ON a weekend when most teams were missing players through holidays or illness, there were surprisingly few upsets in the first round of the Westernsport Trophies-sponsored WG Parr Trophy.
Only six of the fixtures resulted in teams being eliminated by teams from lower divisions.
The most notable win was by Division Four side The Crown FC, who came out 14-4 winners over Somerford from a division above.
No fewer than six Crown players got on the score sheet, with Dean Potter leading the pack with five. Alex Peacop, Ashley Holt, Jason Lucas and David Sloan added doubles and James Collett scored one. Chris Yeo (2), Gary Chandler and John Goad replied for a depleted Somerford team.
Fourth Division Wanderers overcame Sutton Benger from two divisions above in a game that was decided in the second half of extra time. Wanderers were never behind, but strong midfield play from Sutton Benger took the game the distance.
Craig Harman opened the scoring but suffered a dislocated thumb for his effort and had to be substituted in the 15th minute. Benger equalised for the first time with a deflected shot from James Pope. Scott Carrick in the Wanderers goal pulled off a tremendous save from a volley to keep it level at half-time.
Dave Grandy restored the home team's advantage early in the second half and Nick Tate extended their lead with a speculative volley from 30 yards. Two quick goals, from Mark Merriman and James Pope, levelled the game but with only minutes to go Domonic Shepherd thought he had won the game for Wanderers. But Sutton Benger applied the pressure and Nick Slade's header took the game into extra-time.
The first 15 minutes saw the deadlock remain but early in the second period, Shepherd added his second and then third goals following neat work from Carl Mackness to put the game beyond the villagers. Aaron Carpenter put the game to bed with a late seventh.
Westbury Rangers B and Wheatsheaf, both of Division Two, overcame opponents from the division higher.
Westbury fought a tough battle with Southwick Sports, winning 4-3 on penalties. Neil Gordon, Chris Storey and Ross Pugh scored during normal time for Westbury, with Marc Harewood, Darren Jones and Gary Rice replying for Southwick Sports. The deadlock was not broken during extra time and the inevitable penalty shoot-out ensued.
Last season's losing finalists Wheatsheaf ran out what would look like comfortable 4-0 winners against Division Two Biddestone Arms but it was not all one-way traffic as Biddestone gave a good account of themselves. Goals from Richard Boden, Graham Neale, a Terry Cox free kick and an individual effort from Olli Parfitt wrapped up the game for the Wheatsheaf.
British Lion switched their home tie against Chippenham Police to the away team's ground at Devizes Police HQ, and the change proved fruitful as the Second Division side cruised to a 6-0 win.
The Lion opened the scoring after 12 minutes when Rob Drown's early ball found Danny Powell in space. With a deft touch Powell beat centre half Tim Culling before drilling past Dave Hunt in the police goal. Two minutes later it was 2-0. Breaking quickly, Andrew Webster showed a deceptive turn of pace on the right wing and crossed to Powell who calmly sidefooted home from eight yards.
It got worse for the police after 23 minutes when goalkeeper Hunt appeared to injure his knee taking a free kick and had to be replaced between the posts by substitute Chris Fairburn.
The police had spent most of the first 30 minutes on the back foot and their first real chance came after 30 minutes when Andy Hunt's snap shot was hit straight at Mark Stonestreet. Two minutes later Jason Roberts and Andy Morley linked well, with the latter's shot being well blocked by Duncan Biggin.
The Lion extended their lead after 39 minutes from a well-worked set piece.
Mikey O'Donnell and Powell played a short corner that was driven across to Webster and the larger than life targetman finished clinically with his left foot. The police struck straight back and two minutes before the break Hunt's deflected shot was brilliantly turned away by Stonestreet.
Going into the second period, the police had to step up their game but were soon undone by another well-worked set piece after 55 minutes. O'Donnell's corner was hit first time on the volley by Dave Crawford and rocketed into the top corner of the net. Within two minutes it was 5-0. Mark Hulland's pass was stepped over by Webster, leaving Luke Enderby the chance to clip the ball past Fairburn.
The police then had their best spell of the game and should have pulled a goal back in the 68th minute. Craig Holden's cross was met by Roberts but the striker's header was wide.
Their cause was made harder five minutes later when Enderby claimed his second and the Lion's sixth with an excellent finish from 15 yards. The lively Hunt then went on a mazy run, skipping past Lion defenders Biggin and O'Donnell but when well positioned he shot wide. At the other end, Enderby nearly set up Webster but a crucial touch from Fairburn directed the cross away from the beefy striker's slide.
As time ran out, Fairburn capped a solid performance in goal with a fine save from O'Donnell's penalty after Drown had been pulled back in the box.
AFC Pilot flew into the next round after a topsy-turvy battle at the Beeches against a team 23 places above them in the league standings.
Pilot took an early lead from man-of-the-match Julian Putt after a great run from Rob O'Harrow was finished off in style. Malford came back after lapses in the Pilot defence to make in 1-1 through Ben Munns after 12 minutes and then extended their lead after a remarkable own goal from 30 yards from Sean Mear to make it 2-1 and then furthered their lead to 3-1 on 33 minutes, once again through Munns. Putt reduced the deficit to take the teams in 3-2 to Malford at half-time.
Pilot reorganised at the break and took a grip on the game in the second half although it took until the 65th minute when Matty Bright smacked an outstanding volley from 20 yards into the top right hand corner to bring Pilot level.
Putt made it 4-3 after 70 minutes and substitute Chris Bishop came on and quickly made it 5-3. Despite going down to 10 men after Sean Mear's dismissal, Putt finished off his outstanding display with his fourth and Pilot's sixth to make it 6-3 after 88 minutes.
Pig and Whistle United provided the final upset of the day by beating Chippenham Sports and Social by the narrowest scoreline, a single strike from Mike Perrott settling the game.
All of the other cup matches went by the form book.
North Bradley knocked in 17 without reply against White Horse, with Stuart Powell hitting seven goals. Chris Fardell bagged four, Phil Reed three, Craig Brown two and Andy Colebrooke one.
Cup holders North Star A eased past Blue Circle (Sunday) with a 9-3 victory.
Goals came from Robbie Kam (3), Karl Sharratt (2), Mark Sharratt, Stuart Riley, Victor Long and Ally Duncan. Blue Circle's goals came from Martin Hemmings and Steve Martin.
The Crown Devizes faced FC Colerne in a home fixture but came out on the wrong end of a 3-1 defeat. They went 2-0 down before Darren Thorpe scored a speculative 25 yarder. FC Colerne scored late in the game to seal the victory. Their goals came from Jamie Bowler (2) and Jason Smith.
First Division Atworth United ran out comfortable winners against their lower league opponents, The Rising Sun. The home team found themselves 4-0 up at the break, thanks to an opener from the evergreen Stuart Holland and one each from Jack Adcock, Ross Menghini, who finished off a flowing move involving some clever interplay between Ian Jeffery and Scott Boyd, and a trade mark thunderbolt free kick from Laurence Brill.
At the start of the second half the Rising Sun pulled one back through Chris Burgess with a great strike. The young Atworth team continued to press forward and Adcock went on to score his second hat-trick of the season and 16-year-old Ross Menghini notched two further goals to complete his first hat-trick in senior football.
Potterne got off to a poor start against Biddestone White Horse, but pulled it back in the second half to go through.
Biddestone's great start got underway after 25 minutes when Paul Clifford's shot was parried out, but only as far as Tamlyn Goodrich at the back post to knock in his first goal. Goodrich made it 2-0 after 32 minutes when his low drive beat James in Potterne's goal. Three minutes later Goodrich brought down a cross and rattled home his hat-trick to give his team a three goal advantage.
The tide turned in the 37th minute when James Holland was deemed to have handled in the area, and Jamie Bayes sent Peter Bennetts the wrong way from the penalty spot. Potterne got their second when Peter Huntley chested the ball in from four yards after 40 minutes.
Potterne could not have asked for a better start to the second half as in less than 10 seconds from the whistle the ball was being picked out of the net as Lee Sanders cut the ball back from the byline for Ben Giles to flick inside the post to give Potterne their equaliser.
After 66 minutes Potterne took the lead when a Sanders' cross was met by Johnny Emm, who thundered home his header. Emm scored his second after being picked out unmarked in the box in the 68th minute. Potterne's final goal came after 84 minutes when Jon Schofield volleyed home a cross from Jamie Bayes from 10 yards out.
Rowde ran out 5-3 winners in their encounter with Cooper-Avon, thanks to two goals from Marcus Wallen and single strikes from Nathan Moffat, Nathan Emm and Jamie Selby.
Despite Kevin Hodgkinson scoring with a 25 yard chip, Corsham Park Rangers found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-1 exit from the cup at the hands of Kingfisher, who scored through Nick Still (2), Luke Stoneham, Marcus Young and Rob Hickman, who dedicated his 30 yard effort to his new daughter who was born last week.
High-scoring AFC Melksham failed to find the net for the second week running against Division One Semington, who ran out comfortable 6-0 winners. Goals came from Stuart Barber (2), Stuart Donahoe, Luke Tallentire, Nathan Walker and Josh Mills.
The game between FC Bradford and Little George was abandoned after 30 minutes when Lee Stevens was taken to hospital suffering from concussion.
Premier Division
ALL-CONQUERING Corsham Centre found themselves 1-0 down to Dog and Fox Ashley.
This is the third time Dog and Fox have achieved this feat in the past few seasons.
Danny Cottrell opened the scoring in the first half for the Bradford side, but his strike was cancelled out at the start of the second half.
The Centre upped the game in the second half with the prolific James Lye scoring off the post after striking the bar in the first half. A well worked move saw Simon Gray take a clinical finish with the outside of his right foot.
After 65 minutes, Gray got his second league goal of the season and his second of the match, this time with his left foot. Late on Shane Godsell made his debut for the Centre in a match that was a credit to the league.
Bradford News pulled off the shock of the day when they beat Spencer Sports 5-2.
Ashley Groves and Barry Holloway scored for the Sports but it was not enough to stop a spirited display from the News who, despite only having the bare 11 players, played great counter attacking football to win the game. Goals came from Russell Francis (2), full back Nathan Olasz and Jason Povey (2), the first of which was an outstanding individual effort.
Winsley came back to some form with an 8-3 win over Trowbridge Harriers.
Philip Little scored a debut goal and that was followed by tap-ins for Luke Harfield and Dan Kovacs. Paul Ranger took a quick 25 yard free kick and caught the defence unprepared for the fourth. Dean Ranger kept it in the family by lobbing the goalkeeper from 40 yards.
Neil Kirkpatrick then came up with two goals, one a penalty, but was deprived a hat-trick by his own son Sam who stepped up to dispatch his first senior goal from the spot.
Harriers replied through Naseem Abourackid and a double from Carl Patrick.
The game was excellently refereed by Pete Cox, who allowed the game to flow, but stopped any nonsense.
Box Rovers found themselves 2-0 down, to goals from Dan Lardner and John O'Meara for Biddestone Arms, before they started a fightback. Goals by Sam Sibbick and a debut effort for Luke Wolf drew the teams level only for Jamie Lyons to win the game for Biddestone Social with a penalty in the dying seconds.
Kevin Colbourne deserves special mention in the Box goal for his tremendous effort in this first class match.
Division One
THE only game in the division saw title contenders Kings Arms drop points to Hullavington in an exciting 4-4 draw.
The visitors ran away to a 4-2 half-time lead, with two goals from Andy Waller, one straight from the kick off, Jake Fisher and a first goal for the club from James Nation. Scott Askew scored two goals in each half to tie the game before being sent off late on.
Division Two
AFC CALNE went top with a 4-2 win over Fascia Graphics. Goals came from Aaron Clegg (2), Craig Fry and Richard Sheffield. Fascia hit back through Marc Smith and Reece Allison.
Horse and Groom came close to their first win of the season against title contenders The Ship. With only a bare 11 players, they battled for most of the second half with only ten after their goalkeeper had to leave the pitch through injury. An own goal, a drilled free kick by Richie Hunt, a spectacular 25 yarder by Chris Fenwick and a goal from Ben Derek, who had to take over in goal, made up the Horse's tally. A Shaun Percival hat-trick, two from Dave Russell and one from Lee Hayward made up the count for The Ship, who ran out 6-4 winners.
Division Three
LEADERS Southgate Inn knocked in seven without reply against Chippenham United RAOB.
Goals came from Stuart Skinner (3), Julian Alexander, Nick Lemon, Tony Kelly and Adam Davies.
Division Four
ONLY four games were played in the division, but they produced 21 goals.
AFC Bell took advantage of other teams being involved in the cup to go second after their 7-4 victory over Churchill Arms. Goals came from Craig Townsend (3), Steve Sardin (2) and Jon Couch (2). Churchill replied through Robin Gorham, Luke Gorham and two from Miles Pickton.
Bromham moved up a few places to fourth after beating Old Road Tavern 6-1.
They went in only 1-0 at half-time, but in the second half the floodgates opened. Goals came from Daniel Fennell (2 penalties), Chris Sampson, Andy Bartlett and Freddie Paget (2). Old Road replied through Danny Stonham.
North Star B finally got back to winning ways against Trowbridge Town Supporters' Club with a narrow 2-1 victory. Despite Shane Minnis missing a penalty Dave Lymath's brace was enough to secure the win for the visitors.
JC Brown got the Supporters' Club reply.
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