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 unlucky to edge it behind him as Mike's 'top spinner' caught his body and rolled into the net. This was the impetus the Cs needed and there were periods of much better play as the young Devils team began to tire. Then came the crucial second goal. Will Enderby won a brilliant tackle on the right side of his own 25, coming away with the ball he sent James Pope down the right. Poppy found Dave Money who squared it to Mike Harvey to push past Sam to make it 2-0. The Devils came back strongly and Gareth Nichols looked sharp attacking down the right, but the Cs' defence held firm and a 2-0 win was achieved. The Cs were full of praise for the way the young Devils played. Jamie Cranfield was very impressed with the two Wills - Glynn and Holmes. The Cs may have won, but Westbury was the winner with 29 players representing the club on the pitch and on the bench.

Ratcliffe's ramble: (Space reserved for Dave's eloquent assessment of his team's performance)

Mr T's talk: Well – when I think about summer league I imagine running about on midweek evenings, smacking a hockey ball about in the joyeous sunshine. Unfortunately, this game was on a Friday night and it was p*ssing down.To make things worse, Alex Taylor had failed to use his reading skills and headed to Coombe Dingle for this away game which left us with only ten. Poker, who had kindly volunteered to umpire at the last minute, hadn’t bought a stick so couldn’t fill in and, in any case, our no.1 supporter Becky understandably didn’t want to umpire anyway as it was nice and dry in the dug-out. Luckily, the oppo agreed to give us their sub - JUGS – who was under strict instructions from the Indians Captain that he wouldn’t score against them. Luckily, JUGS was about as good as listening as Alex Taylor had been at reading.The game began and a lacklustre Westbury were clearly struggling to see in the rain as they kept passing to the opposition. After several close chances, Indians put one in and it looked bleak. However, Westbury’s continued attempts at quick breaks looked dangerous. After several good efforts, Nathan did well in the D, layed it back to Chewie whose snapshot came back of the keeper for JUGS to knock it in. It stayed 1-1 for some time before Indians snatched two more to send us in 3-1 down at the break. At halftime, all agreed that we just needed to focus more and play simple Hockey. We simply weren’t doing ourselves justice by rushing passes and giving away cheap possession.Westbury responded and played much better 2nd half. We scored two more goals, one from a clever short and one from a great move with Wornie picking out Nathan in the D. Unfortunately, Indians scored another 5 displaying some real class in finishing. So it finished 8-3 but again it’s very encouraging in all our Summer League games that we’ve never been totally outclassed and have always enjoyed periods of playing good hockey.Thanks to Poker for umpiring and keeping good control in difficult conditions.Next game vs Robbos on Wed 2 July – and its at home Alex so you should be OK!!

Palmer's prattle: This was a very disappointing result for the Cs who were hoping to bounce back from last week's defeat at OBs. Last week it was a spirited effort, this week it was generally a flat and lifeless performance. Very few of the team reached anything near their normal form, and with so many underachievers, we fell to a deserved 1-0 defeat. Feymous, AJ and Dom Harris were the only players to make any telling contribution to the game. Too many of the side when they had the ball made the wrong choices on what to do with it, the end product either being aimless, under-hit, straight to an opponent and in a couple of cases pretty ludicrous! AJ did manage to clear one shot off the line, but a well struck shot from the top of the D in the first half turned out to be the only goal. Robs shut us down in midfield, played with the energy and enthusiasm that was absent from our game. In our previous five matches we have competed superbly, thus our disappointment in falling short in a game that with more composure, a little more thought and a modicum of perspiration we could have turned round. Robs had a full back (Mad Dog) in goal and he pulled off saves from Dave Money and the skipper as if he had been doing it for years. With the last hit of the game Dom Harris struck his shot just wide of the far post. The game was well umpired by Shads and the Robs umpire. Next week we play the Devils, I'm sure the thought of an intra-club derby will be all the stimulus we will need for getting back the quality of hockey we have been playing this summer.

Walkey's waffle: The B's won 13-2 against a ten man Imperial team with an inexperienced keeper. The scorers were Psycho 2, Rickard 2, Will Jones 2, Matt Taylor 1, and Walkey 6. It was a shame they could not bring 11 players to the game to make it morecompetitive as they did play well with 10. (The Widgets had to play there with ten men before, so no problem Imperial being on the other end of a big score, they've dished a few out against in the recent past!)

Ratcliffe's ramble: Devils went down 1-2 to Sparks (Firebrands). Thanks to Martin Rees for good umpiring, Pricey for player-coaching (and scoring), to Martin Eland for keeping, and to Brian Nichols, Martin Fey and Duncan for supporting.

Ratcliffe's ramble: Westbury Devils 0 – N Somerset 0 (Postponed from 28 May): I had to miss this one, but like a good journalist I have consulted a number of unbiased sources and can report as follows. The Devils looked really good, and impressed Duncan and Pricey who came to support (thanks, guys). Two quotes, respectively – ‘On another day it would have been 5-0’ and ‘fantastic, head and shoulders the better side’. We were winning and keeping possession, and getting into the D after good build-ups. Unfortunately, despite numerous (reportedly in the region of 20) shots on goal, none went in. Will Glynn, Dave Dineley, Sam Brewer, Max Longden, Ben Lipfriend… all had a go but none quite came off. Some were good chances going just wide or high. Some of the others were possibly not such good shooting opportunities - with more experience the striker might have gone for a pass to re-work the attack or held on to the ball hoping to win a short. But that (I am reliably informed) is a lesson that could be learnt throughout the club!In midfield, Sam Brewer shone and there were strong performances too from Tom Fishley, Pete Ratcliffe and Greg Slater. In defence, Will Holmes put in many good tackles and, along with Jez, George and Brian Nichols, ensured that Mike Harvey in goal (thanks for stepping in again, Mike) had very little to do, bar one nice save. The game did become a bit stroppy in parts. Cards were shown to two N Soms players. There was a yellow from Steve Puetz (thanks for umpiring, Steve – you did say you wanted experience!) and a green from the N Somerset's umpire. In the adult game these things are going to happen from time to time, as are physical challenges, so it was good to hear that by and large the lads were standing up to it all and not letting themselves get riled. I arrived as the final whistle blew and could tell that, though disappointed, we had given it everything and still had our heads up. The general view was that we had enjoyed the game, despite the frustrations. Clearly the result on this occasion did not reflect the quality of the Westbury youth hockey.

Mr T's talk: WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON…..that's the important bit, reading the rest is very much optional. Westbury: 3 Gryphons: 1The A-Team turned out for their match against Gryphons expecting yet another challenge against a strong team - this league is full of them.We were a little surprised to see the Oppo had turned up with player who we had previously faced in our match against the firsts.The good news was that our side looked strong – Knightrider had kept his place in midfield to help us transfer the ball quickly and Jimmer was in at the back to give us a 3D aerial element + a bit of randomness of course.The warm up was a tad haphazard and interrupted by a brewers droop effort of watering the spongy pitch by the sprinklers – let’s hope its not only the pitch Dingle are replacing.The big decision to be made was who to strike shorties – we didn’t really get a good enough stop from the Wornster to assess it but Mace was eventually chosen over Coates to provide a girly but well placed shot as opposed to power.The game started in an uncontrolled manner for Westbury who struggled to keep possession and looked a bit rushed. However, despite their superior control, Gryphons were struggling to make chances and our defence looked strong. About 20min in, Mace intercepted well, went round a player and got it up quickly to Chewie. Chewie bumbled his way forward but then managed to pick out Alex Taylor through two defenders with an accurate push.Alex still had a lot to do with an advancing keeper but deflected the ball deftly low into the Corner - Westbury looked about as shell shocked as Gryphons as to how the hell we were winning. Just as it looked as we would see it out to half time, Gryphons applied pressure in the D and managed to score a bungled goal at the far post. A deflated Westbury grouped for the team talk.Mace rallied the troops and basically told us to work harder and want the game more – which was a very fair shout. A rejuvenated Westbury then took to the pitch in the second half and harried and harassed Gryphons much better.This led us to being more considered in possession and working harder to create space.It looked as if Alex had deflected us back in front again after about 5 minutes but he honestly admitted up to it being the defender who had got the touch. Westbury didn’t have to wait long though as we soon had a chance to test out our slickly drilled short corner routine.Mace applied the girly shot to perfection and the attempted clearance found its way to Butt who skillfully deflected it against a defenders leg and in.The rest of a game was a battle with Wornie,Coates,Ger and Jimmer fighting hard but safe in the knowledge that Smurfy was providing a dynamic last line of defence whenever Gryphons had sight of Goal. Westbury continued to play counter-attacking Hockey and were rewarded when Garrry showed us what he is capable of.The Catchpole cut in at the bottom right of the D, beat a couple of players and just as he should have pulled it back produced fluff to squeeze it in at the near post – who needs national league players eh!!TC had two more sights a goal but did too well with his efforts – I’m sure Garry will be at hand for fluffing lessons before the next match (that’s fluffing as in not connecting with shots I hope….).Then the final whistle which was music to our ears – our first win, fantastic, legendary, amazing, brilliant result which saves Chewie from probably being the first Westbury Captain ever to have had a complete blank card from a summer league – I’m sure Palmer will confirm.Many thanks to Tez and Polly for umpiring in a great manner – apologies that Tez had to ask for his drink and I hope that your wife isn't too mad Polly but we needed you mate. Bring on the next game against the Indians who allegedly are so poor they have to play some Westbury reject called Neller……..

Palmer's prattle: It was always going to be a tough game against the senior OBs team in our division. We lost one player to work, another to the As a third stuck on the motorway and one on his way which made our task even harder. Having received his ne sofa James Bladon (probably with his blue flashing lights) made it a minute and thirty seconds after the start. A tough ask became an almost impossible one as Vinyards thumped in three goals in the fist nine minutes. Undeterred, the C team spirit kicked in and everyone rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in. We pressed them further up the field for a good spell in the middle of the half and managed to put some attacks of our own together earning a couple of shorts. The home team were a very slick team able to move the ball quickly. In the distinctively named Johan they had a player driving them forward just as he did for the Grapes last week when we were able to salvage a draw. The Vinyards forwards scored a fourth goal in the first half, but our defence played well and despite all the ball they had they were not able to get in many shots, such was the tackling and covering of our side. In the second half the Cs put together some good play with Dom Harris and John Ludley looking confident and full of running in midfield. Dom was unlucky not to score with a shot that must have hit the outside of the post. Vinyards were kept at bay for sixteen minutes as the Cs played with the style and determination they show every match. Feymous at half time said that he had played in this team for three summers and we never gave up. Even with defeat a pretty clear outcome, we battled away and were unlucky not to get at least one goal. Dave Money typified the team spirit running all over the place and stealing the ball from defenders on several occasions. Martin Palmer did likewise and released James Bladon unmarked in the D, but James was thwarted by the advancing keeper. Mike Harvey made a couple of good stops but OBs scored twice in a couple of minutes and once more before the end to make it 7-0. There was no disgrace in this defeat, the way we stuck at our task and threw sticks (and bodies) in the way of the ball shows a lot about the character of the team. Next week it is Robinsons C who will be the opposition and they have yet to win. Well done the Cs, it could have been 17 if we gave up. Mike Harvey pointed out that they didn't have many shots, but when they did they went in. Thanks are due to Mike for once again playing in goal and M'Lud for umpiring.

Tom's talk: With warnings echoing in our ears about the infamous Chippenham umpires we turned up full of joy and looking forward to a good game. Should have seen it coming when the umpires comment when shaking hands was :How shall we play tonight then chaps - I'll tell you - one foul and its ten yards and two fouls its a yellow for the skippers !!!Nice start we thought but with both Chippenham and us looking for a good fun game despite the umpire the skipper warned the troops and we got under way. Fairs fair - they were very good at playing the ball about but with excellent discipline they had little options open but pass sideways for ages - we nicked the ball - one short corner and Beesley duly obliged with his only contribution of the night - left winger he is not!!!10 minutes later a great individual goal from goal machine Walkey and we were comfortable. Unfortunately the skipper then stopped a ball innocently with his foot in their half - cue the yellow for the first offence and four words later it turned into 15 minutes on the side lines.We continued to press when we eventually had the ball - clear shorts and one clear flick waved away as expected but we went in 2 up. Questions from Pyscho & Walkey about my time on the sideline only led to further abuse from the umpire until we were back to full strength 5 minutes into the second half.The rest of the match was very even - they got back to 2 a piece - we had a flick and their keeper sent off - despite us asking for him to stay on - who wants a keeper off in summer league ? Walkey dispatched the flick, they equalised, Poulsom won the game from a short !A bloody hard performance from the lads and especially pleasing that some of the worst umpiring we have all experienced didn't stop us winning - although a draw would have been fair. Incidentally the keeper was only off for 4 minutes - strange decision! One defeat and four wins we march on and up - well done lads and sod the umpire !Word of thanks - Jimmer was excellent in goal !

Palmer's prattle: The C team failed to reached the high standard of play they have set themselves this summer, but still managed to come away with a point against a very good O Bs side who have won their three opening matches. Grapes scored within seconds of the start when their shot at goal from a short was going well wide, only to be steered in by the player who had pushed it in. Westbury looked very sluggish, and were guilty of giving away too many passes or holding the ball too long and being pressured into an unwise pass. However, with Limbo causing problems to the home defence his log run and square pass allowed Martin Palmer the chance to level it, which he duly accepted. Grapes were dictating quite a lot of the play and went in at half time with a 2-1 lead having scored a second goal. Despite not being on top form the Cs managed to equalise again. This time it was Limbo who shot from the short corner and Martin Fey, the injector, who expertly nudged the ball under the keeper to make it 2-2. Mike Harvey who has sportingly accepted the role of goalkeeper, did well covering his angles as O Bs pushed up for a winner. It looked as though they got it when their forward pounced on a loose ball and hit it reverse stick into the roof of the net. The Cs' spirit kept them going and from another short, Chris Butt received the ball, repositioned it by beating several defenders before coolly flicking it shoulder high into the net. It still took some classic defending and a Harvey save to retain that point, but at the final whistle the Cs can be pleased that they extended their unbeaten run to 4 matches. The team stuck at it and it is hard to remember a side equalising 3 times in a game. In the changing room the team were treated to post match entertainment by a rock band practicing in the next door changing room. The team were able to sing along to such classics as 'Crocodile Rock' and 'Pinball Wizard' as they showered!

Tom's talk: The A team took on the top of the league last night and blew them away with a hard fought 5 - 2 victory. Playing without a keeper for the first 15 minutes we were grateful to see Murph at such short notice. A reasonable team performance although our basics were somewhat lacking in the second half - but what we missed in skill levels we more than made up for with pure hard work and tackling - 100% commitment from every team member. Special mention to Sparky who has been in inspired form this summer, and two other players who stood out last night - Jeff Rickard and Cuttsy who were both brilliant. Goals from Walkey, Harris, Griffin ( 2 short corners ) and Cutts. Walkeys goal literally was from half an inch as the ball stopped on but not completely over the line !!!!Praise also goes to the umpires - all four of them. Gryphons were coming without one so my old dear Joyce volunteered. The Nick Morton said he'd do it - and bugger me the opposition turned up with their own umpire !!But thanks to the four umpires who all took part and were there to help out and for Nick coaching their umpire who had never done it before.1 defeat and 3 wins - happy days !!!!

Ratcliffe's ramble: Better late than never...The Devils were due to have Village in goal, but he unfortunately had a puncture on the motorway and couldn't make it. The Ds played with eleven outfield players and produced a very impressive 4-2 win thanks to two goals from Chewie and one each from Peter Ratcliffe and Will Glynn.The opposing ‘W Glos & N Bristol’ B Team turned out to be pretty much W Glos in disguise – or rather not in disguise owing to the familiar maroon shirts, so this was an impressive performance against the old adversary, never an easy fixture. However, despite the absence of a keeper we were always ahead on goals and driving the game. Having Chewie, following an unexpected loss of players over the weekend, was an obvious advantage to counterbalance the problem of 11 outfield. It was great to see him linking well on the right with Gareth, Will Glynn, Tom Fishley and Sam Parker - but as I remember it Chewie’s two well-taken goals (the first and third in the first half) came not so much from individual skill as from well-worked build-ups leading to penetration into the opposing D and passes to striker. In fact the Devils’ possession was marked throughout the game by the quantity and quality of passing and running.In midfield Gareth, Greg Slater, Pete Ratcliffe and Will Glynn were all strong and worked continuously hard to win ball and successfully cut out the majority of W Glos attacks. The reinforced defence of George, Brian Nichols, Jez, Sam Parker and Ratcliffe senior (who disgraced himself with an uncharacteristically agricultural challenge at one point) were themselves strong enough to prevent the remaining attacks from resulting in more than a couple of unsuccessful shots on goal from open play. I don’t recall W Glos had more than 3 short corners, 2 of which accounted for their goals (one in each half). The other was flicked straight into my right hand at close range causing a very loud noise, considerable pain but no lasting damage.On the subject of injuries, there was a long stoppage in the second half when the gentlemanly W Glos player who had previously found me an ice pack slipped and fell awkwardly on his back putting it into spasm. He was alarmingly unable to move from the ground for some while before eventually hobbling off.Our second goal, to make it 2-0, came from a short corner. Chewie received to strike but was closed down, so laid off left to Pete Ratcliffe who struck, neatly collected the rebound off the pads on his left side and struck again to score, thereby christening his new stick on its first outing.The final Devils goal came from Will Glynn who, coming in from the right, beat two men to get into the D, then shot and scored. Will deserved this goal to round off an excellent performance - consistently battling, skilful and mobile throughout the game and involved everywhere. For my money he was the man of the match.Max also showed some nice touches, as did Ned Holmes on his first senior game, and Dave Dinely who at times had some forceful defending to contend with. Tom Fishley had a strong game and two or three near misses that could easily have gone in. Unfortunately, a couple of cards were shown to our players in the second half, but as I couldn't tell from the other side of the pitch exactly what was going on, I'm not going to dwell on it.West Glos were denied a consolation goal a few minutes from the end, when our defence complained that the attacker had made contact on the ball with his foot before striking. On being questioned by the umpire, to his credit he owned up and the goal was disallowed .Finally, thanks to Terry Watts for making the hike to Winterbourne to umpire for us, and to Village for being prepared to stand in in goal even though ultimately thwarted by a tyre.

The first team came up with a crucial win against Robinsons. They established a 5-2 lead, but Robs startled whittling away at it pulling back to 5-3, then 5-4, but Westbury kncoked in number six to make it four wins out of four. Well done to Shads and his team. They can now start thinking about themselves as serious contenders for the title having reached the half way stage of their eight match programme. Delving through the records it seems that this is the first time that Westbury have beaten Robs in a division 1 game, a sequence of games stretching back to 1991. (NB The 2002 result cannot be found, but from their playing record it seems unlikely that the firsts would have won.)

Chewie's chatter: The A-Team went down 9-1 tonight with a goal from Chewie. Full match report from Mr T to follow but can I say thanks to Poker, JPS, Si Andrews,, Andy Cameron and some bloke who is about to get married and was trying not to get hit in the face for their efforts in letting us field a side tonight - much appreciated Guys and despite the result a good performance.

Mr T's talk: Score: A-Team: 1 Buccs: 9 PushBack: On Time. Bath Uni on a Friday night is clearly not a crowd or a hockey player puller and the A-Team struggled to get a side together for this encounter with one of the stronger sides in the league.Si Andrews, Stig, Polly, Poker, Andy Cameron and JPS stepped up to fill the gaps and looked comfortable throughout. Buccs had won their previous two encounters 9:1 and 10:3 so it was with great trepidation that the A-Team opened the game. After about 15 minutes it became clear that,although very strong,we could actually compete with Buccs and looked reasonable on the break. Indeed,after going 2-0 down from two slick but identical shortie routines,Westbury intercepted the ball in Buccs half and a clever reverse stick pass by TC lead to Chewie nailing it past the advancing keeper from the top of the D. Unfortunately,we then conceded two more shorties and were 4-1 down at half time.The mood was good at half time and Westbury were positive immediately after the break .Positive that was until Buccs scored an amazing but slightly freak goal. The Buccs winger flicked the ball in from wide right,OVER Smurf and an advancing attacker knocked it in at the far post – that doesn’t happen every game .Westbury came back for the remainder of the half and created several good chances - two fell to Stig who, despite being under strict orders to protect his face by his bride to be,suffered nose bleeds in the D!!Buccs got another 4 peppered throughout the half but it wasn’t the backs to the wall / bending over hockey match we expected. Overall,an encouraging performance.The A-Team switched and passed the ball better in this match than in the disappointing game vs Thornes and should be able to build on this for our next game against Gryphons on Wednesday at the Dingle.

The Bs played Long Ashton/Frys and came out on top with a resounding 8-3 win. Frys, since their formation three seasons ago, have been rather used to winning by big margins in their matches v Westbury, first against the Widgets for two seasons then against the Warriors in the winter league last campaign. This week they came up against a Westbury team that were far too good for them. Nathan Walkey scored four times and Worny, Tom Alger, Sparky and Steve Puuetz joined in the fun with one each. That makes it two wins on the spin for the Bs with two high scoring results.

The 1st team had a close encounter with Bristol Indians at the Ridings High School. From the start it looked a game that was going to be decided by which defence made the least number of mistakes against two sharp attacking teams. Joe Thomas had the first chance of the game with a one on one v the keeper, but was unable to take it. Joe and Shads were finding a lot of space and there were some excellent long balls to the two front men. It didn't take long for Westbury to score. Shads shot from the right, the keeper got and edge of the pad to the ball and it looped invitingly for Paddy to tap home. Indians responded with a goal from a left wing reverse stick cross that was deflected in to make it 1-1. With Straun and his fellow midfielders getting a lot of space to start some good attacking moves with Straun's through ball to an unmarked Shads on the penalty spot allowing him execute a delightful chip over the advancing goalie for 2-1. Indians didn't take long to square it again with a reverse stick shot. Village then managed to upend himself when he was oceans of space, twisting his ankle. He was able to return to the game, but no doubt will be limping for the rest of the week. Ron in goal was called on to make some key saves, the one low to his right from a short corer showed off his great reactions. Meaks revealed afterwards he hasn't come off a pitch with so many bruises before, his first coming from taking a drag flick that was going wide of the goal on his body. It was Westbury who went into the lead. A rising shot was pulled down by the stick of Joe Thomas and he went round the grounded keeper to slot it in at the near post. 3-2 at half time. After the break Indians were more consistent as an attacking force, but it was Joe Thomas who put Westbury in the driving seat with a goal to make it 4-2. Then came a thunderbolt of a well placed short from Pidsey. Well it wasn't really a thunderbolt, more a damp squib and it wasn't particularly well placed, but the end result was the same 5-2 ahead. A sweeping move down the left ended in a scorching slap from the edge of the D by Chris Butt, but his rising shot came back off the crossbar denying him what would have been the killer goal. Then came the last 20 minutes of Indian pressure. Ron made some great stops, Mssrs Blake, Meaks, James, Haynes and the midfield threw in some good tackles. With Reading's Shilen Tanna looking the best player on the pitch, Indians earned a series of short corners. Tana's third in a row saw him decline the drag flick and wobble through with his push dribbling past Ron to make it 5-3. Another Indian attack saw the ball run along the goal line. Meaks' first touch let him down and the ball was deemed to have just crossed the line before he could scoop it away. 5-4! The Westbury defence held out for the last few minutes for a deserved 5-4 win. Shads only had nine confirmed players on Thursday, so to make it three wins out of three and top of the table is all credit to Shad's organisation and the teams' quality play. Next up is Robinsons, so a full squad will be essential if the firsts want a serious shot at winning this division against one of the ttile contenders.

Palmer's prattle: The C team cemented their place at the top of division 3 with a superb win against W Glos & N Bristol Bs. Westbury pressed from the start and all the early action was in the home D. With the majority of the home side in W Glos colours it had the feel of a local derby. After 5 minutes Peter Rose received the ball wide on the left and drilled an ace of cross. James Bladon cleverly lost his marker to find himself in oceans of space to tap it in un-challenged at the far post. Westbury were the stronger side and it was good to see John Ludley back after injury chasing every ball and doing a good job going forward when he had the ball on the end of his stick. AJ struck a number of acurate long balls and Dave Money was unlucky not to turn some of them into goals, his normally deadly finish eluding him for once. The second half saw W Glos & N Bristol have more of the play, but they found the Cs defence in outstanding form. Feymous was sweeping well, Reesy was in brilliant form and nothing got through or past him. AJ and Will Enderby were at the top of their game. When the home team finally created a clear cut chance, their forward had the ball a yard out, he moved his stick and feet so that he could push it into the goal. Martin Eland had other ideas and threw himself into the gap to pull off an unbelievable point blank save. A few minutes later he pulled off another stunning double save to keep Westbury ahead. John Ludley was desparately unlucky after one driving run, seeing his shot go wide, and then a short corner flick batted away by the keeper at head height. A second goal was still needed to make it safe and eventually it came. A short corner saw Ludley slip square to Jamie Cranfield, Jamie squared it back to James Pope who hit it reverse stick under the diving keeper. That's two wins and a draw from the opening three games. The midfield trio of Cranfield, Ludley and Rose were superb and with Dave Money and the skipper not able to get their touch right it was down to the team work from the rest of the side to earn all three points. The quality of hockey we played was superb, players had the confidence to pass to team mates in tight positions, keep posession and move it forward in triangles - it was great to watch. Well done Cs. Thanks also to Shads who umpired and didn't miss a trick.

Ratcliffe's ramble: Went down 1-3 to OBs Grapes. Good skills and penetration from our lads but inadequate finishing, apart from a well taken Dave Dineley goal, and an amazing Will Glynn reverse front-edge slice that looked to me like it bounced of the downed goalie’s helmet up into the back of the net, but no goal given. Sam Brewer (debut) and Tom Fishley impressed us. Our defence (including your reporter) had too many flaky moments, without which we might have come away with a point. Sam Banting pulled off some good saves - including a classic triple. More to follow… I asked Ratcliffe Junior to write the full report and here it is:

Junior's jottings: This week’s team composed of 70% youth strength with Sam Brewer making his debut for the club. Before the match Will Glynn was given a quick lesson on Right wing while Bees took us on our first ever warm up.The match started well but unfortunately OBs scored a well deserved goal.From a well worked attack Dave Dinely received the ball, drove through numerous opposition to hammer a brilliant goal past the OB keeper. The defence superbly fended off all but that one attack. The first half was closely fought, ending at 1-1.Team talk over, everyone was raring to begin the first half. Everyone put in 110% effort throughout the half and it was rewarded with some very promising attacks, right into the opposing D . Unfortunately the finishing wasn’t quite there and we failed to score another goal. The ball was whizzed to the other end of the pitch and OB’s scored their second goal. After more attacks the OBs broke through again, after some good defending in the D, OBs sneakily scored another goal. Even after this blow, everyone redoubled their effort and particular mention should go to Sam Brewer, who played up and down the pitch, seemingly never tiring to wreak havoc amongst the OBs wherever he found himself. When the final whistle had blown, the score remained at 3-1 to OBs.

Mr T's talk: Score: A-Team: 0 Thornes: 2 PushBack: Late. Attendance: 2. There was another sporting event taking place on the 21 May but those with a desire to watch top athletes competing live were at Fortress Dingle for the As match against Thornes (OBs) – that would be Becky and Palmer then! This was a game that the entire A-Team eagerly anticipated as, after two heavy defeats, there was a real sense of belief that our first win was achievable. The pre-match warm up comprised our normal style of rubbish shorties but for an extended period as the match was delayed waiting for Thornes to have a full team. Westbury started relatively brightly and it was immediately clear that we would be able to compete this week. Struan, who had kindly offered to play, was making good breaks down the right supporting Butt. Defensively, we looked strong, with Knightrider sweeping well behind Stampie and Wornie. However, about halfway through we went behind to an Thornes short corner routine. That’s how it stayed till halftime, despite Chewie getting a strong shot off against the keeper from a loopy pass in the D. A much needed heated team discussion at halftime brought out the main flaw that we were working our arses off to actually get the ball back but once in possession the whole team were taking their foot off the pedal. This meant that we were losing the ball from a lack of options.In an improved second half performance Westbury enjoyed a more control as the players worked much harder. TC had a moment of magic down the right, almost scoring reverse stick at the near post. However, Westbury conceded another short, despite an excellent second half keeping display by Smurf, diving at the feet of any attacker who had so much of a sniff of goal and managing to avoid Knightrider for a change. So it finished 2-0 and is another week of learning for the A-Team.Key lesson that we’ve got to put in the same effort to win matches as we do not to get humiliated! Thanks to Tez for Umpiring, Becky for sorting out Subs and Mr Palmer for his support. Next game is Buccs Away on 6 June………

The Bs traveled to Yate and borrowed one of the home club's keepers because of the shortage of Westbury custodians. Well done Yate, a very sporting gesture. The Bs emerged the winners by 6-4. Bomber Harris struck a hat-trick, Tony Webster scored twice on his long awaited return from injury, only to injure his other foot and reluctantly have to sit out the rest of the summer. Nathan Walkey, who was stand in captain bagged the remaining goal.

Mr T's talk: It was not quite such a stunning summers day for the big inter club match against the firsts. Prior to the match, Martin Palmer, clearly worried about Pricey’s recent ridiculously geeky efforts to compete with him on the “Club Statto” front, hit back with the fact this was the first competitive game between the two teams since the 70s where the score had been 3-1 – top notch . A brief intentional water jet soaking before the match ensured that the A-Team would remain cool for the first few minutes – especially Garrry. This was reflected in the opening 10 with the A-Team working hard to defend well against considerable 1sts pressure. The few times they got an opportunity they were faced with Banting in good form who made a number of excellent reaction saves. For the rest of the half, the A-Team went slightly into panic mode and conceded 5 in quick succession.At half time it was clear that Mr Ts 4-3-3 decision had to change and we moved to 4-4-2. Pricey added some good analysis of our forward play both offensively and defensively and we went out to make amends for the collapse. Immediately after the restart the benefit of this tactical move provided dividends and the A-Team enjoyed more time on the ball. This built up into better attacking play and an early forward pass released TC and Moonie behind the firsts defence. A good interchange led to Wornie pushing for an open goal which was only stopped on the line by a defending foot. Tez had no choice but to give the flick which TC calmly dispatched put us 1-0 up….well in the second half at least.For the rest of the game we looked much more comfortable. So comfortable in fact that Gay-er took sympathy and passed straight to Shads at the top of the D. An unstoppable strike made the second half score 1-1 and that’s how it finished. Good work guys and plenty to build on next week. Thanks to Tez and Feymous for a great umpire display which let the game run smoothly without any stoppages. Also, big thanks for the turnout to watch the game on the sidelines, especially Ron who turned up to watch it in his keepers kit. Ps. Palmer - based on that result, the last “competitive” game between the two teams remains so no need to update the Statto book !!

• 1sts short corner Banting saves from Blakes drag flick.
• 1sts Shot from Thomas saved by Banting.
• 1sts Shot from Poulsom saved by Banting.
• 'A's short corner shot from Moon wide to the left of goal.
• 1sts Mason retires hurt with calf muscle that went 'ping'.
• 1sts Parish hits ball into D, missed by forwards, Banting steps over it.
• 1sts Parish hits into D to Roper, no contact Banting steps over it.
• 'A's Hit from Smith flashes across the D with no contact made.
• 1sts Richardson shot deflected by Coates as it left his stick, high and just wide.
• 1sts Haynes flick at goal over the prone keeper after a goalmouth melee hits a body on the line for a penalty stroke.
• 1sts Roper converts penalty stroke. 1-0.
• 1sts Wilkins comes to bench with sore hamstring, but is able to continue later.
• 1sts Richardson breaks down right, slips the bal square left to Thomas who steers it in at the far post. 2-0
• 1sts Crill receives the ball in right hand side of the D, shoots near post and scores. 3-0
• 1sts Wilkins pushes ball wide of goal to the right.
• 1sts Richardson steals the ball, sends in cross from right but passes through D without being touched.
• 1sts Richardson passes to Crill who scores. 5-0
• 1sts Haslett shots from right, ball deflected off defender's stick for corner.
• Half time.
• 'A's Smith runs to D and gets short corner
• 'A's Short corner shot from Coates goes wide to the left.
• 1sts Thomas steals the ball, pass to Roper who reaches but edges wide.
• 1sts Parish cross from left goes across the D untouched.
• 1sts Parish pass to Richardson who shoots high, Thomas scores from rebound, but whistle blown for lifted ball.
• 'A's Smith hits into the D, no contact, Wheeler steps over the ball.
• 1sts Richardson run down the right into D, slips the ball square to Thomas, but it goes behind him.
• 1sts Pass to Wilkins who shoots, kicked clear by Banting.
• 'A's Small feeds the ball to Moon, he runs down inside right channel, slips the ball left to Colquhoun at 25. Colquhoun draws a save from Wheeler who met him at the top of the D. The ball goes to left to Wornell whose shot finds a foot on the line for penalty stroke.
• 'A's Colquhoun converts penalty stroke. 5-1.
• 'A's Small passes to Moon who cuts in to strike, earns short corner.
• 'A's Short corner. Moon flicks the ball, skews wide for a long corner.
• 1sts have three attacks, but do not create a shot.
• 1sts Richardson cross, Crill flicks, Banting saves. Long corner on the right.
• 1sts Richardson then Crill create chance for Roper. Banting saves.
• 1sts Blake picks up ball, drives down right cross wide ball goes out left.
• 1sts Roper intercepts Openshaw 16 and scores. 6-1.
• 'A's Small and Taylor work the ball down the line. No shot.
• 'A's Smith cross deflected wide.
• 'A's Small attacks and earns a short corner.
• 'A's Short corner not stopped, 1sts flick ball away.
• 1sts Parish cross from the right, Thomas dives, gets an edge but it goes wide.
• 1sts Crill finds Haslett whose cross shot goes wide.
• 1sts attack down the right that goes wide.
• 1sts Richardson shot from narrow angle on right flashes across the goal. but misses.
• 1sts Cross from left into D intercepted of several 1st team sticks by Openshaw.
• 1sts Blake cross from right, Thomas skews his shot to the right.
• 'A's Butt lifted cross from the right.
• Final whistle.

Ratcliffe's ramble: The Devils suffered a not entirely unexpected defeat 0-3 to OBs Vinyards, a significantly stronger side. Last year Vinyards played with 11 outfield to beat our D team 0-5. Viewed in that context it was a great performance from our lads on Tuesday. By all accounts this was a hard fought match and the youngsters played strongly, including Tom Fishley in his first game for the club. Unfortunately I couldn’t play or watch but talking to the team afterwards, there was quite a buzz of positive energy and considerable exhaustion evident which showed that, like last week, everyone had given 100% and not buckled under pressure. It sounds like much of the play was in our half.Mike Harvey spoke highly of Jez and told me he (Mike) didn’t have a great deal coming at him apart from the 3 that went in. I also had good reports of Will Holmes playing in defence and tackling well, and Mattie working hard and distributing effectively at centre mid. There were suggestions of a slightly physical OBs defence but, although this may have disrupted the lads a bit, I doubt if it shook them - and of course it’s the experience they need to get. Thanks are due to Steve Puetz for umpiring, Brian Nichols for supporting, Mike Harvey for keeping at short notice, Matt Taylor for guesting (also at short notice) and to George for turning out at all, as he was struggling with a dreadful Summer bug. Next week’s match at home is against OBs Grapes (Tues, 7.30, support welcome). Based on this and last week’s performance I’m looking for at least one point and hopefully three.

Palmer's prattle: On a hot sticky summer evening (that's a rarety) the C team started their summer campaign against the combined forces of W Glos and N Bristol. Although it has to be said Mike Lilly was the only W Glos player there. After a very disappointing winter the pre-match talk was aimed to build on the strong defensive work achieved previously, by being more creative in midfield, giving the strikers some action in the D. The team delivered what was asked of them and Jamie Cranfield served up a well placed pass from the left for James Pope to guide in past the wrong footed keeper. There was a lot of goalmouth action and Poker stepped up to strike two short corners that the keeper had to save. The visitors pressed well and had two strong attacking midfielders. A shot from their left was initially saved, but ran along the goal line and an attacker tapped it in for an equaliser. Westbury never stopped running with Harris, Andrews, Parker and Cranfield constantly being involved in the play, and it was no surprise when a second goal was banged in. The 'Who actually scored it' adjudication committee met afterwards to allocate the goal. For the prosecution Jamie Cranfield, who cleverly picked the ball up with a very narrow angle to shoot. Scooped in his shot and saw it come back off the inside of the post. The ball flipped into the air and Pete Thomas was on hand to bury the ball in the back of the net. Jamie claimed the ball had crossed the line (hitting the inside of the post), Pete for the defence (he was representing himself) said it hit the corner of the post. In the end we went with the fact that the goal was awarded only after Pete's shot. In the second half W Glos & N Bristol snatched their second equaliser of the game. As the game drew to its close, either side could have won it. Good defending by Westbury ensured the visitors didn't score, especially after one goalmouth melee when Mike Harvey and his cronies ( Feymous, Reesy, AJ, Poker and Will Enderby) threw some excellent close range blocks. At the other end we saw three shots go agonisingly wide, whilst 'deadeye' James Pope, last seasons top scorer in the summer, took his eye off the ball and swept in fresh air when well placed to get the winner. An attack down the right should have been laid square for a certain goal rather than striking a near post shot that was saved. After the heartache of the winter, the players on duty today did themselves proud. There was a lot of good hockey, passing moves were effective and most importantly chances were created.

Ratcliffe's ramble: The all new Youth Development squad had its first outing away at Golden Hill against Robinsons C on Tuesday, and demonstrated a steady improvement as the game progressed from a very ropey beginning to some extremely pleasing hockey, and a well-earned win.To start with there was a lack of coherent play from Westbury with rather loose marking, dispossessions and passes straight to the opposition. Robinsons took full advantage and pressed into the D on numerous occasions, only to be repeatedly denied by excellent saves and clearances from Sam Banting, backed up by some tenacious defence from George, Jez, and Will Glynn. Will’s converging tackle to deny their left wing beating down the base line stood out in particular. After about 15 mins of the first half the seemingly inevitable happened and Westbury went one down to an unstoppable rising shot on a moving ball. Robinsons’ goal proved to be the turning point of the match as Westbury’s play seemed to recover from this point. Passing became quicker, more considered and more accurate. Play evened up end-to-end with our defence and midfield firming up and the rotating forward 4 of Max Longden, Pete Ratcliffe, Ben Lipfriend and Will Holmes making a number of visits to the opposing 25 and D. The first solid chance was a near miss from a well-positioned Pete Ratcliffe coming in on the left post to a cross from the right. The equaliser came shortly before half time from Will Holmes who collected at the left edge of the D and calmly moved past defenders to top centre for a shot that went straight between the keeper’s legs.Huge gaps opened up in Robinson’s centre during the second half which might well have been due to the wing forwards following Brian Nichol’s half-time advice to stay wide and deep. This allowed Gareth to dominate central play and treat us to some exhibition passes. The defence remained solid during the second half with Sam having much less work to do, and Jez demonstrating several of his trademark curly-wurly runs. As the half progressed, midfield and forwards all to a man started to link beautifully with numerous well-developed and penetrating forays towards goal. The most improved player over the course of the game was Ian Cook at left midfield who as the second half progressed seemed to close down or disrupt most opposition attacks on that side as well as contributing to our own forward play in combination with Max in particular.The winning goal came midway through the second half from Ben Lipfriend in his first senior game for the Club. A loose ball was gathered by a defender on our 25 and worked round the pitch by slick passing player to player until it arrived with Ben in the right-hand quarter of the D, to control and guide into the left hand side of the goal. The striker’s composure in the D before shooting was a noticeable feature of both Westbury goals. Which leaves just one question – to pun or not pun? Is it to be Devils or Devels?

Shads says: First of all a big thank you to Martin Fey who stepped up to the plate to umpire at short Notice and did a great job, Thanks.The game started a bit slow, like we had not picked our sticks up for a month or so, which for some us was the case. After this we seemed to settle down and had a good 80% of the possession in the first half. With this in the first 30 minutes we managed to take a 1-0 lead (Shads the scorer) after a well worked move. In the last 5 mins of the first half we scored a quick fire 2 goals to take us to 3-0 at half time. (Scorers TC and Mason). Both these goals came from quick neat passing in the 25 and D.Into the Second half and we started this much the same as the first, a bit sluggish! It was not long though before we regained some composure and the lions share of the po session. Although we were finding it hard to put the ball in the net or find the final pass. Then came OB's attack, a quick break and a couple of nice passes which led to a nice deflected attempt which Ron saved and then found himself looking where the ball had gone, it was behind him and just pushed in by another attacker (unlucky Ron). We then went straight back up the other end to score ourselves (Joe Crill finishing well). Shortly followed by another from TC.The final Score was 5-1 to the Westbury!Thanks to Chris James and Rik for there efforts both played well.

Chewie's chatter: Score was 8-3 defeat. Alex Taylor with 2, Reston with 1. We actually played quite well seeing as the oppo had 4 national league players! It was a stunning summers day to open what will be a very competitive league for the A-team - now grouped with our 1sts. Luckily we had a nice easy opener versus Flames who obviously struggle for players and could only field 4 national league guys on this occasion…….. Mr T's talk: The water pitch looked bouncy so we agreed to play on the sand and, due to a minor captaincy cock up, the A-Team played in white. During the warm up, Butt and Knightrider lulled the unsuspecting Flames into a false sense of security with some horrendous practice shortie push-outs. Despite this tactic, after the first 10 minutes we were 2-0 down and looking a bit in awe at the pace of the game. After this initial onslaught, Westbury slowly began to settle and gel. Wornie used his natural stand-off style of hockey to stamp some authority and things began to flow with Garrrrrrry “Mr Angry” Catchpole providing good width to our play and Moonie moving well up front. Limbo and Chewie had already missed a couple of chances before a well worked team move resulted in an Alex Taylor reacting quickly to deflect a goal in at the far post.By half time the score was 3-1 but there was a positive mood about the team and what we could achieve. After the restart Westbury continued to compete and good pressure in the ‘D’ led to Alex Taylor finishing in style at short range with a reverse shot lifted over the keeper – 3-2; at this point, Smurf struggled with the away kit at and completely wiped out one of our defenders in style - awesome...Unfortunately, with things looking up Westbury then had a bit of an England Cricket collapse and conceded 4 without reply. This was largely down to Flames realising they were in a match and putting their best player up-front. Despite this, Westbury continued to make chances and looked comfortable in possession. The hard work was rewarded when a great move down the right led to Reston having the ball in the ‘D’. Clearly, the correct option at this point was to pass to any one of three forwards for easy finishes but Reston selfishly decided to exquisitely flick the ball past the keeper at range instead – good work fella! Unfortunately, Flames got one more and the final score was 8-3. A very respectable result and encouraging performance from a good natured match. Mention must also go to Stampie with a solid debut and Gay-er who looked as if he’d never been away, both contributing well in defence. Finally, big thanks to George for umpiring; particularly in the way he let the game flow.Be afraid Shads, slightly afraid……..Alger's analysis: Westbury B away at City Of Bath. Started off with half the team going to the lower pitches and half to the other itch - which about set the tone for the whole evening.With two late absentees from the team we were left with the bare 11 which did not help on a hot sticky night and a pitch that made it hard for walking let alone playing hockey on !Anyway to cut a long story short we were walloped 6 - 1 and it could have been far worse had it not been for some brilliant keeping by Mike Harvey who along with Sparky proved the ONLY bright performance of the night. Our touch, passing and movement were all reminiscent of the first games of the winter - well off the pace and no complaints.On the positive side our fitness levels will have been thoroughly tested and increased chasing the shadows and men all over the pitch - which we did, to our credit, until the final whistle.Not the best start but its summer league and its a run out.