These
reports may not published in the local press. They are not
copyrighted, feel free to use providing you acknowledge the source!
West Kent Sunday League Report – Sunday 19th March 2017
The only big issue in the four Divisions is the outcome of the First
Division championship race. Simla must win at Dormansland Rockets next Sunday or Artois United gain the trophy, simple as that!
Congraulations to Gardener's Arms, winning Division Two and remaining
unbeaten. Both Bricklayer's Arms (Division Three winners) and
Tunbridge Wells Foresters's Reserves (Division Four winners) deserve
accolades. Both won by fairly narrow margins in closely competed
competitons.
Gardener's Arms unbeaten League season made me look back over the last
ten years. An unbeaten League season doesn't happen all that often,
although there have been some pretty outstanding feats. Pride of
place goes I think to Jarvis Brook, who won Divisions Three, Two and
then One in successive seasons from 2012-3 to 2014-15, a total of 50
games without a defeat. Then they folded! Simla have won Division One
twice while not being beaten, in 2013-2014 (14 games) and again last
season, also 14 games. An award, if there was one, for the most games
unbeaten in a single league season would be shared by Pembury Sunday
(won Division 1 in 2007-8 and played 22 games) and also KW Hayward
United, who won Division Four in 2014-5 also having played 22 games that
season.
For completeness the others who have managed this since 2007 are :
Wahdurst White Hart (whatever happened to them?) , Robin Hood and last
season's Divison Two winners TW Foresters.
Surrey Lower Junior Cup Semi-Final
Dormansland Rockets booked a trip to play AFC Thornton at Carshalton FC on Wednesday
10th May by winning their Surrey Cup semi final on Sunday in a very well
contested but sporting match with Banter Central.
They didn't get off to the best of starts, conceding after about three
minutes following some sloppy defensive play. From there on in
though, slowly but surely they got a foothhold into the game and
were creating numerous chances. Eventually, after prolonged pressure the
equaliser came scored by top scorer Rich Wetton.
The second half continued in the same vein, with Rockets on top. This
resulted in further goals from Martyn Bishop, Miguel Dunne, Brett Caiger
and another from Rich Wetton.
Banter didn't give up though and two goals in quick succession late in
the game reminded Rockets that the game was not yet over. With
five minutes to go Miguel Dunne ensured it was as he got his second and
Rockets sixth. Final score, Rockets 6 Banter 3. (There must be something in that but I cannot think of it right now!)
Rockets will have plenty of practice to come before then. They have a
WKSFL Senior Cup Semi final and five league matches in which to hone
their skills.
Division One
Insulators were again without a number of players and decided to rotate player positions for the final league game of the season away to Tonbridge Origin.
This didn't look too clever to start with. Origin raced into a three
goal lead, with goals from the Divison's top scorer Myles Lowden, Jimmy
Shepherd and Ant Kent. Origin missed plenty of other chances. However in
the second half, with the wind at their backs, it was Insulators
manager Kierron Banks who scored direct from a corner to make it at
least interesting. It became more so when he added a penalty fifteen
minutes from the end. Origin also continued to have chances in an end to
end game. Final score Origin 3 Insulators 2. Nice to see players with a
smile on their faces, said Insulators and they added a well done to
Origin on achieving at least third place with 'Slators behind in 4th.
| Pos |
Team |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
Artois United |
14 |
10 |
1 |
3 |
62 |
25 |
37 |
31 |
| 2 |
Tonbridge Origin |
14 |
10 |
1 |
3 |
55 |
29 |
26 |
31 |
| 3 |
Simla # |
13 |
11 |
0 |
2 |
45 |
21 |
24 |
30 |
| 4 |
Insulators |
14 |
7 |
1 |
6 |
51 |
29 |
22 |
22 |
| 5 |
Armada |
13 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
25 |
29 |
-4 |
17 |
| 6 |
TW Foresters |
12 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
28 |
45 |
-17 |
13 |
| 7 |
Dormansland Rockets |
9 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
21 |
42 |
-21 |
3 |
| 8 |
Goudhurst United + |
13 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
13 |
80 |
-67 |
3 |
Division Two
Gardener's Arms wrapped up their unbeaten Division Two campaign with a 7-0 victory at Cassidy's Phoenix.
Karl Smith netted four, with Andrew Grundy (2), Lee Cooper and Jon
Loveday also on the scoresheet, whilst Ben Carter moved a step closer to
winning the golden glove with his 11th clean sheet of the season.
SE Spitfires recent run of good form came to an end with a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Green Lane.
Lane's scorers were Jamie Cutts and James Donaldson. Tom Welch and Jack
Page shared goalkeeping duties, being awarded half a clean sheet each.
| Pos |
Team |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
Gardener's Arms (C)
|
16 |
13 |
3 |
0 |
62 |
13 |
49 |
42 |
| 2 |
Pembury Sunday |
15 |
11 |
2 |
2 |
52 |
12 |
40 |
35 |
| 3 |
Green Lane |
14 |
7 |
3 |
4 |
36 |
25 |
11 |
24 |
| 4 |
Paddock Wood + |
14 |
6 |
1 |
7 |
29 |
42 |
-13 |
22 |
| 5 |
SE Spitfires |
15 |
5 |
2 |
8 |
22 |
35 |
-13 |
17 |
| 6 |
Brenchley |
16 |
5 |
2 |
9 |
29 |
46 |
-17 |
17 |
| 7 |
Hawkenbury Sunday |
15 |
3 |
3 |
9 |
27 |
37 |
-10 |
12 |
| 8 |
Cassidy's Phoenix # |
16 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
26 |
48 |
-22 |
12 |
| 9 |
Langton Green |
15 |
3 |
3 |
9 |
33 |
58 |
-25 |
12 |
Division Three
Crowborough Town needed to win their final game at home to Rusthall Club Athletic
to grab runners-up spot but it was not to be. Town came flying out of
the blocks and went one ahead after 50 seconds, with another brilliant
volley from Darren Nicol. For the majority of the first half the game
was fairly even, until Town's captain Nicol had to leave with an injury
and this seemed to unsettle the rest of the team. The visitors took the
advantage of this and scored twice in the last ten minutes to make it 1 -
2 at half time.
As the second half went on the standard of play deteriorated, with just
the occasional, very occasional, bright spot of good football. With 90
minutes on the clock Rusthall managed to add two more goals in
'stoppage' time to make the final score Crowborough Town 1, Rusthall
Club Athletic 4. Club's scorers were Ben Johnson (2), Gary McCafferty
and James Scott.
| Pos |
Team |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
Bricklayers Arms (C) |
15 |
12 |
0 |
3 |
59 |
24 |
35 |
36 |
| 2 |
Green St Blues |
16 |
11 |
1 |
4 |
38 |
25 |
13 |
34 |
| 3 |
Crowborough Town |
16 |
10 |
1 |
5 |
47 |
33 |
14 |
31 |
| 4 |
Rusthall Club Athletic |
14 |
8 |
2 |
4 |
49 |
26 |
23 |
26 |
| 5 |
Tonbridge Invicta |
16 |
8 |
2 |
6 |
54 |
33 |
21 |
26 |
| 6 |
St John's Yard |
16 |
6 |
1 |
9 |
30 |
59 |
-29 |
19 |
| 7 |
Paddock Wood Reserves |
15 |
5 |
1 |
9 |
22 |
44 |
-22 |
16 |
| 8 |
Ticehurst Village |
16 |
4 |
2 |
10 |
34 |
48 |
-14 |
14 |
| 9 |
Speldhurst Rangers |
16 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
25 |
66 |
-41 |
2 |
Division Four
Insulators Reserves and AFC Six in One
wrapped up their League campaigns with a high scoring game at the
Memorial Ground. Insulators led 5-0, with four goals from Kieron
Pattenden (his first hat trick for the club) and one from Reece
Beecroft. Having missed countless other chances, ten man Six in One
fought back with three goals in the last 20 minutes, including two from
the League's leading scorer Ryan Smith and also hit the bar. Jason
Carver scored the other goal for the visitors. Over the sixteen league
games, an average of 8.25 goals has been scored in the games involving
Six in One.
Said management, it was a good way to end a decent league season by Insulators Reserves who finish in 4th place.
FC Hayward did not fulfill their final fixture with Tonbridge Origin Reserves. A Management Committee decision is awaited.
| Pos |
Team |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
Pts |
| 1 |
TW Foresters Reserves (C) # |
16 |
13 |
0 |
3 |
78 |
29 |
49 |
36 |
| 2 |
FC Grinstead |
16 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
57 |
32 |
25 |
33 |
| 3 |
FC Hayward |
15 |
9 |
2 |
4 |
52 |
32 |
20 |
29 |
| 4 |
Insulators Reserves + |
16 |
7 |
3 |
6 |
46 |
48 |
-2 |
27 |
| 5 |
AFC Six in One |
16 |
7 |
2 |
7 |
73 |
59 |
14 |
23 |
| 6 |
Tonbridge Origin Reserves |
15 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
44 |
43 |
1 |
22 |
| 7 |
Tonbridge Casuals |
16 |
3 |
5 |
8 |
31 |
55 |
-24 |
14 |
| 8 |
TW Youth (Ridgewaye) |
16 |
3 |
3 |
10 |
47 |
80 |
-33 |
12 |
| 9 |
Tonbridge United |
16 |
1 |
2 |
13 |
13 |
63 |
-50 |
5 |
Spring Cup Senior Section
Having beaten Goudhurst United 3-1 in the League the previous week, Armada
doubled it by beating them 2-0 in Spring Cup (Senior) Group 2. Scorers
were Tom Wood, on debut and Jack Matthews on his 100th appearance. James
Larkin kept his second clean sheet of the season.
In the other group 2 match, Simla took on Division Two side Paddock Wood.
Paddock Wood struggled for players today, so started the match with
only nine players. They defended very well and stopped Simla from
scoring on numerous occasions, but again Simla were their own worst
enemy with so many wayward shots. No score at half time.
With all the play at the Paddock Wood end they sometimes broke out of
defence to attack Simla's goal and from one of these occasions they
scored a good goal, scorer's name unknown. Simla continued to misfire
until late on, when David Blundell scored followed by two more, one from
Alex Carey with a fine volley and then one from Joe Adams.
Congratulations to Paddock Wood on the way they played today with only nine men and so nearly caused an upset.
The group 2 table looks like this :
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Simla | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Armada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Green Lane | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Goudhurst Utd | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 3 |
| Paddock Wood | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 0 |
In group 3, Langton Green did not fulfill their fixture at Brenchley, who are awarded the three points.
Spring Cup Junior Section
In group 2, Green Street Blues overcame Paddock Wood Reserves 4-1 with goals from Tom Wilken, Ash Birchruffel, Romain Ducheon and Andy Lanning. Wood's goalscorer not reported.
With FC Hayward having pulled out, the table now reads :
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Green Street Blues | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Tonbridge Origin Reserves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paddock Wood Reserves | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 0 |
There were two games in group 3. St John's Yard maintained their recent revival, making if five wins on the trot in all competitions with a 5-1 win at TW Ridgewaye.
It was dream start for the Yard, who were two up in the first three
minutes, four up in 20 minutes. The goals included a Rory Wilson hatrick
and even Matt Humphrey managed to score. John Pearson added a fifth in
the second half which saw a more determined show by Ridgewaye, for whom
Ben Adams scored, it was his 13th goal of the season.
Ticehurst Village Club beat Tonbridge Casuals
4-1 in the other game, which featured a hat-trick from Rob Briley. Liam
Bull scored the fourth, Casial's consolation was scored by Matt
Donnelly. They finish bottom of the group and must now find something
else to do for the next few weeks!
The table shows that St John's Yard have booked their place in the
semi-finals. Ridgewaye and Ticehurst Village Club will go head to head
for the second place and possible qualification as best group runner up.
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| St John's Yard | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 9 | 9 |
| TW Ridgewaye | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1
| 3 |
| Ticehurst Village Club | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 3 |
| Tonbridge Casuals | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | -9 | 0 |
Back to the reports index
Back to the main page