West London Vets League Round Up 05/10/22

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West London Vets’ League Round Up

5 October 2022

Big wins for the Yellamen

Week 2 of the 2022-23 campaign saw both Ascot United Vets’ sides come out very much on top in their respective WLVFL encounters.

The ones welcomed Croxley Community Vets to the Racecourse on Friday 30th and they ended up coming out clear victors (7-2). It wasn’t, however, a complete walk in the park. Croxley went in at half-time 2-1 up and indeed proved themselves to be very dangerous on the counter-attack.

The introduction of former Gillingham player John Nutter at half-time nonetheless changed the feel of the game completely. He bagged one goal himself and was also involved in two others. Rob Saunders, meanwhile, decided that he was going to indulge in his own personal goal-of-the-season contender competition. First up he banged one in off the bar from 25 yards and then mid-way through the second half he came out with the small matter of a volley from the far-left corner of the area over into the top right hand corner. It was decent. 

Twos look good

The twos also had a decent day, winning 8-1 at Claygate Royals Hounds. Martin Kay’s side got out of the blocks quickly, Gareth Brant bagging a brace before half time, with Jez Myhan and Loz Munns also firing in decent efforts. Dave Thompson, with a pershing missile of a one yarder, completed the first half scoring.

Claygate, much to their credit, kept at it and it was only late in the second half that Ascot added to their total. Brant helped himself to a penalty (and a hat-tick), Jez Myhan notched his second of the day and Micky Parker coolly pinged a left-footer into the corner from the edge of the box. 

Goodness knows what else the twos could produce if they ever actually get to an away game on time!

Around the league

Sporting Kitz and Chelsea Veterans remain the pacesetters in the Prem, both now having played two and won two.

Kitz are on top, and that’s on account of their +11 goaldifference. On Saturday they put 9 past an off-colourSpartans. Chelsea Vets also won convincingly; they beat the ever obdurate Bank of England 5-2. 

Elsewhere in this division Kew Park Rangers are up and running, they beat Nottsborough 3-1. That means that Nottsborough are played two lost two – far from the end of the world but they’ll be keen to get points on the board sooner rather than later. West London Rams are now up and running in the points department, they bounced back from their defeat in Week 1 with a 6-2 win against Polytechnic.

Division One

Old Actonians find themselves on top of Division One, and that in spite of only being able to draw 1-1 at Whippet Wanderers at the weekend. 

Actonians are now on four points, one ahead of four sides on three. Despite not playing at on Saturday Claygate’s 1st XI remain second (on goal difference), whilst Jamrock Steppa’s4-2 win over Civil Service sees them move into third. Old Tiffs’ 2-1 win at Laleham & Kempton means that both those sides have three points, too.

West Kensington Kings and Wandsworth Borough are currently down near the bottom of the table, but there’s good reason to believe that both will ultimately be much nearer the top by the time the prizes are handed out. They played out a 3-3 draw between themselves on Saturday. 

Division Two

It’s Hillingdon Abbots who are setting the pace in Division Two. They are played two won two. They will be pleased to have come out on top in what looked a tricky encounter away at the Bank of England’s 2nd XI. The Abbots were one up at half-time and at that stage they were having much the better of things. BoE nonetheless came back impressively in the second half and it was only late on that Hillingdon grabbed a second and with that all the points.

Old Tens got their season up and running with a 5-0 drubbing of Meadonians. Two promotions on the bounce for Paul Gladstone’s side? Far too soon to be opening the champagne bottles, but they are certainly out of the blocks quickly.

With Army Crusaders and Double H off (as the Crusaders were on tour in Canada), the only other game in the division was between Lighthouse Molesey and MMB. The hosts came out 3-1 winners there.

Division Three

The third division already has the feel of a two horse race. Whilst Ascot won impressively at Claygate Royals Hounds to go two and zero, Hersham Southside were winning 7-1 at the much-fancied Latimer Road Vets.

Hersham’s side is theoretically a merger between long-standing WLVFL members Hersham Sports and Social and Southside, Sunday friendly vets’ side. In practice, most of the players stem from the Southside part of that equation and it was one of them, Steve Reading, who bagged four goals against Latimer Road. Former Hersham S & S player Paul Deacon, north of 55 and still going strong, notched one of the others. 

In the third game in the division on Saturday Croxley got their first points on the board. They won 2-1 at Old Tiffs. 

The magic of the cup

There are no league games scheduled for Saturday 8 October, but four ties in the League Cup preliminary round will be taking place.

Ascot United find themselves in two of them. The ones will be trekking over to Roehampton to play Bank of England in the round’s only all Premier League affair. The seconds are also on the road; they have a tough task on their hands. They visit Croxley 1s. 

Elsewhere, Clapham Old Xaverians (Div 3) will be welcoming Old Tiffs (Div 1) and AFC Hampton (Div 3) will be hosting Double H (Div 2). The winners of those four ties will be looking to take their place in the next round (scheduled for 12 November).

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