Holders Out: Buckfastleigh Rangers (green), pictured here in last season’s final, are out of the Belli Cup following a 2-1 loss at home to Waldon Athletic. ©Al Macphee/MiraclePR
In the game of the day between the top two teams in Division Four of the Torbay Clearance Services League, Chudleigh Athletic Seconds inflicted the first defeat of the season for Drake FC. In an end-to-end game that was a credit to the South Devon Football League, three goals from the visitors, courtesy of Ben Hamilton-Hill, Gavin Lake and Kai Stocker, secured the points to take back up the A38. The win keeps the Maroons well on course for promotion in second place behind Drake but with fewer games to play. Liverton, Kingsteignton, Elburton and Broadhempston can all catch the top two with their games in hand, and none of these teams played last weekend. The only other league game played in Division Four was at the bottom where South Brent Seconds and Barton Athletic Seconds shared the points in a 2 – 2 draw. Two of the delayed divisional cup first round games finally went ahead and resulted in safe passage to the next round for Elburton Villa Thirds, who who had a comfortable 8 – 1 home win against Babbacombe Corries Seconds, and Liverton United Seconds also took the brakes off, winning 5-nil versus Paignton Villa Thirds.
In Division Three, Liverton United moved into one of the automatic promotion places with a 5-nil win on the 3G at South Devon College against Paignton Saints Thirds. As a club, Liverton have certainly been on a rollercoaster of a journey from twice being crowned champions of the South West Pennisula League at Step 6 in the football pyramid to having just one team in the bottom division of the South Devon Football League, and whilst players will always come and go at a whim, or God forbid they have to sit on the bench, it is the people behind the scenes that pick up the pieces and keep football clubs afloat, and full credit to Sue and Chris Stephens, with Norman cutting the grass when he is able, is the main reason that clubs like Liverton United survive, and with both of their teams growing in confidence, the club is in a positive mode.
There was only one game that survived Fridays downpour in Division Two and that was at Whiterock where Paignton Villa Seconds surrendered to Bovey Tracey Seconds who, with a 5-nil win, remain in fifth place but are now only two points off the top with three games in hand. Lewis Perring and Mathew Churchill got two goals each, and Alistair Chuchuk got a single for the Moorlanders who are looking good for consecutive promotions.
In Divisions One’s only game, Upton Athletic rolled back the years in their relegation six-pointer versus Buckfastleigh Rangers Reserves; a 10 – 1 victory moves them out of the bottom two on goal difference. Sam Lamburn scored four, Jamie Lane hit a hat-trick and there were singles for Callum Dunn, Keiron Nixon and Shaun Johhansen.
Just two Premier games survived, one in the divisional cup and one in the league. Brixham AFC Seconds’ recent good run of form was halted at Loddiswell where Beesands Rovers managed to put a halt to their recent run of poor form and produced a 5 – 1 win that puts them in fifth place but leaves the Fishermen with some work to do. Aiden Bovey was on target for the visitors but strikes from Adam Winkworth, on three minutes, and 17 year-old Alex Smith put the Bees on track; Jack Eades and Louis Brace scored singles which secured the points for the the home team.
The other game was a real heavyweight tussle between two of the Premier league’s more solid teams and the conditions certainly helped them live up to their reputation. Full credit goes to the groundsteam at Buckfastleigh for preparing the pitch to be playable, and full credit to the players for trying to play football in very heavy conditions, and they all had to work hard as the pitch did deteriorate as time went on. Louis Roberts scored in the first half for Waldon Athletic and Jacob Knapman scored the winning goal from the penalty spot following a clumsy challenge which probably was not helped by the sticky conditions to put Waldon into the next round of the George Belli Cup with a mouth-watering home game against Ilsington Villa on 16th March.
Games to catch on Saturday 9th March.
In the Torbay Clearance Services Herald Cup, it’s quarter-final stage and Elburton Villa Reserves (Premier) welcome Newton Spurs Reserves (Division One), Ilsington Villa (Premier) welcome Brixham Town (Division One) and hopefully the two delayed games featuring Newton ’66 (Premier) and South Brent (Division Three) and the all-Premier tie between WBB and Morley Rangers will finally get played. Elsewhere in the divisional cups, Ivybridge Reserves host Paignton Saints which should be a great game. There is another relegation six-pointer at Buckfastleigh where the Reserves host Harbertonford.
For all of this weeks games, click TCSSDFL Fixtures on the menu bar.