SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE NEWS 2019/20 EDITION NUMBER 34 #34 Hello and welcome to the latest edition of your Newsletter, if you have anything to contribute, please do get in touch by email- [email protected] You can keep up to date with all the news from around the League by following us on Twitter at - @Sydwessex You are more than welcome to use any material (excluding attributed photographs) but it would be appreciated if any material used is acknowledged. It is hoped you enjoy reading this each week. With readership quite widespread, not only within our own competition, but across the three counties and beyond- if ANY club has anything they’d like to have published in here, whether that be a request for helpers, promotion of forthcoming events, items required or available for sale please contact the Newsletter Editor. As a general reminder- Match Reports, player news and photos are always welcome- it is your Newsletter! Sunday, 23 February 2020 Page 1 of 23 SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE NEWS 2019/20 EDITION NUMBER 34 LEAGUE NEWS The above mentioned posters have been updated; the new version can be found on the Sydenhams League website - Information / Form & Programme Downloads / Race Relations or email the Newsletter Editor for a copy. Please ensure that you download, print copies and laminate or equivalent, for display in your changing rooms, club house and ground. The league’s officers will be checking to see that these posters are displayed, failing to display these posters will result in an automatic £50.00 fine. With thanks for your cooperation. Sunday, 23 February 2020 Page 2 of 23 SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE NEWS 2019/20 EDITION NUMBER 34 NOW HEAR THIS The Sydenhams Wessex Football League Show is the official podcast of the Sydenhams Wessex League. We’re on air live from the 103.9 Voice FM studios in Southampton from 3pm to 5pm every Sunday and you can also listen live on www.voicefmradio.co.uk from anywhere in the world. You can listen again afterwards, 1 hour after the show has finished via the same website and there is also a Voice FM App you can download to your Phone I-Pad or Computer device. Our aim is to promote all local football but specifically the 39 teams of the Sydenhams Wessex League. We have had managers, chairmen, players, press officers and secretaries joining us as studio guests and phone guests; from all our League clubs, as well as guests from local teams both higher up and lower down the pyramid. This is your show and is a platform for your club to promote its events and raise its profile. If your club produces post-match interviews please either email us a copy of the audio or give permission for us to play them on air straight from your website or social media sites, as we will aim to play them on the show. Please come and join us one Sunday – either live in the studio or on the phone. You can email us on either [email protected] or [email protected] Thanks- Cliff Pledge and Greg Dickson Sunday, 23 February 2020 Page 3 of 23 SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE NEWS 2019/20 EDITION NUMBER 34 STAT ATTACK LEADING GOALSCORERS- LEAGUE GAMES ONLY PREMIER DIVISION DIVISION ONE Scott Hills AFC Stoneham 20 Justin Bennett Bemerton Heath Harlequins 32 Craig Harding Alresford Town 18 Connor Kelly Newport IOW 21 Sam House Lymington Town 16 James Franklyn US Portsmouth 19 Bobby Scott Horndean 15 Liam Magee Romsey Town 19 Dom Falco Lymington Town 14 Tom Moseley Downton 19 Harry McGrath Bashley 14 Lee Vint Verwood Town 19 Jason Parish Baffins/AFC Portchester 14 Josh Bertie Andover Town 16 Dan Wooden AFC Portchester 14 Chae Sykes Laverstock & Ford 15 Details are based on clubs being up to date with records on Full Time at time of publication and may or may not include League goals from this weekend. THE LEAGUE GOALS PREMIER DIVISION Top three league attendances COUNT THIS WEEK- Fleet Town v Brockenhurst 241 28 September AFC Stoneham v Alresford Town 221 8 February PREMIER DIVISION Bashley v Alresford Town 221 7 September 29 DIVISION ONE Top three league attendances DIVISION ONE Newport IOW v East Cowes Victoria 304 26 August 14 Andover New Street v Andover Town 248 8 October Laverstock & Ford v Downton 201 28 December PREMIER DIVISION GOALS DIVISION ONE GOALS Sharpest Meanest Sharpest Meanest Alresford Town 66 Christchurch 18 US Portsmouth 82 Petersfield Town 23 AFC Stoneham 65 AFC Stoneham 31 Bemerton Heath 79 Hythe & Dibden 28 Hamworthy United 65 AFC Portchester 35 Andover New Street 71 US Portsmouth 32 Lymington Town 63 Baffins Milton Rovers 35 Newport IOW 70 Downton 35 AFC Portchester 62 Bashley 35 Hythe & Dibden 65 Newport IOW 36 Horndean 61 Lymington Town 36 Downton 59 Bemerton Heath 37 Portland United 60 [two on] 38 Romsey Town 53 Alton 38 SOUTHAMPTON SENIOR CUP 2019/20 2018/19 WINNERS- Alresford Town Semi Final draw Bush Hill 4-Mar AFC Totton At Hamble Club Blackfield & Langley 10-Mar Bashley At AFC Totton Just for a bit of background- Blackfield won it in 1949, 1991, 1993 and 1998. Totton/AFC Totton won it in 1929, 1930, 1947 (Reserves), 1981 and 1982. First team won it unless stated. Bashley and Bush Hill have yet to pick up the Trophy. DATE FOR YOUR DIARY- Saturday 2 May, Sydenhams League Cup Final, Crest Finance Stadium, home of AFC Portchester. KO 15:00 Sunday, 23 February 2020 Page 4 of 23 SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE NEWS 2019/20 EDITION NUMBER 34 WHEN SOLENT SCORED SIX ACROSS THE SEVERN Back to the Programme collection again and memories of a lovely day on the Banks of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean in August 2016 and a game in the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup. Team Solent, as they were then, had avoided a fellow Sydenhams League side in the draw and instead were rewarded with a visit to Lydney Town, members of the Hellenic League Premier Division and therefore playing at a similar level. With an aversion to the Severn Bridge the journey down was via Gloucester and then southwards along the side of the Severn – very picturesque in places – to Lydney, a lovely town with a population of around nine thousand. The football ground, neat in itself, was easily found and situated alongside one of the prettiest Cricket grounds I have seen and where Gloucestershire have played in times gone by. A very good Programme with a comprehensive report of a pre-season friendly with Hereford United that had attracted an attendance of in excess of eight hundred. One hopes that they were all able to see the game which was extremely beneficial in financial terms to the Club. Back to the game in question and in true shirt sleeve weather Solent got off to the best possible start with a goal from Tyrrell Mitford in the opening sixty seconds and another, this time from Ekow Elliott, five minutes later. Pre match conversation had suggested that the home side had goalkeeping problems with regard to availability on the day and, whilst it would be unfair to blame him for the size of the defeat, the young lad between the posts did not have the best of afternoons. (A check on Full Time confirms it was the only appearance he made for the first team that season.) But that should take nothing away from Solent who were in a different class to their opponents all afternoon. Further goals from Mitford, Elliott and Martin Johnson made it five before the break and using a term better suited to the adjoining pitch, Solent declared in the second half with just one further goal, from Jemal Wiseman, to leave the final score at six nil. To their credit Lydney never gave up and struck the post just before the end but the result was never in doubt after the opening five minutes. Lydney fielded four teams in various competitions and there were some unusual place names in the Gloucestershire Senior League North of which their reserves were members – English Bicknor and FC Barometrics to quote just two. The first named is a village on the Gloucester/Hereford border and the second are based in Bishops Cleeve, close to Cheltenham Racecourse. Team Solent exited the competition at the hands of Cadbury Heath in the next round – to this day the win over Lydney remains their only success in the FA Cup – and they went on to finish seventh in the Premier Division at the end of the season. As well as the sunshine the game was played to the background sounds of the Dean Forest Railway with the Station a little further up the road and was enjoyed in the company of Gary Day, whose memory and information has made this eminently more readable than it would have been otherwise. The Severn Bridge did not feature on the ride home, but for the Statisticians amongst you, here’s the Team Solent/Solent University FA Cup story to date. 2013-14 Extra Preliminary Rd. [1-3] v AFC Portchester at Test Park. Dan Brunnen (1) 2014-15 Extra Preliminary Rd. [0-1] v Cowes Sports at Westwood Park. 2015-16 Extra Preliminary Rd. [3-4] v Blackfield & Langley at Test Park. Matt Sheedy (2), James Taylor (1) 2016-17 Extra Preliminary Rd. [6-0] v Lydney Town at Lydney. Tyrrell Mitford (2), Ekow Elliott (2), Martin Johnson, Jemal Wiseman. Preliminary Rd. [1-4] v Cadbury Heath at Springfield. Pip Nolan (1) 2017-18 Extra Preliminary Rd.