The B team sealed the Division 3 Championship with a 3-1 victory over S Glos with goals from Steve Puetz, Tom Alger and Nathan Walkey. Nathan's goal, his 21st of the summer, equals the best total for a summer season.

Division 1	Pl	W	D	L	For	Agn	Diff	Pts
Team Bath Buccs	8	7	0	1	55	21	34	21
Westbury	8	5	1	2	35	26	9	16
Somerset Gryphons	8	4	1	3	31	34	-3	13

This is the best finish for the first team in 20 years equaling their runners up position in 1988.

Division 3	Pl	W	D	L	For	Agn	Diff	Pts
Westbury 'B'	11	9	0	2	58	28	30	27
Rascals	11	8	1	2	36	20	16	25
Clinkers	11	7	1	3	46	32	14	22

An outstanding summer for the B team, scoring 58 goals, a fully deserved championship with the team playing high quality hockey.

Division 4	Pl	W	D	L	For	Agn	Diff	Pts
Vinyards	11	9	2	0	50	10	38	29
Westbury 'C'	11	7	2	2	30	21	9	23
Sparks	11	6	3	2	30	25	5	21

Vinyards passed the Cs with two draws to win the division but they were clearly the best team. The C teams 4-2 victory at Sparks shows how valuable those three points were in the final table. The Cs runners up spot is an excellent achievement

Alger's Analysis: "It was an absolute pleasure to watch your team play. " Shepton umprire " You would have given our first team a good run for their money. " Shepton players. Just two of the comments from the umpire and players last night as the Bs went to Shepton in the rain and wind. We had no goalkeeper and therefore had 11 outfield palyers and to say we kept the ball and moved it around well was an understatement.The whole team played with control and one touch, if not two touch hockey all night - I cannot say enough about how well we have played for the last two weeks - we will give the twos a bloody good game next year.I believe promotion was confirmed last night but we play South Glouc on Tuesday knowing anything other than a defeat leaves us top and a remarkable turn around after the first game thrashing in Bath.Well done lads and night out for celebrations and to wet various babies heads on the 15th in the TAP.Zideeeeeeeeeeer I up landlord.Your skipper - oh by the way we won 8 nil - Alger 2, Harris, Cutts 2, Poulsom, Walkey, Taylor M.

Feymous last words:The C XI left the best until last in their final game with Mendip. It didn’t start too well with Mendip informing us that their umpire was in Birmingham and they only had 11 players. AJ nobly agreed to play for them so that they could provide an umpire – thanks again AJ.The captain had asked for a sharp and tidy start rather than the customary stirring comeback, and he got it. There was excellent movement up front throughout from Mike Harvey, David Money, James Pope and James Bladon and Westbury were able to put together some flowing moves. With Owen Kemp tormenting Mendip with nimble, skilful moves down the right a goal looked inevitable and Dom Harris gave Westbury the lead with a ball squared from the right.David Money poached a second following a free hit outside the D to make it 2-0 at half time, goalie Andy Krebs had just had one save to make batting away a high shot. More of the same was required and the same two players gave the C’s an increased lead – Dom reverse swept in following a Dave Money slip at a short corner (Just as everyone was shouting at him to get his feet around it) then Dave himself nipped in front of the keeper to tuck away a dambuster reverse sweep cross from Terry Watts on the left.Mendip pulled one back when their most talented player ventured forward from the back and ran through, chesting the ball down following a Westbury tackle and rounding the keeper to score. The defence had few other problems with Martyn Rees, Paul Croker and Peter Rose playing their customary steady games. This side have only let in 35 goals in 21 games over the last two seasons, including 7 to the leaders Vinyards this year.The C’s carried on playing some champagne hockey. Following another flowing move John Ludley bravely and subtly nicked the ball with his reverse stick past the keeper just a splitsecond before the keeper unsubtly deposited him in a big heap on the pitch. Then Owen Kemp got his just desserts after another run in the right hand channel, to ending the ball in at the near post as he tried to square it across goal.Final score 6-1. Final record – Won 7 Drawn 2 Lost 2. Final position – Unknown but a good chance of second place, thanks to five successive wins. Que sera, que sera.I’m sure absent skipper Martin Palmer would like to thank all the players for their efforts this summer. Personally I’ve really enjoyed it.

The B team were back in action after their close defeat last week in a game they described as one of their best performances of the season. Warlocks, who are usually a fast breaking side, seemed to line up with an 8.1.1 formation and had to defend doggedly as Westbury piled on the pressure in the opening ten minutes. The Bs' control and passing was first class against the massed ranks of Warlocks. Their finishing was a little off key though, with the forwards having a 'missing' competition. Nathan Walkey had two clear chances, Bomber Harris had two and Geoff Rickard one, none of which were taken much to the ridicule of the spectators! Griff came close from two shorts but his shots skewed just wide. Warlocks even survived a penalty stroke when a stick, then the back peg of the defender kept the ball out, but only a short corner resulted. The breakthrough did come and it was Geoff Rickard cutting into the D from the left past several defenders before unleashing a powerful shot into the far corner. A second goal came along not long afterwards, this time it was the skipper who put the telling ball into the D from the right and Chris Cutts made the perfect contact, slamming the ball high and wide of the keeper, a very well taken goal. This gave Westbury the platform to play some outstanding hockey. The game was made safe before the interval when Nathan Walkey picked up the ball with his back to goal, beat a defender and steered his shot back across the keeper for a 3-0 unassailable lead. After the break Warlocks threaten just a couple of times and Andy 'Ice Cool' Cameron dealt with a couple of three on ones with perfect tackles, and Smurf batted away a couple of goal attempts to keep a clean sheet. Westbury continued as an attacking force with good running on and off the ball and some excellent control and passing. The pass of the game came when Nathan Walkey pushed the ball past the defender, a perfectly weighted ball for Bomber to run onto to have a one on one with the keeper. A goal looked certain, yet somehow bomber's run took him too wide and he found himself on the back line with no angle to shoot. By this time several defenders had massed on the goal line to stop him scoring, but Bomber pulled the ball back, opened up a better angle and expertly flicked the ball past everyone assembled on the line! No more goals were scored, although Griff was unlucky to see his short come back off the post. This was an excellent team victory and on another day the Bs might just have scored double figures, but 4-0 is sufficient to keep them on track to win this division.

Ratcliffes ramble/Junior's jottings: Excellent! Well done lads. My cunning plan (to not be there) obviously worked. It's particularly good to see over the last few weeks that the side is starting to score goals. It's stating the obvious of course, but no matter how good your defence a team can't win a match unless it scores more goals than the opposition. Regular readers will no doubt have missed Ratcliffe's Ramble over recent weeks. Well, sorry. But this week we have the return of Junior's Jottings: ...The match started well for Westbury with a lot of possession in the opposing half and a few good chances on goal. Max Longden played very well as centre forward and finally gained a well deserved goal after about 15 mins. The rest of the half saw a few dangerous moments in our D but Jez firmly stopped any renegade runners with his solid tackling. Duncan Ogilvie made his return and spent some time on during each half. At half time it was still 1-0 to Westbury. After an inspiring talk from our captains we were ready to start the second half. The half started awkwardly when the opposition scuffed the pass back to us for push back. Everyone gave 100% effort as soon as the whistle blew, except for Tom Fishley who battled on tirelessly and gave in the region of around 150% effort. We had even more chances with Pete Ratcliffe nearly scoring a goal in this half but their keeper was always there to make the saves. The end of the game was looking near and Westbury redoubled their efforts to repel any chance of an equaliser.With the final whistle blown, the end result had not moved from 1-0 to Westbury. Special thanks to all the players who turned out to cover for unavailability, in particular Coatsey and Poker on short notice, and to Dave Money who came to support and ended up running substitutions, and of course to Martin Palmer for umpiring.

The Devils had a very composed and organised look about them as they took on Pips on a sticky evening at Coombe Dingle. Jez Longden and Nick Coates were a solid as rocks (apart from when Jez seemed to be wearing his clown's shoes and couldn't get his feet right when trying to clear the ball). Once he'd sorted his feet out, nothing got past him. There was a lot of skill and running from Tom Fishley who caught the eye with his non-stop performance down the left side of the midfield. In my book he should be starting in one of the teams this coming winter. Adam Banting was providing a strong pivotable role in the middle and once Poker had put his first three passes out over the side line and found his range, he put some pin-point passes, many to Adam to open up a lot of good attacks. However, chances at both ends were few. Fazza was unlucky that the ball was slipped a bit quicker to him on the left of the D and the chance disappeared, but Fazza was on hand to start another move on the left a few minutes later. He picked out Adam who pulled a perfect pass across the D to Max Longden who was unmarked on the far post, with the simple task of guiding the ball into the net unopposed. Adam later had a couple of reverse stick shots saved. Duncan Ogilvie came on to put the nightmare of 6 months of injury behind him with a cameo appearance in preparation for more to come. There was one comedy moment when Sam Banting had to make his one save of the match. The ball deflecting high and wide for a long corner. A Pips' forward, oblivious to this was hacking away at Sam's pads trying to get a ball that patently wasn't there. This summed up the Pips lack of composure in the D and the dominance of the home defence. The second half was a battle of attrition with the Devils battling away for a second goal to make it safe. Pips were pushing hard for an equaliser, but didn't help their cause by arguing amongst themselves up front, but then with Jez and Nick seemingly impassable at the back, taking everything off the OBs forwards, I suppose it wasn't surprising they got frustrated. Sam Parker had to clear their best effort off the line not long after the interval. George Banting had to retire with a bang on his knee with ten minutes to go, but Jez, Nick, Poker and Sam Parker threw up a barrier that couldn't be breached. The final result was 1-0 to the Devils, a thoroughly deserved and hard earned 3 points.

Palmer's prattle: The Cs were penned back in their own D by Bath Banzis who started very strongly and kept up the pressure on the home team. It took ten minutes for the Cs to get up to The Bath D and then they managed to score two goals in rapid succession. A short corner from Dom Harris came to Jamie Cranfield. His flick at goal was stopped by a defender's body and a stroke given. Martin Palmer ended his run of having three penalty strokes in a row saved, by burying his effort. Within minutes Dom Harris delivered a right wing cross. Martin Palmer received it with his back to goal and jabbed the ball into the ground in a backward shot, bouncing the ball over the defender's stick. Owen Kemp making his debut had several good runs and nearly scored. Bath never gave up and worked their way back into the game with two goals. The second a particularly good goal from their youngest player. Dave Money was desperately unlucky not to put Westbury ahead. His superb flick hit the crossbar and bounced back into play. Half time came and we stressed how the next goal was the key one. The game was quite even, but Westbury had the greater number of goal attempts, whilst Sam Banting had only a couple of efforts to deal with. Martin Fey was in phenomenal form covering everything at the back. The crucial goal did come, and it came to Westbury. Jamie Cranfield took a hit in from the right, it eluded everyone except the skipper who swept it in from the back post. There were more chances for Westbury with Owen Kemp and Dom Harris inches off target. Dave Money did find the net, but unknown to him his foot had controlled the ball along with his stick and the goal was ruled out. The game finished 3-2 to the Cs making it three straight wins and top of the table, although Vinyards are unbeaten with games in hand.

Feymous last words (or first words) I just wanted to say how impressed I was with the D's in the match against us last night. The 4-3 scoreline was in my view harsh on them (even though I helped them by deflecting one of their goals past AJ) and more a reflection of the (commendable) stubborness and persistence of the C's than the balance of the game. Whatever one's view on the result, the D's certainly put together some good hockey going forward and looked to me like they have developed a lot as a team. It has clearly been very worthwhile forming and running this side this summer.

More Palmer prattle: The Cs and Devils fought out an epic 'ding-dong' battle on the superb pitch at Bristol Uwe. DavRat should be given a lot of credit for coming up with this venue. The Devils opened up like a steam train and look very sharp in attack. Paul Clark making a return after a ten year absense put in the first attack for the Cs, but ran out of steam as he was about to cross. The Cs fell into the trap of trying to run round Jez Logden, who took the ball nine times out of ten from the bemused attackers. The Devils took the lead when Dave Dineley had a storming run through the middle and ended up thumping the ball past stand in keepr AJ. The Cs got a bit more style into their play and Adam Banting, who had a good game throughout, began to create some chances. Mike Harvey had a shot from a narrow angle kept out by Sam Banting. Adam was the provider for the Cs equaliser as his straight through ball was met by Mike Harvey at Sam's left and post and cleverly edged/deflected it into the right hand corner. At half time the score was even. The Devils opened the second half at tremendous pace and took a two goal lead. The first goal had a little luck as a Devils' attacker stepped in front of his team-mate who was striking, but as the defender wasn't pressing up a third party obstruction wasn't given. Sam's shot hit Martin Fey's stick and changed direction leaving AJ stranded, trickling in at the post. The second goal came when it looked as if the ball was going to run out of play on the left of the D, but Greg Slater's reach pulled the ball back and he guided his shot in from a narrow angle to put the development team 3-1 up. The ball was moved quickly up and down the pitch by both sides. Then came a spell of C team forward play and Adam Banting scored a well taken goal to pull it back to 3-2. Next, Paul Clark marked his return with a goal, the ball was slipped left to him and he made no mistake and showed that he hasn't forgotten how to score despite a long lay-off. The Devils were stillcreating chances and showed both desire and skill to break down the Cs' defence. AJ was called into action and there was another round of solid defending. The Cs then scored what turned out to be the decisive goal when Dave Money ended his six match barren run by scoring from the top of the D (I think it was from a short). The ball caught an edge or keeper's toe and flew into the roof of the net. There was still a chance for the Devils to equaliser from a short. Jez Longden came up, struck it brilliantly, but AJ got to it and deflected it outside the post. This was a very good game, played in good spirits with just one green card. If the Devils can repeat the level ofplay they showed in this game, they could surprise Bath Banzis next week.

Mr T's talk: Chewie was struggling for players this game so called upon the services of a reputably up and coming “B” team player who wanted to be called Psycho. Before the game, Psycho lived up to this description by criticizing the cutting edge MS Word technology used by the great don of a captain. This has been central in steering the A-team to a Palmer endorsed “Westbury best ever” string of results in this league. Luckily for him, Stampie unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute and Moonie was late, so Chewie had no choice but to start him…Robbos turned up without a keeper. A sign of confidence you could argue but immediately at the opening it was clear that this effectively gave them an extra player at all times, making it difficult to defend as a team. As a result, the first half was dominated by Robbos but Westbury looked occasionally dangerous on the break. After conceding a few goals, Chewie was picked out in the “D” to give Westbury some hope. But then disaster, looking across at the bench Moonie had limped off and chucked a T-shirt over his head. It became clear that Moonie was suffering with a severe Migraine so, as is normal in this situation, we chose to bring the sole supporter on. In this case it was Duncan still recovering from his injury but assessed as fit enough to play, especially as he was dressed in Camouflage green to confuse the opposition.At half time, there was some frustration about the team. Psycho suggested options of either a half court press or pushing up as a team - we went for the latter as Gayer rightly pointed out that standing off players of that quality would be tough.In the second half, the natural predatory instincts of Duncan were working well and he soon converted an early ball up front. I think it was fair to say that this was the high point as the next two involvements looked more like defending as he got in the way of Limbos shot and deflected Psychos pass away from goal. Moonie scored one more from a good move down the right with Adam Banting moving the ball quickly to set up the opportunity. Despite an energetic and effective performance from Smurf, frequently getting us out of tricky situations, we went on to concede a total of 10.Thanks to George for umpiring in a manner that allowed the game to flow well despite the slow and knackering dry and over sanded pitch.Next game against Warlocks away which is likely to be a relegation decider……think Limbo’s suggestion of position lottery could be a winner!!

Alger's Analysis: Yep 3 - 2 to us after a crap performance ! Going very well at the moment so if we hold onto top spot next week against Clinkers we then have the other team at the top to play - Warlocks !!!

Palmer's prattle: The Cs came up against Sparks (Firebrands) who were on a three game unbeaten run, fresh from an epic 5-5 draw with Grapes. Westbury opened really brightly and Dave Money was so unlucky to see his short corner strike hit both inside edges of the keeper's pads like a ball in a pinball machine, eventualy coming out allowing a defender to scurry behind him and clear it away. There was a lot of crisp passing and several promising attempts to score. The pressure paid off when James Bladon received the ball about 12 yards out, picked his spot and hit a 'net busting' blaster. Those of us on the bench thought he had missed, but then saw the umpire signal the goal, the ball having burst through the back of the net. The lead didn't last long as a Sparks attack down the right found their striker unmarked at the far post to sweep in an equaliser. The Cs defence tightened up the marking after this and the home team had very few chances to score. As the game progressed Tezzer showed he is recovering from his injury by his superb control, running and passing. A spell of good play resulted in a short corner. Dom Harris was nominated to strike (our sixth striker this summer). Harvey to Palmer was the usual combination setting up the hit. Perfect delivery from Mike, instant stop by Martin and then came the 'pièce de résistance', Dom's strike. Following his knock of 64 for Southmead on Saturday, his timing, power and direction were spot on. The ball hit the backboard before any of the defenders could react. I've been stopping shorts for twenty years and I don't think I've seen a better struck short corner! Buoyed from his success Dom completely topped the next short. It was more a Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb. However, the home defence were all at sea and Mike Harvey picked up the rebound and expertly flicked over the keeper to make it 3-1. Then came an amazing spell of possession hockey. In a 3/4 minute spell Sparks hardly had a touch. There was one move of some twenty passes (ten of them at least involving Tezzer) showing the quality and confidence in the side. The skipper for the second week running asked for an early goal at the start of the second half. Last week it took Mike Harvey 45 seconds to do it, this time it took a mammoth 75 seconds, as he swept in a clever pass at the far post after Dave Money's shot was saved. This put us well on top and in the driving seat to take us towards our fourth win. Sparks rallied and sneaked a goal back. Once again the defence with Peter Rose having and outstanding game, dealt with everything thrown at them by Sparks. There was one comedy moment when Sam Banting allowed the ball to go out only to see it hit the post. He seemed to change his mind three times on which direction he was going to kick it, before calmly booting it to Westbury shirt to start another attacking move. Shortly later Sam showed his agility with a brilliant diving stick save to a shot that had 'goal' written all over it. This win keeps us handily placed with the pack at the top of the table. It was a stunning team performance. Sparks were very complimentary afterwards and thanked us for an enjoyable game. Well done the Cs and thanks to Steve Puetz for an immaculate display of umpiring.

Palmer's prattle: The second Westbury derby of the summer ended with a hard earned 2-0 win for the Cs against a spirited Devils team who put up a dogged performance. The first half was evenly contested with the few chances created being more in favour of the Cs. The Devils playing with a four man midfield closed down a lot of the space and the Cs were rushed into passing and at times caught in possession through being too slow to deliver. Tezzer made a b25 minute come back from injury, but erred for safety by retiring at half time having felt a twinge. A 'Churchillian' half time team talk motivating the troops had the desired affect because within 45 seconds of the start Mike Harvey had opened the scoring. Mike swept the ball at goal on the left hand post after a square ball from the right. Sam Banting's dive saved the initial shot, but it looped up into the air falling slightly behind Sam. As he got up he was