De Cymru & The Marches One

Cirencester 12

Aberystwyth University 0

AFTER a poor result the week before, Cirencester’s 1st XI dominated visiting Aberystwyth University to win 12-0, writes Chris Pollard.

Dutch powerhouse Matt van der Torren opened the scoring and quickly added a second. This was followed by a brace from Phil Makin and another Rob Carmichael strike, making it 5-0 at the break.

Keen to preserve a clean sheet, Cirencester maintained their solid base and their central midfield duo Jack Brown and James Rydborn were able to add two more goals.

This was followed by striker Makin completing a hat-trick, van der Torren taking his match tally to five goals and GB College’s Charlie Partridge converting a penalty stroke to complete an emphatic 12-0 victory.

The Golden Stick award for the season’s top scorer at the club is a close-run affair with Partridge and Carmichael moving on to 23 goals apiece, while the ladies’ strike duo of Jess Weston and Kath Fry remain on 22 each.

Cirencester’s 2nd XI visited Cardiff Medics and took part in another high-scoring contest.

After 20 minutes the sides remained deadlocked at 1-1 thanks to a stunning equaliser from Cameron Lane. However, the pace of the Medics’ attacks saw them move into a 3-1 lead at half-time.

Cirencester pushed to close the gap but were soon 6-1 down before goals from Oscar Snowball and Jon Tirrill made the final score 6-3.

The 3rd XI secured an invaluable three points in a tense game against rivals Newent that was full of cards; Robbie Webster received three temporary suspensions.

Striker Tom Jeffries levelled the scores at 1-1 and in the last minute of the game a deceptive pass from Joel Brace to Jeffries saw him clinch all three points for Cirencester.

The 4th XI lost 4-1 to runaway league leaders Stroud.

West Women Severn Div Three

Cirencester Ladies 1

Ross-on-Wye 0

THE only league game for the Cirencester ladies’ section was the 3rd XI hosting Ross-on-Wye in a “must-win” game, writes Rachel Seymour.

The fixture had previously been cancelled twice due to a frozen pitch but this nail-biting game was worth the wait.

An attacking Ross side started well and Cirencester endured an early blitz. Defenders Ann Hart and Sam Day battled hard to keep the sides level before forward Jenny Jones scored the only goal of the game to move Ciren up to second.

The 2nd XI lost out 4-2 to a strong Westberries team in a friendly, with goalkeeper Imogen Grayling earning player of the match. Ciren’s goals came from Jules Finn and captain Jules Carter.

The ladies’ 4th XI enjoyed a better result in their early friendly against a strong Wootton Bassett side.

Lou Pettit, having a rare run out of goal, opened the scoring followed by a hat-trick by Megan Poole.

Nicki George, having started the match playing right back, was moved to spearhead the attack in the second half. The change paid off and George's two goals took the result to 6-0 and earned a well-deserved PoM award.