Wednesday 19th April 2017 ko 18.30

Witney & District League – Division 3

WOOTTON SPORTS 0

BLETCHINGTON 7 (White 34 Buschay 35 Evans 40 Deabill 55 73 84 Godfrey 56)

Att c25

Entry FREE

No Programme

After the exertions of the Easter Hop, even I felt like slowing down. I’d talked to the other half of GroundhopUK, Chris Berezai and he did absolutely nothing for three days! But when you’re helped organise and event consisting of 13 football matches in 4 and a half days how do you recharge your batteries? By going to a football match of course!

Of course there are games and then there are games. What I wanted was something to enjoy for no reason other than the game itself, and the Witney & District League does that rather well. There are of course no end of Woottons, this one is a pretty Oxfordshire village near to Woodstock, and the drive along the B4207 is a delicious slice of rural England.

Those with longer memories will remember Bletchington, or Bletchingdon (it depends which route you take to enter the village) as an Oxfordshire Senior League side. They folded a few years ago and a phoenix side entered the Witney League. They went into this game needing a point to take the championship of the league’s 4th tier.

They did so in some style, with veteran Jimmy Deabill notching a hat trick. Deabill’s long career has seen him play for the likes of Redditch, Leamington, Didcot, Kidlington and many others with distinction. These days he plays for fun, and it was obvious how much fun he’s having. That rubbed off on all there, and despite the one-sided scoreline this was an entertaining game to to watch, and perhaps having a bloke with a camera there was handy for the clubs and league!

The league had representation there in the form of John Smyth, and it was good to see Wootton stay to applaud the champions as they received the trophy. Good luck to them, and to Bletchington as they continue their way back.