Terry Devereux President’s Cup Final

Oakview retained the President’s Cup after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Reed Rangers.

The teams, who will finish in the top two places in the Premier Division, contested the final of the competition for teams in the Premier and First Divisions.

Both sides seemed edgy in the opening exchanges and although Oakview saw more of the ball, it was a rather scrappy and uneven start.

It took 20 minutes for the first real shot on target when Oakview’s Darryl Brown saw his effort tipped away by the diving Delaporte in the Reed goal. But just three minutes later they went ahead with a superbly-worked goal.

Simeon Armstrong picked the ball up just outside the penalty area on the right hand side, everyone expected him to put in a deep cross to the far past, but he fooled the Reed defence with a superb reserve ball pass for Lewis Putman who raced onto the ball and brought it under control before slotting home across Delaporte.

The goal helped to open up the game, with Reed working themselves back into the contest, but their play lacked a final cutting ball, although Jamie Speer did saw his long-range effort pushed away by Oakview keeper Cameron Inch 10 minutes before the break.

But three minutes later it was Oakview who doubled their advantage. The Reed defence got in a muddle, with Horwood and Halcombe twice failing to clear the ball, it allowed Armstrong once again to set up Putman, who made no mistake with a shot into the bottom left-hand corner.

Reed changed formation at half-time and that seemed to have the desired effect as they started the second period looking as if they could cause their opponents some problems.

After a couple of good half-chances, they halved the deficit nine minutes into the half with probably one of the goals of the season when Miley Cash picked up the ball way out on the left wing and seeing Inch of his line, he hit a superb lobbed shot high into the right-hand corner of the net.

For the first time the game really opened up but Reed’s hopes of turning the match around suffered a big blow with 18 minutes left when Sean Tipper was given a straight red card for kicking out at Armstrong.

Armstrong and Adam Lowton then combined to miss a glorious chance to seal the win, but then Reed’s Dominic David shot wide from close range when he should have done better.

Lee Armitt replaced Lowton with nine minutes left and within two minutes he cut the ball back from the by-line only for Tom Inch to hit the bar with the goal at his mercy.

It was the last real action of the game, with Oakview now in with a real chance of winning the treble.

Oakview: C.Inch, Deamer, Grace, Lowton (Armitt 81), Brown, Barrett, Armstrong, Kennedy, Gladdy, Putman, T. Inch. Subs not used: Waldren, Lloyd, Beardsworth, Shepherd.

Reed Rangers: Delaporte, Tipper, Field (Singh 45), Horwood, Halcombe, Brennan, Speer, J. Smith, Cash (Molineux 89), Hobson, David. Subs not used: Lawrence, Baxter, R. Smith.

Premier Division

The two sides in third and fourth place in the table, Fox & Hounds and Rifle Volunteer, served up a 4-4 draw, although it will be the home side that will be the happier of the teams after coming from 3-0 down at half-time after player-manager Gary Froy had netted twice and Ben Goode once.

Fox struck back with three goals of their own in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, before Goode scored his second of the game from the penalty spot to restore the Rifle advantage, only for their opponents to equalise late on.

Bradley Thompson struck a hat-trick for Fox with Alex Witham netting their other goal.

Chorleywood Club won the ‘Chorleywood derby’ with a 5-2 win over rivals Old Danes Athletic.

Robbie Martin gave Chorleywood the lead after just four minutes, Chris White levelled on 15 minutes, before James Edwards restored the lead for the visitors just after the half-hour mark.

It was one-way traffic in the second half with Ewan Reeves and James Roach scoring twice before Lewis Chappell pulled a goal back, but Reeves sealed the win with his second of the game in the last minute.

Division One

The fight to finish runners-up behind champions Evergreen will go to the final games of the season after Colne Valley, who had looked to have blown their chances a month ago, have suddenly found some form by demolishing Bushey Sports Club 14-2.

Compasses North remain a point ahead with a double-header left to play against Evergreen after they went down to a 3-0 defeat at Cassiobury Rangers.

Bushey could only field eight players, but it should not take away from a ruthless performance from Colne for whom Chris Blunden struck nine times

But it was Spencer Warby who started the gaol spree with a cross that sailed over the keeper 10 minutes into the game. Blunden opened his account after 17 minutes and had completed his first hat-trick just 10 minutes later.

Blunden then scored his fourth before Jack Habbijam lobbed the Bushey 'keeper for the sixth goal and Krasi Makaveev made it 7-0 just before the break.

Blunden got the eighth shortly after the restart and Valley keeper Brad Bonnick got in on the act with a penalty.

Blunden's double hat-trick was secured just before the hour mark with his seventh coming with 20 minutes left. His eighth followed three minutes later and the triple hat-trick two minutes after that, making it three goals in just five minutes.

To their credit, Bushey kept going and did grab a couple of goals through Rob Gradwell and Hassan Zeizale before Makaveev finished the rout with his second of the game and his team’s 14th.

In Cassiobury’s victory over Compasses, a tight first half was broken by Sam Mortimer, who curled a peach of a goal into the top right hand corner after being teed up on the edge of the box by Dan Cardozo on the stroke of half-time.

The win was sealed with two more goals after the break, the first coming following some good work down the right from Jack Hilburn, who whipped in a perfect cross for Mark Riddick to nod home into the bottom corner.

The victory was completed when a Sam Mortimer free-kick wasn't cleared and Callum Galvin fired home from eight yards.

Division Three

The Tree sealed the Third Division title after a 4-0 away win over the only side that could have stopped them winning it, Bushey Rangers.

Marc Brownsell, Paul Rush, Nathan Davis and Rob Mair were on target for a team who have now won two titles in succession after claiming the Division Five crown last season.

Division Four

Everett Rovers have gone top of the table for the first time this season after two high-scoring wins over Batchworth, 7-0 and 8-0, although the losers have the consolation of knowing they will not finish bottom of the table, something that looked very unlikely a few weeks ago.

In the first game Batchworth were always going to find it a struggle after starting with just nine players.

Early goals from Rob Barham and Aaron Peach set the tone, even though Batchworth were back up to 11 players after 10 minutes, before a second by Barham gave them a 3-0 lead at the break.

Second-half goals from Mark Hansard, Joe Chance, Gary Wicks and Gary Hennicke saw Everett run out comfortable 7-0 winners.

Rovers continued where they left off in the second game, with four goals from Hansard the highlight, while Luke Preedy, Joe Gallagher, Tom Owen and Chance were also on target.

AFC Batchworth are doing all they can to push Everett for the title as they thumped Sun Postal Sports 9-2.

Jake Knight led the way with a hat-trick, there was two for George Dalling and one each for Joe Brown, Alan Palmer, Shaun Wheeler and Ollie Cattle. Stuart Shepard and Graham Melsome netted for Sun.

Invitation Cup Group C

Although there was nothing resting on the game, there was still a good win for Hertfordshire Lions who beat South Oxhey 5-1 thanks to a Dennis Fraser brace and a goal each for Sam Crafts, Luke Thatcher and Louis McNamara. Bradley Bridges got the South Oxhey reply.

Invitation Cup Group D

Sun Regent Sports have given themselves a great chance of qualifying for the semi-finals after they beat NW FC 9-1.

Aarron Crawford and Ben Dunton both scored hat-tricks, Callum Hearn netted twice and George Ford once. Kamran Arshad got the NW goal.