A birdseye view of Sherborne Town v Bishops Lydeard from Saturday 4th August.

Video courtesy of JRH Media.

Premier Division Hengrove Athletic’s opening game yesterday against Bridgwater Town was at the newly-named Paprika Park, following their tie up with local Whitchurch restaurant Paprika.

The club recently announced a three year rolling partnership agreement starting this week which is the largest of its kind in the history of the Toolstation Western League club with Paprika now becoming the main club partner. Hengrove’s ground will be renamed "Paprika Park" under the terms of the deal and the distinctive Paprika name will also be emblazoned on the first team and reserve shirts, the club’s polo shirts and tracksuits and a stand at the ground.

Hengrove Athletic FC chairman Mike Greatbanks commented "The past few seasons have been very successful for the club both on and off the pitch. We are currently playing at the highest level in our history and have retained our local community-based ethos too. By partnering with a multi-award winning, well respected business like Paprika, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to those values. We’d like to put on record our sincere thanks to Tan, Macz and Shah Rahman and look forward to working with them as official partners for many years"

Paprika’s Tan Rahman commented "When the question of sponsoring our local team Hengrove came up, we unanimously said yes! All of us were really excited for many reasons, the main one being we love football. Having spoken to Hengrove, they came across as a really nice bunch of people doing amazing things with the community. When that happens, the least companies like ours can do is try to help. Whether that be financial contributions, moral support, social media or other outlets, every little helps. We look forward to having an amazing partnership – come on the Grove!"

Celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, Hengrove are in their highest ever position having finished ninth last season. The club have also maintained strong links to the local community; holding two fundraising football matches for children that need medical equipment and also donating two dozen Easter eggs to the Emergency Ward at Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Western Premier side Buckland Athletic made the long journey north to North East Counties League Penistone Church FC to play the Charity Cup match between the two sides representing the sponsors Toolstation yesterday but returned empty handed after a goal five minutes before the break separated the sides writes Kerry Miller.

Read the full report HERE

Photos courtesy of Mark Hayman

The Grant Application Service has been in place for three years now and in that time it has helped a number of clubs in the Western League to achieve successful grant awards totalling £500k

The Service provides advice and guidance to clubs who are looking to update their infrastructure as well as hands on management where required.

The Service can provide advice on all aspeces of grant funding, including planning, finding suppliers and completion of all necessary documents to run your project or prepare documents for the Football Association or other lottery funds.

There is no cost at the initial stage and where a more hands on approach is required in general the costs are low, as costs can be claimed back from the grant received.

Clubs we have assisted so far include Barnstaple, Gillingham, Oldland Abbotonians, Keynsham, Street, Cheddar, Plymouth Parkway.

If you would like to discuss your club's infrastructure needs and funding, please call Steve Nicholls on 07454320934 or Martin on 07754543719

Congratulations to Buckland Athletic on winning the Les Phillips Cup after extra time and a penalty shoot-out against Shepton Mallet.

You can view photos of the match taken by John Cuthbertson BY CLICKING HERE

If you would like to see more photos of the final you can see them BY CLICKING HERE

Director Julian French presents the Premier Division Team of the Month Award for January/February to Bridgwater Town. Pictured are Club Secretary Ian Barber and Chairman Bob Buckingham.

Photo courtesey of Richard Palette.

The catalyst for this championship was the 7-1 defeat at Willand Rovers

Richard Fey

Read Kerry Miller's interview with Street FC manager Richard Fey BY CLICKING HERE

Congratulations to Debbie Gould on winning this year's competition with the above photo.

Our thanks to John Cuthbertson for judging the competition and to all the photographers for their time and effort throughout the season in taking some great photos.

Click This Link to see the top three photos and all the entries.

Pictured are Sue Merrill, Jon Bazley (Corsham Town captain) and match officials Sam Fudge, Paul Huntley, Steve Higgins.

Photo courtesey of John Cuthbertson.

League President Brian Beer was on hand to present Long Service Awards to Dave Phillips, Mike Perrin and Jenny Perrin of Melksham Town.

You can see the photos of the presentations by CLICKING HERE

Photos courtesy of John Cuthbertson.

Westbury United are looking for a new Club Secretary. Anyone interested should email their interest or for any enquires to Chairman Greg Coulson: chairman@westburyunited.co.uk

You can also phone Greg on 07814956428

General Secretary Andy Radford presents the First Division Team of the Month Award for January/February to Manager Andy Gurney of Roman Glass St George.

Photo Julian French.

Finance Director Dave Brammer presents the 'Mike North Shield' to Phil Eddie who refereed last seasons Les Phillips cup final.

The shield is presented in memory of ex-Western League and football league referee Mike North who sadly passed away whilst refereeing a match.

Thanks to Mark Edmonds who resurrected the tradition and league director Sue Merrill and league reporter Kerry Miller for getting the engraving up to date with the correct details.

Applications are invited for the position of First Team Manager at Hallen AFC. Please email applications or for any enquires to Club Secretary Richard Stokes: sinbad88@hotmail.co.uk

Applications close on Friday 16th March 2018.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Street goalkeeper Tom Punchard receiving his Safe Hands Award for January/February from Director Martin Painter.

Bradford Town manager Danny Greaves receiving the Premier Division Team of the month award for December from League Director Sue Merrill.

Photo courtesy of Richard Tucker.

One young side who are always worth watching are Exeter City’s U18s and they look on course to repeat last season’s triumphs with a League Cup semi-final thrown in for good measure. The club’s training ground is the impressive Cat and Fiddle complex in Clyst St Mary which many years ago was the home ground of Western Leaguers St Lukes College and the changing room pavilion is still there and largely intact although the iconic Rothman’s Western League scoreboard was finally taken down a few years ago. The old Western League pitch is still there and surrounded by advertising boards but the youngsters now have a 4G pitch alongside the varied grass pitches, all of which would have taken a battering had they had been used on Saturday.

Instead the all weather surface came up trumps and City hammered their counterparts from Premier League AFC Bournemouth 5-1 to emphasise what a fine set up the Grecians have at youth level.

With Western League games going down at regular intervals and even Shepton Mallet’s fine pitch giving up the ghost, it was 4G again for the afternoon part of the day and with Roman Glass St George away, Keynsham Town’s home game with Almondsbury was definitely on while a few games in Bristol did get the final go ahead elsewhere.

Keynsham have played at the Crown Field since just after the war and in recent seasons the ground has been transformed into a much used and much changed venue which gains from not being completely enclosed by a hideous 12 foot chain link fence like so many others. The new seating came courtesy of Bristol City’s Ashton Gate make over and having been painted and brushed to within an inch of its life, it has possibly never looked better or brighter.

A good crowd, including a number of neutrals just happy to see a game, watched Keynsham go back to the top of Division One with goals from Tauren Williams and top scorer Matt Brown, his 50th for the club in 70 games.

The third game in the 4G trilogy was at Oaklands Park, formerly the home of Southern League Almondsbury Town but now the HQ of Gloucestershire FA and on the opposite side of the road to Almondsbury. Oaklands Park is used by a host of clubs including Roman Glass, Lebeq FC, and Bradley Stoke Town from the Bristol and District League Senior Division as well as by the county and Bristol Rovers U23 side on occasions.

This Saturday, for a 5.30pm kick-off it was the turn of Premier Combination side Real Thornbury who had the services of Taunton Town winger Ross Staley for one game before he headed off to Perth, Western Australia to play and coach. Predictably he was far too lively for the Oldland Abbotonians’ second string and netted five in an 8-0 win. Oaklands Park, along with the other two grounds, has an excellent surface but the complex suffers a little from the plethora of small sided goals which are dotted about the place including a group of them directly behind the main goals which is off putting to spectators and can’t be any fun for the players of officials. However with plenty of covered seating and standing areas it is a comfortable venue and for those whose footballing fix can stretch to more than one game on a Saturday, theregular 5.30pm kick-offs are an interesting idea.

Picture courtesy of www.sportsandsafetysurfaces.co.uk

The Bulletin is available every Sunday on this website and for download.

Past and present members of the league met up to celebrate this historic occasion and were joined by guest speaker Geoff Twentyman of BBC Radio Bristol.

You can see the photos from the evening byCLICKING HERE

The driving rain and wind which threatened to drown out the whole night thankfully abated early enough to entice a crowd to watch the match at the newest ground in what is the third oldest league in the country. Guests from many clubs, leagues and FAs attended as England C team manager Paul Fairclough brought a side picked predominantly from Southern League clubs based in the south and west. Gosport Borough, Salisbury, Basingstoke Town, Dorchester Town, Wimborne Town and Winchester City were represented as well as Mangotsfield United and Larkhall Athletic more locally and both teams showed what they could do in a fast paced opening on Melksham’s immaculate playing surface which is made quick passing football.

Read more

Match Photos

Almost 1,700 spectators watched seven Toolstation Western League matches over the past weekend and were treated to 28 goals across the board with all the participating sides putting on a show which sent the disparate group of Groundhoppers home with a collective smile on their faces writes Kerry Miller.

Bishops Lydeard and Cheddar rounded off the series with a cliff hanger at Cothelstone Road on Sunday afternoon leaving the visitors to start their trips home to the likes of Germany, Norway, Sweden, Wales, Scotland, Suffolk, Scunthorpe, Hebden Bridge, Oxford and Ramsgate.

Congratulations were universally offered to all the home sides – Ashton and Backwell United, Welton Rovers, Radstock Town, Odd Down, Hengrove Athletic, Shepton Mallet and Bishops Lydeard – who played their part in what was a superbly run weekend in the main enjoyed in favourable conditions. Chris and Lawrence from Groundhop UK were again the catalyst behind the event which is in its third year which brings in much needed funds to member clubs as well as giving many players the chance to perform in front of crowds rarely seen nowadays in the Western League.

With book, programme and badge dealers plying their wares at all the games and food outlets doing a roaring trade throughout, it was left to the teams themselves to put on a show, and they did not disappoint. Six of the seven games went to the wire with the exception of Shepton’s home win over Brislington and with an average of four goals a game the league was definitely shown in a good light with all hoping for a repeat next season.

Much thanks must also go to the respective bands of merry men and women who worked so hard for their clubs to ensure that the hungry hoards were sent away with full bellies, and in many cases full bladders. At Odd Down the ladies catered for the vegetarians among the visitors with a stroke of genius neatly packaged up as humous salad rolls for just £1 while at Bishops Lydeard there were industrial quantities of veggie curry as well as the chicken variety, on the simmer all afternoon.

Representatives from leagues and clubs all over the country descended on the grounds as the non-League fraternity met up again with friends whose paths sometimes only cross once a year and tales were spun of grounds and clubs far and wide who collectively make up the non-League scene.

You can read the match reports from all seven matches by CLICKING HERE

The league has for sale a limited number of 125th Anniversary pin bagdes. The cost is £2.50 plus £1 postage.

If you would like to buy a badge, email Sue Merrill sue.merrill@toolstationleague.com

Keep up to date with all the latest fixtures and results for the Toolstation Western Football League. Follow your favourite Western League club with the 'Clubhouse' giving you their last result and their next fixture. Get directions to the match at the touch of a button using your devices maps app. Find information about all the Western League clubs including admission prices, kick off times and contact details.

Our thanks to Cocoon Development for writing and developing both our apps.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APP

The new Toolstation Legaue App for iPhone and iPad is now available to download.

Keep up to date with all the latest fixtures and results for the Toolstation Western Football League. Follow your favourite Western League club with the 'CLUB HOUSE' giving you their last result and their next fixture. Get directions to the match at the touch of a button using your devices maps app. Find information about all the Western League clubs including admission prices, kick off times and contact details and more...

Click on the image to download the our new App now!

Information is available on how to recognise concussion and on how concussion should be managed from the time of injury through to safe return to football. At all levels in football, if a player is suspected of having a concussion, they must be immediately removed from the pitch, whether in training or match play.

You can dowload a copy of the FA's Booklet by following this link

A complete history of the Western League with tables, all time club and ground details, cup results, biographies of personalities etc.

Follow >> THIS LINK for further details and how to buy the book.

The current men and women of Her Majesty's Armed Forces are doing such an exceptional job both at home and abroad during these difficult times.

The Toolstation Western Football League is proud to offer all current serving members of HM Forces FREE ADMISSION to all League matches.

Proof of ID will be all that is required at the turnstile.