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Welcome to a round-up of Boston and District football
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End of season round-up 2005-2006 |
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by Neil Johnson |
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The Boston Saturday League season kicked off at its
customary time on the final Saturday of August. But the opening day was surrounded
with confusion and controversy. The Boston Saturday League were forced into
drastic action when, after advice from the Lincolnshire FA. The management
committee decided to offer teams the option to postpone their first day games
because of the mounting pressure on the clubs to obtain international
clearance for their players before being allowed to play. |
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Cropley’s Suzuki Premier Division Two Premier Division games were called off on the first day due to the above reason including the one affecting champions Billinghay Athletic, whose opponents, Boston Town Colts took the opportunity to take stock of the situation. Croft United did likewise with their scheduled game at Kirton Town. The only game in the top flight to take place on the opening day was at North Sea Camp where the prison side hosted Skegness Town. The visitors got off to a flying start winning 8-1. Billinghay Athletic began their campaign the following
week knowing full well that it would be more difficult the second time round to
retain the Premier Division championship. They promptly calmed any
early-season nerves with a 4-0 home win over Coningsby thanks to a Tom
Dickinson hat-trick. Another hat-trick hero was Kurt Crossley who scored all
of Croft United’s goals in their 3-0 home win against local rivals, Skegness
Town. Croft United finished as runners-up although they rarely threatened
Billinghay’s lead. Too many careless dropped points meant Croft were always
going to be just off the pace. In the middle of September they suffered a
humiliating home defeat at the hands of Swineshead when Benn Houghton helped
himself to four of his side’s goals in a 5-0 victory. Croft’s “Mr Football,” Roy Smith will, no doubt, be active in his search for new players as he
looks to add a couple of new faces to his squad to prevent Billinghay from
completing a hat-trick of successive title hauls next term. And Croft will
need some quality at the start of next season as two of their players, Scott
Hutchinson and Adam Broom, will be serving suspensions from September 4. Past champions of two seasons ago, Spilsby Town, had a
poor start to the season and even conceded 10 goals in one match at Skegness
Town on the third Saturday of the season. The amazing match featured an
extraordinary goal-scoring feat by two of the Skegness Town strike-force.
Paul Butler and Steve Warren, both in the twilight periods of their
footballing careers hit five goals apiece as they proved that there really is
no substitute for experience in front of goal. Thankfully for Spilsby they
enjoyed a much-improved run-in during the second part of the campaign and
they eventually finished in third place. At the bottom end of the table North Sea United started
badly but enjoyed a few decent results towards the end of the season although
it still wasn’t enough to prevent them from going down. They had debated at
the end of the season whether to pull out of the Saturday League and just
compete in the Sunday League for next season but they changed their minds at
the 11th hour so it looks as if they will now be competing in Division One. Wrangle United will be looking to re-build next season
after finishing second from bottom. It has been rumoured that their reserve
line-up will include the majority of the successful Shodfriars side who
finished runner-ups in Division Three. Shodfriars have not applied to carry on in Division Two.
CFC Napoleon withdrew from the league just before the season kicked off due
to a lack of players. Manager Simon Ingamells moved to Wyberton where he
enjoyed a moderate season. |
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Cropley’s Suzuki Division One
In Division One Sleaford Town who had originally applied
to go straight into the Premier when they joined the Saturday League a year ago
proved that they could have probably competed well in the top flight after
finishing champions of Division One. The team looks well equipped, with a crop of talented
players, to do well in the Premier section and they never really looked back
after their first victory during the second Saturday of the season when they
thumped Tydd St Mary 5-0 at home with Iain Stewart scoring twice. Sleaford
Town only lost one game and that was not until February 11 when a strong
Spilsby Town Reserves side defeated them 2-1. Spalding Town looked to be on the brink of causing an
upset at Sleaford Town at the end of March but, after leading 2-0, they
finally succumbed to the home side’s superiority and another three points
went to the title-chasers after a 6-3 victory. Gedney Drove End were always
hot on the heels of Sleaford but a 7-1 mauling at the hands of the leaders in
April put paid to any slim hopes that they might have had. Old Doningtonians enjoyed some bright spells and they
showed their mettle with a 1-1 draw against Sleaford in early April. Sleaford
finally wrapped up the championship when Gedney Drove End went down 1-0 at
Fishtoft, who recorded a creditable “double” over the eventual runners-up.
Sleaford were awarded “walk-overs” at least twice late in the season as
opponents struggled to raise sides for their unenviable encounters. Holbeach Bank edged out Sutterton and Fosdyke at the
bottom of the table after a much-improved latter part of the campaign. The
Bank had struggled early on and after being on the receiving end of many
heavy defeats underwent some changes to the structure of the club. Although
some members stepped down from their posts during early November they agreed
to help out for the remainder of the season. |
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Cropley’s Suzuki Division Two West End Tigers, who clearly resembled the former Axe and Cleaver side, comfortably lifted the Division Two title although Westside Rangers pushed them all the way for the best part of the season. Rangers got off to a flying start during the opening Saturday thumping Mareham United 5-0. West End Tigers equally impressed in the first game a week later when they beat Wainfleet United 5-1 with Martin Jolly claiming a hat-trick. When the two sides clashed in mid-October it was the Tigers who came out on top in an exciting 3-2 encounter. West End’s secret of success was down to a massive team effort, relying on all outfield players to contribute to the goalscoring. The team wasn’t blessed with an out-and-out goalscorer so all their victories came via strikes from all areas of the field. The league lost one side in this division during the
season — Croft United Reserves. Although they started well enough and with
ex-first team striker Dave Miskell showing his experience in front of goal,
they looked set for a good season. Miskell hit four goals in their home game
against Freiston in early September when they triumphed 5-4. But work
commitments coupled with players moving out of the area and the usual
unreliability of some team members meant team selection became harder and
harder. Gary Milson was also unable to carry on with helping to
run the side and they soon started suffering some heavy defeats, the worst
being a 11-0 trouncing at Westside Rangers at the end of October, where Niall
O’Grady netted five times. On that occasion, Croft had five players let them
down and they could only take part with ten men. That signalled the beginning
of the end for their second-string and they eventually folded during the
early part of November. Westside Rangers had their problems as internal
wrangling upset the balance of the team mid-way through the season. The club
recovered, however, and they finished strongly to take the runners-up spot. |
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Cropley’s Suzuki Division Three The top of Division Three was always a three-way battle with Woodhall Spa United always looking likely champions with Shodfriars and Kirton Town Reserves fighting it out for the runners-up spot. Woodhall Spa had Andrew Money and Ian Draper to thank for scoring most of their goals in their championship-winning season and although Shodfriars only finished a point behind they had to rely on an excellent run-in to pip Kirton to second place. Shodfriars paraded the league’s top goalscorer in Jimmy
Brittain who struck 50 goals during the season. The club looked to be
experiencing a sticky patch at the end of January as some key players were
being enticed away from the club to play in another league. And after being
held by East Region School of Sport they then lost at home to Old
Doningtonians Reserves a week later. The club recovered from these setbacks,
however, and they produced some powerful end-of-season displays to edge out
Kirton Town. The two clubs clashed during a midweek game on April 26 and it was Shodfriars who came
out on top in a 3-1 away win. Sibsey were unable to complete their season after being
called before the management committee on countless occasions to answer a
wide range of charges including ineligible players and missing match reports.
The club finally called it a day at Christmas. West Pinchbeck, too, were
perilously close to folding towards the latter stages of the season and they
suffered some heavy defeats and were forced to pull out of a few games due to
a lack of players. Player-secretary Simon Webster, though, rallied his troops
to finish the campaign although the club has not re-applied to carry on next
season. Apart from Jimmy Brittain’s regular goal-scoring feats —
when on many occasions he hit four or five goals — Woodhall’s Andrew Money
struck a double hat-trick in his side’s 6-0 away win at East Region. Simon
Webster also found time to score all of his side’s five goals during a 5-2
home win over Friskney last August. |
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Cup competitions The cup competitions saw Kirton Town Reserves enjoying another
highly successful season once again and player-manager, Paul Fossitt was
compensated for missing out on promotion by lifting both the Reserve Cup and
the Willoughby Shield. It was in the Willoughby Shield where possibly
one of the most exciting cup ties of the season took place as Billinghay
Athletic Reserves and Coningsby Reserves drew 5-5 after extra time before the
latter squeezed through to the final after a penalty shoot-out. Both sets of
club officials and supporters, along with the referee, all declared the match
was a truly superb example to local football in which the spirit of the game
came to the fore. The Challenge Cup saw Sleaford Town and West End
Tigers clash but the match failed to live up to expectations with the
Division One side snatching victory with an Alex Maddison strike. The Sports Cup saw Croft United claim some
silverware and a little revenge for a pasting handed out by their opponents,
Billinghay Athletic who had inflicted a 5-1 league defeat upon the east coast
side on the final day of the season. Croft bounced back in the final a few
days later to claim The League's prestigious trophy with a 4-1 victory. The final word must go to Billinghay Athletic however,
who lifted the Willoughby Cup in an enthralling game at Tattershall
Road. Spilsby Town contributed hugely to providing a superb game that saw
both teams locked at 4-4 when the referee blew his whistle for the end of
extra time. Billinghay proved to be more clinical from the spot, however, and
they took the honours. The success of Billinghay in the league and cup once again will be some compensation for their failure to bring home the Lincs Junior Cup when all the signs had looked so promising. After disposing of both of the previous season's finalists, Moulton Harrox and Heckington United, Billinghay were drawn at home for their semi final tie against BBM of Scunthorpe. Alas, they didn’t perform on the day and they crashed out to a narrow 1-0 defeat. |
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Swineshead Cup round-up 2005-2006 Results for the 2005-2006 Swineshead Cup
competition are as follows: Round one results: Spilsby Town 2 (Kirton
Town 2. Spilsby won 4-3 on penalties). Round two: Croft United 1, Horncastle
2; Swineshead Institute 4, Wyberton 2; Old Doningtonians, CFC Napoleon (C F C
Napoleon withdrew from the competition. Old Doningtonians went through to
semi-final); Spilsby Town 10, Mareham 0. Semi-finals: Horncastle Town 4, Swineshead
1; Old Doningtonians 0, Spilsby 4 (Spilsby withdrew for playing an ineligible
player). Final: Horncastle Town 1, Old Doningtonians
2 (aet). |
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Roll of honour 2005-2006 |
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Premier Division champions, Billinghay
Athletic; runners-up, Croft United. Division One champions, Sleaford Town;
runners-up, Gedney Drove End. Division Two champions, West End Tigers;
runners-up, Westside Rangers. Division Three champions, Woodhall Spa
United; runners-up, Shodfriars. James Eley Sports Cup winners, Croft United;
runners-up Billinghay Athletic. Target Newspapers Challenge Cup winners, Sleaford Town; runners-up, West End Tigers. Barclays Brokers Willoughby Cup
winners, Billinghay Athletic; runners-up, Spilsby Town. Barclays Brokers Willoughby Shield
winners, Kirton Town Reserves; runners-up, Coningsby Reserves. Main Ridge Take Away Reserve Cup
winners, Kirton Town Reserves; runners-up, Swineshead Reserves. |