Schell smashing a hat-trick to move onto 19 for the season and Tweddle with the other goal which sees his own total move to 17. The win saw Bradford Town move to within a point of second place Corsham Town and 12 points behind Melksham but with two games in hand on Corsham and three on Melksham with Bradford set to meet Melksham on March 1^st.

The same night that Bradford Town were securing their ninth league win of the season, FC Calne were making it eight league wins and five on the bounce with a 3-0 success over the other Amesbury Junior side. The win avenged the 4-0 defeat they had suffered at the hands of the same opponents at the beginning of the season. It was 0-0 at the break but second half goals from Adam O’Keeffe (2) and Paul Maddox gave FC Calne the points and that fifth straight win. For Amesbury, after their good start to the season, that is now just one win in the last eight games, that only win coming against their stable mates the Badgers.

North Wiltshire Division

There were just two games this week in the North Wiltshire Veterans’ Division but all of the top three were in action. On Tuesday night league leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town were up against a resurgent AFC Swindon who, whilst bottom of the table, had taken four points from their last two games. When the sides had met earlier in the season Royal Wootton Bassett Town had won 4-0 and after last week’s defeat at the hands of Cricklade Town were keen to return to winning ways to maintain their title challenge. After chances at both ends it was the league leaders who went in front, Chris Head rounding the keeper to slot home for 1-0. The second was not long coming. After the AFC Swindon keeper pulled off a great save the ball fell kindly to Steve Shaw who was following up and he fired home for 2-0. There was one more goal before the break and once against it was Shaw the scorer, the striker hitting a low shot into the bottom corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.  Fellow strike partner Steve Howse then had the chance to extend the lead just before half time whistle but his header in front of an almost open goal went agonisingly wide as the teams turned round with the score at 3-0.

Three soon became four after the restart when Dan Badman headed in from a corner for his third of the season. Royal Wootton Bassett Town continued to press for more goals and a neat one-two that started on the edge of the 18-yard box between Ben Gould and Chris Head saw the latter put a tantalising ball across the six yard box that Gould turned into the net to make it 5-0 and send his tally for the season into double figures. Head, who was involved in much of the league leaders attacking play, then raced clear of the back line to fire in number six. There was still time for one more goal, with Head once again involved, his ball into the box finding Shaw who shot into the bottom corner to complete his hat-trick. In the closing stages Head went close to getting a third himself, but his powerful shot was well saved by the AFC Swindon keeper as it finished 7-0 to Royal Wootton Bassett Town. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and the highlights can be viewed by subscribers by clicking on the link below or accessing from the link on the Your Sport Swindon page on the League website.

The final game of the week in the North Wiltshire Division was at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night and it saw the top two scorers in the Division, Redhouse’s David Rendle and Priory Vale’s Richie Miles up against each other for their respective sides. However, for once it is not the two potent strikers who are making the headlines but the two sides defences as the two title challengers fought out a 0-0 draw in a game of limited chances. The point meant Prior Vale are now two points behind the leaders Royal Wootton Bassett Town with a game in hand, with Redhouse six points behind Priory Vale but with three games in hand and four games in hand on the leaders. None of the top three are in action next week but the following week both Prior Vale and Redhouse play again giving Priory Vale the chance to move top and for Redhouse to close the gap.Your Sport Swindon were again at the game and the highlights can be viewed by subscribers by clicking on the link below or accessing from the link on the Your Sport Swindon page on the League website.

Mid Wiltshire Division

The wet weather once again took its toll with the scheduled fixture between Corsham Town and FC Calne having to be called off with standing water on the Southbank Ground pitch. Devizes Town had already taken the precaution of switching their game to Green Lane and were rewarded with three more points which saw them climb a place in the table to fourth spot. They were made to work hard for the points by Chippenham Town Yard Dogs though, with the two sides turning round at half time with the game still looking for its first goal. It was Chippenham Town Yard Dogs who broke the deadlock, Ryan Nicholls bagging his seventh goal of the season to put his side ahead just after half time. However, two goals in the final ten minutes from player manager Craig Townsend, the latter coming 30 seconds from the end, ensured that Devizes claimed all three points and that fourth spot.

Action from the Devizes Town v Chippenham Town Yard Dogs (pictures courtesy of David Giles - for more of David's excellent pictures see the League Facebook Group page)

There were two games the following night, with Bradford Town also having moved their fixture to Green Lane. It was to be a good night for both of the two leading scorers in the division as both Rhys Schell and Steve Tweddle bagged a brace in Bradford’s 7-0 win over Trowbridge Tigers. A third of the season from Steve Munday plus further goals from Marc Canham and substitute Ralph Plummer, who both opened their account for the season, completed the scoring for Bradford Town. The win and a third consecutive clean sheet saw Bradford move above Corsham Town into second place, nine points behind leaders Melksham Town with two games in hand. The two sides are set to meet in a fortnight’s time for a match which could well prove to be a title decider.

The same night Amesbury Junior were in action looking to end a run that had seen them lose three on the trot after having made a good start to the season. Their opponents were St Andrews who had drawn 2-2 with Amesbury in December, the last time that Amesbury had avoided defeat. Amesbury bounced back in style to end that losing run as four goals from leading scorer Craig Watters saw them secure a 6-2 win. Watters took his total for the season to 12 and there were further goals for Amesbury from Daniel Field and Lukasz Labedzki, Steve Jackson with his 11^th of the season and Domonic Shepherd replying for St Andrews. Both sides remained where they started the night in the league table, but Amesbury moved to within five points of FC Calne and with four games in hand will be hopeful of achieving a top five finish by the end of the season.

North Wiltshire Division

There was just the one game played in the North Wiltshire Division this week. At the start of the night just three points separated Swindon Old Boys and Swindon Rovers and with the two sides having drawn 2-2 in the first meeting another close encounter was expected and so it proved. Rovers edged it by the odd goal as they ran out 2-1 winners, Lee Holland from the penalty spot and substitute Tim Hughes with the Rovers goals, Andrew King with his eighth of the season for Swindon Old Boys. The win saw Swindon Rovers climb three places in the table, moving above Swindon Old Boys into fifth spot.

The scheduled game between Cricklade Town and South Cerney Rangers was postponed with South Cerney unable to raise a side.

Mid Wiltshire Division

The knock-on effect of Storms Eunice closely followed by Storm Franklin meant that, with Amesbury Junior also unable to raise a side, all of Monday’s games in the Mid Wiltshire Veterans’ Division were postponed. Consequently, just one game in the division went ahead this week but it was an important game at the top of the division on Tuesday night where both Bradford Town and Devizes Town were hoping to close in on league leaders Melksham Town. Bradford Town started the night nine points behind the leaders with two games in hand but went into the game with Devizes having lost both times to their opponent’s last season. They finally ended that run of defeats on Tuesday evening with a comfortable 5-0 win. Once again it was leading scorer Rhys Schell who did the damage, their star striker smashing a hat-trick to take his total for the season to 24. Further goals from Nicholas Ross and Peter Ayrton completed the scoring and ended any chance, albeit it had only really been an outside chance, that Devizes had of the league title this season. The champions this season will now come from one of either the current league leaders Melksham Town, Bradford Town, or last season’s champions Corsham Town. Bradford’s win saw them move to within six points of the leaders now with one game in hand, the 5-0 win also seeing them match Melksham’s goal difference which could yet end up being the deciding factor this season were Bradford Town to defeat Melksham Town in their big top of the table clash next week. The top two go head-to-head at Green Lane on Tuesday night.

Action from the Bradford Town v Devizes Town game (pictures courtesy of David Giles - for more of David's excellent pictures see the League Facebook Group page)

North Wiltshire Division

The two games in the North Division this week also had major importance at the top end of the table. On Tuesday night Redhouse were back in action looking to close the gap to the top two when they met Stratton Juniors at New College. Whilst Stratton Juniors sat at the bottom end of the table, they had already demonstrated this season that on their night they are a match for any side in the division. This was most clearly highlighted by the four points they had taken from the two games with title chasing Priory Vale earlier in the season. On Tuesday night they gave Redhouse an almighty fright leading 3-1 at one stage before Redhouse staged a comeback to score three unanswered goals to finally take all three points. Dave Rendle and Ian Fawkes both bagged a brace for Redhouse, Rendle taking his personal tally for the season to 18. On target for Stratton were their joint leading scorers Vincent McMackin and Chris Quinton, who both moved their total for the season to seven, and Peter Byrne with his first of the season. The win kept Redhouse’s title bid on track, but they certainly knew they had been in a game against a hard-working Stratton side. The win saw Redhouse to move to within three points of Priory Vale with two games in hand ahead of Priory Vale’s own fixture the following night against bottom of the table AFC Swindon.

Whilst AFC Swindon have shown much improvement in recent week’s it was always going to be a big ask that they take points off the title chasing Priory Vale side and so it proved on Wednesday evening. Two more goals for leading scorer Richie Miles as his Priory Vale side ran out 4-0 winners on the night, Nick Mackey and Martin Burberry the other scorers. The win for Priory Vale saw them move back top of the table a point clear of Royal Wootton Bassett Town with both sides having two games to play, with Redhouse again six points behind the new leaders Priory Vale as had been the case at the start of the week, but still with those three games in hand. It is important to note that both Priory Vale and Royal Wootton Bassett Town still have Redhouse to play in their final two games as the title race develops into a fascinating battle between the three sides.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Once again there was a curtailed programme in the Veterans’ divisions this week with just two games being played in each division but a couple of the games had great importance at the top of each division.

The action in the Mid Wiltshire Division commenced on Monday night at Green Lane, Devizes where Devizes Town met Trowbridge Tigers. Devizes had won all four previous encounters with Tigers ahead of Monday’s fixture, those four wins including a 2-0 success at the end of last month. That winning run for Devizes continued on Monday night as a hat-trick from player-manager Craig Townsend and an own goal secured a 4-1 win for Devizes, Clifford Sakyi with the Trowbridge goal. The score line was harsh on Trowbridge who were in the game for a sustained period of time. Trailing 1-0 at the break they continued to be in the match during the second half but were caught out with a couple of late goals as they tried to get themselves back in the game. The win for Devizes saw them climb above Corsham Town into third spot in the table and the three goals for Townsend took his total for the season to 17.

The big match in the Mid Wiltshire Division was on Tuesday night, again at Green Lane, when the top two met in a game that would almost certainly have a big say in the ultimate destination of the league title this season. Melksham Town led the division six points clear of opponents Bradford Town ahead of the game, with Bradford having a game in hand and the two sides having an identical goal difference. Both of the two previous meetings between the sides had been close run affairs with Melksham edging both games by the odd goal in three. It was another close-run thing on Tuesday night and, with both sides having a player dismissed, it was also a fiery encounter, Bradford Town’s Marek Miszta and Melksham’s Wayne Wheeler both seeing red. It was also one apiece when it came to goals with Nicholas Ross, with his fifth of the season, netting for Bradford Town, and Simon Charity getting the Melksham goal as it finished honours even and the points shared. Melksham now have three games to go and, whilst still six points clear, may still need to take seven points from those three games against Corsham Town, Devizes Town and Trowbridge Tigers to make certain of the title as Bradford have that game in hand and with bottom side Amesbury Junior Badgers still to play are likely to have a better goal difference come the end of the season should they win all of their remaining games. Bradford Town’s other three games are against Amesbury Juniors, Chippenham Town Yard Dogs and Devizes Town.

North Wiltshire Division

The action in the North Division commenced on Tuesday night at New College, Swindon with Stratton Juniors up against South Cerney Rangers. Goals from Jamie Ashby and Peter Byrne secured a 2-0 win for Stratton which saw them climb a couple of places in the table to fifth spot.

The following night Redhouse kept their title challenge on track with a 3-0 win over Swindon Old Boys. Redhouse took the lead through Chris Hughes, the ball falling to him after Old Boys keeper failed to hold a shot giving Hughes a simple tap in for 1-0. Redhouse doubled their lead when a ball over the top saw Tafari Anderson get behind the Swindon Old Boys defence, he beat one recovering defender before slotting the ball past the keeper for 2-0. Leading scorer Dave Rendle then made sure of the points in the second half, side footing into the net from the edge of the box after neat set up play for his 19^th of the season. Swindon Old Boys went close to getting a consolation goal, but Redhouse keeper Stewart Thompson tipped a shot from the edge of box over the bar to maintain a clean sheet for his side. The win saw Redhouse move two points behind second placed Royal Wootton Bassett Town and three behind leaders Priory Vale, with Redhouse having two games in hand on both of the top two sides. Redhouse meet South Cerney Rangers next week and a win next Wednesday would send them top of the table on goal difference. Priory Vale then have the chance to regain the lead ahead of the big crunch match between the two at the end of the month. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and the highlights can be viewed by subscribers by clicking on the link below or from the link on the Your Sport Swindon page on the league website.

North Wiltshire Division

Redhouse have been playing catch up with their fixtures but went into Wednesday night’s game against South Cerney Rangers knowing that three points would take them top of the table above both Priory Vale and Royal Wootton Bassett Town. In the first meeting between the two sides this season, leading scorer Dave Rendle put Redhouse one nil up with a little over five minutes on the clock, Rendle hitting a shot from the edge of the box over the Cerney keeper and into the roof of the net. With Rendle getting that early goal he moved to within one of the Division’s leading scorer Richie Miles but that was as good as it got for Redhouse’s leading striker as he went on to have a night of near misses. His side extended their lead around the 15-minute mark, Jonny Coole curling a shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net for 2-0. Rendle thought he had made it 3-0 shortly after when another shot from outside the box hit the crossbar and bounced down and, with the absence of goal line technology, the claims that it had crossed the line were waved away. Redhouse were then presented with a golden chance to make it 3-0 when Tafari Anderson was brought down in the box and a penalty awarded. Rendle stepped up to take the spot kick but his penalty was well saved by the South Cerney keeper but unfortunately for the Rangers the ball fell to Chris Hughes who was following up and fired into the net for his second of the game. Redhouse kept up the pressure and Rendle found himself clear of the South Cerney back line but his shot from the edge of the six-yard box hit the outside of the post and to safety. South Cerney had their best chance of the half on the stroke of half time with the award of a free kick just outside the box in a central position. Whilst powerfully hit the ball did not trouble keeper Stewart Thompson as his wall did its job and the ball was cleared to safety leaving it 3-0 at the break.

Whilst Redhouse continued to dominate proceedings the expected flurry of goals did not happen. A free kick from Jonny Coole went just over the bar and two guilt edged chances for Rendle were spurned. The first saw him get on the end of a cross from the right on the edge of the six-yard box but his header came back off the post. He was then once again put clear of the Cerney defence, but this time he shot wide of the post and it remained 3-0. Redhouse were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal when, on a rare break from the back, a ball down the right found Cerney’s Jason Stevens who outpaced the Redhouse back line to fire past Stewart Thompson in the Redhouse goal to make it 3-1 on 39 minutes. This gave South Cerney confidence, and they very nearly repeated an identical move moments later, Stevens once again getting beyond the back line but on this occasion, he was unable to repeat the finish. They then had a shot from outside the box that just went over but there was to be no further goals as it finished 3-1 to Redhouse. The win sent Redhouse top of the table with their next scheduled fixture being the crunch clash with Priory Vale. The only blemish on the night for new league leaders was another couple of injuries picked up and they will be hoping that the mini-break until that big top of the table clash allows all their players to fully recover for a game that could well ultimately decide the league title.

The first meeting between Cricklade Town and Swindon Old Boys had been a high scoring game with Cricklade edging it 5-3 and there were once again plenty of goals in the return fixture but on this occasion they all went to Cricklade who dominated from start to finish. They went ahead early on Jamie Richards hitting a superb, chipped shot from the edge of the left hand side of the 18-yard box into the far right hand side of the net for 1-0. Cricklade then had numerous chances to extend the lead but a combination of some last ditched defending and missed shots saw it remain 1-0 until another shot from the edge of the box, this time from Adam Mayhew made it 2-0 before half time.  Cricklade continued to pressurise the Swindon Old Boys goal after the break and Adam Smith extended their lead when he fired a low shot into the far corner of the net for 3-0. The same player then notched a second with a fine individual goal. Picking up a pass on the left-hand side of the box he beat a couple of defenders and then fired in from a tight angle to make it 4-0. The night’s scoring was then rounded-off by Cricklade’s leading scorer Ryan Keech, Keech getting beyond the Swindon Old Boys back line and coolly slotting a side foot shot into the corner of the net for his 13^th of the season. Your Sport Swindon were at the game and subscribers can view the highlights by clicking on the link below or the link on the Your Sport Swindon page of the league website which also gives access to all 10 of the Veterans’ games Your Sport Swindon have covered so far this season in the North Division.

On a very wet Friday night at Green Lane Bradford Town and Royal Wootton Bassett Town Veterans served up a fantastic game of football in the final of the Wiltshire FA’s prestigious Veterans’ County Cup. In the end penalties were needed to decide matters after the game finished all square at 3-3, Bradford Town finally winning 6-5 in the shoot-out after both sides had taken nine penalties each. Bradford Town’s stand-in substitute keeper Allan Clarke was the ultimate hero, scoring one of the Bradford Town penalties and then saving the final Royal Wootton Bassett Town penalty to give his side the trophy.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town started the game brightly with the pace of Chris Head, Jeremy Newton and Steve Shaw causing the Bradford Town back line problems. In the 5^th minute Head was put through one-on-one with Bradford Town keeper Adam Sheppard but the keeper won this challenge pulling off a great save with his feet to deny the Royal Wootton Bassett Town striker. Bradford Town then went immediately up the other end and when Steve Tweddle went down in the box under a challenge there were big shouts for a penalty kick, but referee Chris Harris waved away the appeals and it remained 0-0. Moments later Bradford’s Ricky Trott then went close to breaking the deadlock, his header from the edge of the six-yard box going just over the bar. The large crowd did not have to wait long though for the opening goal through as a quick break down the right-hand side and a neat passing interchange involving the pacey front three of Royal Wootton Bassett Town saw Chris Head feed the ball into Steve Shaw who set up Jeremy Newton to fire in for 1-0 to the team from the North Wiltshire Division.

Both teams continued to play football of a very high standard and Bradford Town got themselves back on level terms ten minutes before the half time break, Nick Ross firing in from the edge of the box for his seventh goal of the season. Three minutes later Royal Wootton Bassett Town went close to restoring their lead, Dan Badman seeing his shot hit the outside of the post. It was end-to-end stuff now and it required a fingertip save from Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s Nick Warren to keep the scores level as Bradford’s two leading scorers Steve Tweedle and Rhys Schell linked up, Tweddle putting in Schell with a great pass and Bradford’s leading scorer hitting a powerful shot which Warren did well to tip over the bar in spectacular style. However, Bradford Town were to go into the half time break with a slender lead. A cross into the box saw the Royal Wootton Bassett keeper challenge for the ball with a Bradford Town player but the ball fell to Steve Tweddle just inside the 18-yard box in a central position and he smashed in an unstoppable shot to give his side a 2-1 lead with his 24^th goal of the campaign. In the closing minute of the half Tweddle had another opportunity but this time he fired his shot just wide of the post and it remained 2-1 at the break. 

Second half continued in a similar vein to the first period, with both sides playing some neat passing football. The better early chances in the half fell the way of Bradford Town. Mark Canham went close with a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box, his shot just clearing the cross bar. Tweddle then had a chance to extend his sides lead, a cross from the right from Paul Beavers being headed back across goal to Tweddle but his shot went wide of the right-hand post and it remained 2-1.

Ten minutes from time Royal Wootton Bassett Town went close to restoring parity from a Jeremy Newton free kick. After arguing that the Bradford Town wall was not ten yards by pacing out the distance from the ball to the wall, Newton returned to the ball and quickly spun round hitting the kick which much to the relief of Bradford Town keeper Adam Sheppard came back off his cross bar and was cleared to safety. Royal Wootton Bassett Town were not to be denied for long though as two minutes later a ball into the Bradford Town box was won in the air by substitute Steve Howse who headed it back to Newton who fired in from a central position on the edge of the box for 2-2. The goal certainly lifted the North Wiltshire Division side and Howse went close to getting a goal of his own, his powerful low shot being saved by Sheppard in the Bradford Town goal, the keeper saving the initial shot and then quickly claiming the ball at the second attempt to avert any further danger.

Once again it was end-to-end stuff as both teams went in search of a winner. Bradford Town thought they had secured it when a cross into the opponent’s box saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town keeper attempt to come out to take the cross, but he was beaten to it by Bradford Town’s Paul Beavers who headed into the net for 3-2. However, it was not to be the winner as there was still time for one more twist in normal time in this dramatic game. Right at the end of the game Royal Wootton Bassett Town were awarded a free kick in a central position just outside the 18-yard box. With two goals already there was only ever going to be one taker of the kick and up stepped Jeremy Newton to curl a low free kick round the wall into the bottom corner of the net for 3-3. The final whistle went shortly after meaning penalty kicks would be needed to decide matters.

After a dramatic 50 minutes of action the penalty shoot-out that followed went close to matching what had gone on before, with a number of twists and turns before the game was ultimately decided. Royal Wootton Bassett Town keeper Nick Warren saved the first Bradford Town penalty but Jeremy Newton, having hit a hat-trick then missed the first Royal Wootton Bassett Town penalty with Bradford Town keeper Adam Sheppard injuring his shoulder as he dived to his left. It looked a serious injury and the Bradford Town shot stopper was unable to carry on with Allan Clarke having to take over in goal after a delay whilst Sheppard was treated. Both sides then scored their next two penalties to make it 2-2. The next set of kicks for each side were both missed and when Bradford Town also missed their fifth spot kick, Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s Brady Lilley had the chance to win the match, but he was denied by a great save by stand-in keeper Clarke to send the shoot-out into sudden death. Each side then scored each of their next three spot kicks to make it 5-5. Bradford Town were then again successful with their ninth penalty, with keeper Clarke being one of the players to put away a penalty. He then took his place back between the posts for the next Royal Wootton Bassett Town penalty and ensured his side would lift the Cup when he dived to save Martin Jefferies spot kick.

A dramatic end to a dramatic night of football in a match that was a credit to the two Veterans’ sides and the two divisions of the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League that they play in. Congratulations to Bradford Town from all at the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League on their cup win and commiserations to Royal Wootton Bassett Town on a tremendous effort that saw them fall just short in the end.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Once again it was just two games in each division of the Veterans’ divisions this week. In the Mid Wiltshire Division three of the top four sides were in action with the big game of the week being at Green Lane where league leaders Melksham Town were Devizes Town’s visitors. Last season both teams had won their respective home games, but both had been close affairs. The sides had also met twice this season, Melksham winning 2-0 in the league and then narrowly defeating Devizes again in the Veterans’ County Cup, 1-0 the score on that occasion. Another close game was anticipated and so it proved as the two sides shared four goals and the points. Nick Oram scored twice for the home side Devizes and Melksham’s leading scorer Charlie Griffin also bagged a brace to take his total for the season to 17. The point increased Melksham’s lead at the top over Bradford Town to four points with Bradford now having a game in hand and Melksham now may well need to win both of their final games to lift the title, although Bradford Town still have Devizes Town to play.

Corsham Town moved above Devizes Town into third spot in the table with a narrow 1-0 win over FC Calne who lost for the first time in a while, having gone into Monday night’s game at Corsham on the back of five straight wins. The all-important Corsham goal was scored by substitute Simon Gray.

North Wiltshire Division

There are new leaders in the North Wiltshire Division as Priory Vale recorded a comfortable 4-1 win over Swindon Rovers on Wednesday night at the Gerard Buxton Ground. The Division’s leading scorer Richie Miles took his tally for the season to 23 scoring two of the Priory Vale goals, a sixth of the season from James Lovell and a first of the season from Michael McCluskey completing the scoring for the new leaders. The consolation goal for Swindon Rovers came from the penalty spot, Mark Simpkins putting the spot kick away to move onto 12 for the season. Priory Vale are now three points clear at the top but have just one game to play, that game being against their nearest rivals for the title Redhouse. Redhouse then meet South Cerney before finishing their own fixtures with another big game against third placed Royal Wootton Bassett Town.

The previous evening at New College, Stratton Juniors had avenged their surprise defeat at the hands of AFC Swindon at the end of January with a comfortable 4-1 in the return fixture. The goals were shared around with one goal each for Chris Allen, Peter Byrne, Matthew Tate and an eighth of the season for Jamie Ashby.

Mid Wiltshire Division

On Monday night both the top two in the Mid Wiltshire Division were in action and it is as you were at the top of the table as both Melksham Town and Bradford Town secured a victory. Melksham Town maintained their 100% winning record against Trowbridge Tigers  thanks to two goals from leading scorer Charlie Griffin who took his tally for the season to 19.

The same night Bradford Town stayed on Melksham’s heels with an emphatic 10-2 win over Amesbury Junior, a side they had lost to in the first few weeks of the season. Leading scorer Rhys Schell led the way bagging another four goals to take his total for the season to 28, Peter Ayrton scored a hat-trick and there were further goals from Paul Beavers, Marc Canham and Steve Tweddle.

Melksham Town remain four points clear with one game to go whilst Bradford Town have two games to play with three key games now set to decide the outcome of the title race. Next Monday Bradford Town travel to Devizes Town's Nursteed Road Ground knowing they need to come away with a result and ideally a win to maintain interest in the title race and keep the pressure on Melksham. Whilst a draw in this game would not confirm Melksham as champions given Bradford Town’s better goal difference, it would mean Melksham would be champions by avoiding defeat in their final game away to last season’s champions Corsham Town. That game is scheduled to take place on Monday 4^th April and whilst Corsham have not been able to defend their title they will be keen to end the season on a winning note. Melksham also lost on their last visit to the Southbank Ground going down 1-0 on a wet and windy night last May. Were Corsham to take points off Melksham in this game it could give Bradford Town the chance to lift the title, assuming they have got a result against Devizes, by winning their final game against Chippenham Yard Dogs. Whilst Bradford Town have defeated the Yard Dogs in all four previous meetings the two games this season, one in the league and one in the Veterans’ County Cup were close affairs decided by a solitary goal in Bradford Town’s favour. 

The other game on Monday saw FC Calne become the second side to complete their fixtures with a 7-2 win over St Andrews to end their season with a perfectly symmetrical record in terms of outcomes with nine wins and nine defeats from their 18 games. With six of those wins coming in their last seven games they will be looking forward to next season with a realistic ambition of challenging for honours. Star of the show on Monday night was Adam O’Keeffe who smashed a double hat-trick to finish on 21 for the season, Stuart Ballinger with the other FC Calne goal, Domonic Shepherd and Stuart Powell with the St Andrews goals.

Devizes Town will go into next week’s game against Bradford Town in good form with just one defeat in their last eleven games, that defeat coming at the hands of Bradford Town in the first meeting between the two sides. On Tuesday night Devizes warmed up for that big game next week with a 3-1 win over last season’s champions Corsham Town thanks to two goals from Nick Oram and one from Jonathan Couch, Simon Gray maintaining his recent good form in front of goal with the Corsham goal.

North Wiltshire Division

There is also an exciting title race in the North Wiltshire Division. After suffering the agony of losing the Veterans’ County Cup final on penalties Royal Wootton Bassett Town returned to Wiltshire League North Division action with an impressive 6-1 victory against Stratton Juniors in their penultimate fixture. Daniel Badman led the way scoring four times with further goals from Kevin Gulliver and Steve Howse securing the win and a league double over their Swindon opponents, Jan Wilmer with the consolation goal for Stratton. The win for Royal Wootton Bassett Town kept alive the team's title hopes, though they are still arguably the outsiders in a three-horse race, but the win maintained the pressure on fellow title contenders Priory Vale and Redhouse. The win saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town move to within a point of leaders Priory Vale with both teams having one game to go, both sides having to still play the other title contender Redhouse. Redhouse sit third two points behind Royal Wootton Bassett Town with three games to play and are best placed to finish top but still have those two big games against the current top two. The first of those games is next week when Redhouse play Priory Vale. A win for Priory Vale would rule out Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s title hopes and could mean that goal difference would be needed to decide the title if Redhouse won their last two games against Royal Wootton Bassett Town and South Cerney Rangers. A draw between Priory Vale and Redhouse would open things up for Royal Wootton Bassett Town and a win in their final game against Redhouse would give them the title, even if Redhouse defeat South Cerney in their other game. The game between Redhouse and Royal Wootton Bassett Town is scheduled to be the penultimate game of the season in the North Wiltshire Division although, as noted above, Priory Vale may already be champions by then. As with the Mid Wiltshire Division it is certainly an exciting end to the season with runners-up spot also to still to play for. 

The final game of the week was at the Gerard Buxton Ground on Wednesday night between Cricklade Town and AFC Swindon. Cricklade continued their fine run of form in the second half of the season with their sixth win in their last seven games. Leading scorer Ryan Keech smashed a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to sixteen and further goals from Lee Tatum, Stuart Hemsley and Adam Smith saw Cricklade run out 6-0 winners. If only Cricklade had started the season in the form they have ended it they would no doubt have been challenging for honours, but will be one of the fancied sides to do well next season.

Mid Wiltshire Division

The title race in the Mid Wiltshire Division will now go down to Melksham Town, and possibly Bradford Town’s, final games of the season after Bradford Town secured a 5-0 away win at Devizes Town on Monday night. The win saw them move to within a point of leaders Melksham Town. Once again it was leading scorer Rhys Schell who did the damage, scoring four times for the second week running to take his total for the season to 32, Nick Ross with the other Bradford Town goal. Melksham Town play their final game on Monday at Corsham Town knowing that a victory will see them crowned champions but if last season’s champions can either draw or defeat Melksham it opens the door for Bradford Town to take the title in their final game against Chippenham Town Yard Dogs the following week.

The scheduled final game opponents for the top two, Chippenham Town Yard Dogs and Corsham Town, were in action against each other on Tuesday night and the two sides shared six goals and the points. Corsham Town led 3-1 at the break thanks to goals from Jonathan Scott, Simon Gray and Ibrahim Bigger but the Yard Dogs came back in the second half scoring two unanswered goals to force a sharing of the points as it finished 3-3. On target for Yard Dogs were Nicholas Still with his eighth of the season, Gino De Antonis and a first of the season from Rob Pocock.

The other game on Tuesday night saw Amesbury Junior play the first of two back-to-back games against Trowbridge Tigers. Two goals from leading scorer Craig Watters, who moved onto 14 for the season, plus further goals from John Cowell and Samuel Craig gave Amesbury Junior a comfortable 4-0 win over the Tigers and saw them close the gap to FC Calne in fifth spot to four points. Amesbury have three games left to try and bridge the gap starting with that return fixture with Trowbridge Tigers next Monday.

North Wiltshire Division

With Covid concerns in the Redhouse camp, the potential league decider against Priory Vale was postponed this week and will be rearranged for a later date.

The one game that did go ahead in the North Wiltshire Division saw Swindon Rovers secure a 3-1 win over bottom of the table AFC Swindon in what was Rovers penultimate game of the season. On target for Rovers were Andy Mark with his ninth of the season, Mark opening the scoring on the night, with further goals from Andy Hayward and Christian Northway, both scoring their first of the campaign. Vivian Zinyemba replied for AFC Swindon also with his first of the season. Swindon Rovers complete their fixtures next week when they play Cricklade Town. For AFC Swindon that was their final game of the season and whilst they again finished at the bottom of the table it has been a much better season, picking up their first win since joining the league and being competitive in most games, particularly towards the end of the season which bodes well for Season 2022-23.

Mid Wiltshire Division



The big match at the top of the Mid Wiltshire Division between last season’s champions Corsham Town and the potential champions this season Melksham Town took place on Monday night. Melksham Town knew that a win in their final game against Corsham would see them crowned champions irrespective of what happened in Bradford Town’s final game against Chippenham Town Yard Dogs which is scheduled for next Tuesday night. However, things did not go to plan for Melksham as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Corsham. Tom Staddon put Melksham ahead after just four minutes, but Corsham equalised six minutes from time through James Lye from the penalty spot. The point for Melksham leaves them currently two points clear of Bradford Town having completed their fixtures with Bradford Town having that one game to go.  With a discipline charge, due to be heard on 14^th April, Melksham may end up being champions of the division whatever the outcome of Bradford Town’s final game. 

Trowbridge Tigers and Amesbury Junior met for the second time in less than a week and early on it looked like the Tigers would avenge the 4-0 defeat they suffered six days earlier as they raced into an early 3-0 lead thanks to two goals from Marc Sheppard and a seventh of the season from Clifford Sakyi. That goal from Sakyi sees him finish as Tigers top scorer for the third consecutive season. Finding themselves 3-0 down Amesbury Junior finally got their act together and pulled one back three minutes from the end of the half through Daniel Field, before Craig Watters reduced the deficit further on the stroke of half time. That momentum continued after the break and four unanswered goals for Amesbury saw them run out 6-3 winners to complete a quickfire double in a game that had been played in a sporting manner throughout, as had been the case six days earlier. Watters completed his hat-trick with two of the second half goals and further strikes from John Cowell and Jon Miller completed the scoring for Amesbury. For Trowbridge Tigers that was their final league game of the season, whilst Amesbury have two to go against Corsham Town and Chippenham Town Yard Dogs. The win for Amesbury means that if they can either win one of their two final games or pick up a couple of draws, they will finish above FC Calne in fifth spot in the table.

On Tuesday night Chippenham Town Yard Dogs and St Andrews met at Green Lane Devizes with just one place and two points separating the sides in the table at the start of the evening. St Andrews were also playing their final league game of the season and knew that nothing less than a win was needed if they were to have any chance of finishing above Chippenham in the table. Unfortunately for St Andrews they fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat meaning, after a reasonable start to the season, they ended it with seven defeats in their final eight games to finish in eighth spot in the table. On target for the Yard Dogs were Ryan Nicholls and Gino De Antonis, Jamie Moth replying for St Andrews.

North Wiltshire Division

Two games in the North Wiltshire Division this week and one involved Redhouse who are now the new leaders of the division. On a wet and windy night at the Gerard Buxton Ground two goals from leading scorer Dave Rendle and one from Chris Hughes secured a 3-0 win over South Cerney Rangers and the victory saw Redhouse go top of the table on goal difference from Priory Vale. Next Tuesday sees Redhouse back in action when they take on the third title challenger Royal Wootton Bassett Town. There is just one point separating the three teams at the top with Redhouse having a game in hand, but their two games left are that game next week against Royal Wootton Bassett Town and then a final game against Priory Vale.

On Tuesday night Cricklade Town continued their recent good form that had seen them win six of their last seven games ahead of their return fixture with Swindon Rovers. Cricklade won the first meeting between the sides 3-1 and went one better on Tuesday night securing a 4-1 win thanks to a hat-trick from Matt Richards and one from Darren Swaddon. Cricklade finished their fixtures next week when they play South Cerney Rangers.

Mid Wiltshire Division

Bradford Town went into their final game of the season knowing they needed to defeat Chippenham Town Yard Dogs if they were to finish their games at the top of the table. It was not to be their night though. Despite two goals from Steve Tweddle, who took his total for the season in all competitions to 27, Yard Dogs also scored twice through Ryan Nicholls and Rob Pocock to ensure a share of the points which meant Bradford Town ended one point short of Melksham Town’s tally. Congratulations to Melksham Town manager Darren Perrin and his side on their title triumph as they went one better than last season’s runner-up position. A good season for Bradford Town as well though, in addition to finishing runners-up in the league they also lifted this season’s Wiltshire FA Veterans’ County Cup.

The previous night last season’s champions Corsham Town played their final game of the season knowing they were already assured of third spot in the table. Opponents Amesbury Junior were looking to get a win from either this game or their final fixture to overhaul FC Calne for fourth spot. Two goals from player manager Iain Walker saw Amesbury get those three points with a game to spare, Simon Gray replying for Corsham as it finished 2-1 to the visitors Amesbury. Amesbury’s game next week against Chippenham Town Yard Dogs is the final fixture to complete the division.

North Wiltshire Division

There was just the one game in the North Wiltshire Division this week with South Cerney being unable to raise a side for their scheduled game against Cricklade Town on Wednesday night.

The one game that did take place was at the top of the table between league leaders Redhouse and Royal Wootton Bassett Town who sat third in the table one point behind the leaders. It was Royal Wootton Bassett Town who went in front a ball over the top seeing Chris Head clear of the Redhouse defence and he smashed a low shot into the net past Stewart Thompson in the Redhouse goal for 1-0. Redhouse got themselves back on level terms when a ball into the box was controlled on his chest by Tafari Anderson who then hit a sweet volley under the body of Royal Wootton Bassett Town keeper Nick Warren to make it 1-1. Dave Rendle went close with a header to putting Redhouse in front, but the games pivotal moment came shortly after and it again involved Rendle. A ball over the top was controlled with his head by Rendle and as he advanced on goal Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s keeper Warren came charging out and body checked the Redhouse striker which resulted in the award of a penalty and a red card for Warren. Rendle took the resulting penalty himself and made no mistake sending the stand-in keeper the wrong way, firing into the corner to the keepers right for 2-1.

Second half saw Redhouse sit back and soak up the pressure limiting their opponents to shots from distance. They made sure of all three points when some neat inter-passing saw Rendle in on goal and he coolly finished for his 24^th of the season and leadership of the divisions' goal scorers’ chart as it finished 3-1 to Redhouse. The win saw Redhouse move three points clear of Priory Vale who they are set to meet in the final game of the season. With an eleven-goal advantage in terms of goal difference, as long as they avoid defeat by six or more goals, they will be crowned champions of the North Division.

Your Sport Swindon were at the Redhouse v Royal Wootton Bassett Town game and the highlights can be viewed by clicking on the link below or using the link from the Your Sport Swindon page on the website.

The final league game in the Mid Wiltshire Division was on Tuesday night and it saw Chippenham Town Yard Dogs  continue their recent good run of form which has now seen them go unbeaten in their final five fixtures, four of which have been against sides in the top five of the division. On Tuesday night goals from Nicholls Still, with his ninth of the season, and Gino De Antonis, who took his personal tally for the season to seven, secured a 2-1 win over Amesbury Junior, player manager Iain Walker with the Amesbury goal.

There were scheduled to be two games in the First Round of the League Cup competition but in the end just the one game was played with South Cerney Rangers being unable to raise a side for their tie against Royal Wootton Bassett Town. The game that did get played saw Redhouse  join Corsham Town in Round Two courtesy of a 5-0 win over AFC Swindon. Two more goals for Dave Rendle saw him move onto 26 for the season and there were further goals from Tafari Anderson, Michael Lichota and James Aghabi.

Four games took place on Monday night in the First Round of the Veterans’ League Cup and the night’s action saw two teams from both of the two divisions progress to Round Two.

Biggest winners of the night were Chippenham Town Yard Dogs who kept their recent good run going with a comfortable 7-0 win over fellow Mid Wiltshire Division side Amesbury Junior Badgers. Amesbury were playing their first game since early March, having been the first side in the Veterans’ divisions to have completed their fixtures. Yard Dogs are now unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions. Both Gino De Antonis and Rob Pocock bagged a brace and further goals from Craig Dore, Jason Forder and an own goal completed the scoring. Chippenham will now be home to either Swindon Old Boys or Amesbury Junior in the quarter final.

All of the other three ties on Monday night were inter-divisional contests. FC Calne are another in-form side who had won six of their final seven league games in the Mid Wiltshire Division. They brought that league form into the cup at Lyneham on Monday night recording a 4-1 home win over North Wiltshire Division side Stratton Juniors. Dean Slade scored twice, there was another goal for leading scorer Adam O’Keeffe who moved onto 22 for the season, another from Paul Maddox completed the scoring for FC Calne, Vince McMackin with his eighth of the season replying for Stratton. FC Calne will now play Royal Wootton Bassett Town in the next round in another inter-divisional tie.

The remaining two ties saw teams from the North Division progress to the last eight of the competition. Ryan Keech was the star of the show for Cricklade Town in their 3-1 win over St Andrews, Keech helping himself to a hat-trick and taking his total for the season to 19, Jamie Moth with the St Andrews goal. Cricklade will now meet fellow North Wiltshire Division side and probable league champions Redhouse in the quarter final. A solitary strike from Swindon Rovers’ Leon Hills was all that separated Rovers from the North Wiltshire Division and Trowbridge Tigers from the Mid Wiltshire Division in the final tie of the night at Selwood Academy in Frome. Swindon Rovers will now be home to Corsham Town in the quarter final.

There were two games this week in the Veterans’ League Cup, one in the First Round and one in the Second Round. The last of the First Round games was at New College on Tuesday night and was certainly a game to remember between Swindon Old Boys and Amesbury Junior. The two sides turned round at half-time all square at 2-2. The second 25 minutes was to see ten goals scored. With with just six minutes to go Amesbury led 6-3 but Swindon Old Boys astonishingly scored five times in those last six minutes to run out 8-6 winners. The game saw three hat-tricks, Andrew King and Charlie Knowles for Swindon Old Boys and Jon Miller for Amesbury. The other two Swindon Old Boys goals were scored by Joe Anderson and James Roberts, Ian Walker bagged a brace for Amesbury, with Gary McCuaig getting the other Amesbury goal.

The first game in the Second Round took place at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground on Wednesday night and involved the two in-form sides in the North Wiltshire Division, league leaders Redhouse and Cricklade Town. Whilst Redhouse look like they will be crowned champions they knew they were in for a tough game as Cricklade came into the match having won eight of their last nine games and were the only side to defeat Redhouse in the league this season, Cricklade winning 4-1 back in December. It certainly proved to be a tough game for Redhouse as two goals from Craig Shand and one from leading scorer Ryan Keech, with his 20th of the season, saw Cricklade win 3-0 to become the first side through to the semi final. Redhouse will look to bounce back next week when they meet Priory Vale in the title decider. Redhouse know that the title will be theirs as long as they avoid defeat by a six or more goal margin.

Next week, as well as that North Division title decider, there is another Second Round Cup fixture with an inter-divisional tie between Royal Wootton Bassett Town and FC Calne.