2021/22 Season Preview – Division 3
Sunday 5th September brings the start of what everyone hopes will be an unbroken Shoestrings-Chargrill sponsored Chippenham & District Sunday Football League season for the first time in 2 years and here is the rundown of Division 3 for the 2021/22 season.
It was fantastic to see five/Six new teams apply and be accepted to participate in the upcoming new season and this also makes for potentially a nice and open Division 3.
Sunday League stalwart Lance Davis has experience of moving up the divisions having previously led Bradford Renegades, through a few different guises (namely Riverside & Three Horseshoe Renegades) and he will be hoping for similar success with his new Staverton Rangers (Sunday) Team.
Dyson Institute FC are another of the new teams in this division but they are somewhat of an enigma in that they are very much an unknown entity with many teams probably not going to be able to do any pre match homework on Matthew Mendums’s side, for a few weeks at least.
Before we find out more on the other new entrants into this seasons league, we must not discount how much experience could play a part in this division and this brings us on to Warminster Athletic, managed by Stuart Green. Warminster have a great team spirit and have clearly showed huge strides of improvement over the last couple of unbroken seasons and Stuart will be hoping the undetermined nature of this division could well work out for them.
Despite a few players seemingly jumping ship during the summer, Ben Thomas has been at his wheeling dealing best and seems to have recruited a competitive Misfits FC team to be able to give this division a right go and I am sure he will be eyeing a promotion come the end of the season.
The Spires Athletic managed by Kieran Baskerville will be looking to pose a significant challenge as although he has assembled a young and exciting side, the addition of the experienced Pete Thornton form the now defunct North Star, formerly of the Premier Division will no doubt be invaluable for the coming season.
The British Lion FC could well be in the mix this coming season with Devizes seemingly having a rich pool of players emerging over the last few years. Niall Choularton will be hoping for a similar rise to that of Devizes United who found themselves in the AM Print & Copy sponsored Knockout Cup Final last season.
The Chippenham & District Sunday League really is not complete without a team competing from Westbury and thankfully William Doust and Kevin Pearce have put together a Westbury Celtic team that they certainly hope will be able to add to the history created by some of the past Westbury Rangers teams to have graced the CDSFL.
With Westbury legend Marc Lanfear chairman of the club, they have a forward who despite his best years possibly being behind him, has the experience required to lead a new team at their home in Bratton, a ground that has not had a CDSFL match played on for many a year.
Last and certainly by no means least, Audley FC, managed by Jordan Tarrant are probably the early season favourites. With the uncertainty of the new teams Jordan has a strong Audley team on paper so this will no doubt be dependent on being able to keep the main part of his squad fit and hungry throughout the season.