Bad news, I’m afraid. Swindon have conceded tomorrow’s match Minety against the 2nds. All attention now focuses upon the 1st XV match at Calne, kick off 2.30pm.
Tom Claxton and his team travel to Calne for the first time for some seasons on Saturday for a Dorset and Wilts Division 1 match kicking off at the new time of 2.30pm.
Claxton and coach Andy Grayson will be anxious to halt a slide that has seen the village team lose its last two matches and drop down the league to 6th place. After an early season reversal at Warminster, Minety won three matches on the trot but injuries and unavailability has wrought havoc with Grayson’s planning and two losses, at Trowbridge and then at home to Avonvale followed.
Last week’s “experiment” of using 14 forwards and one back, was forced on the club; let’s hope that this week’s team has a better balance of players with more playing in their accustomed roles.
Calne re-joined Division 1 at the start of this season after some time out of it. They started their campaign with a loss at Trowbridge (we know how that feels) but were then soundly beaten by the in-form Avonvale at home and then the unpredictable Pewsey Vale away. Calne finally got on the board with a convincing 64-23 win at Chippenham but have since experienced losses against Combe Down and away to Melksham.
The two teams were due to meet up earlier in October in the Senior Vase but Calne conceded that match.
The situation in Division 3 continues to cause concern. For the third week running, Minety 2nds will be without a match. On the 20th October Steve Wilson’s team was forced to concede a home fixture to Warminster and then a week later Supermarine conceded their home match against Minety. Now we have heard that Swindon have conceded their match at Minety Fields tomorrow. Whilst the league points awarded will do Minety some good (they move up to joint 5th temporarily), the fact is that Steve and his team have not played a competitive match since the 39-7 win over Melksham on the 5th October and are not due to play again until the 17th November, when they travel to top of the table Amesbury.
Match report on the 1st XV match at Calne will be on this website on Sunday morning.