The Jersey Cup

Kirtlington: A.R. Hayes E. Appleton C. Allen F. Tyrrell D. Allen (c) K. Hayes D. Buswell J. Hayward E. Walters W. Kurftain T. Baxter.

Kirtlington Scorers: D. Buswell 1 C. Allen 1

Fritwell: R. Mulcock R. White (c) W. Beachey S. Merry G. Mulcock D. Allen R. I. Allen D. Pullin G. Golder J. Calver W. Jenkins

Fritwell Scorers:

Since the war Kirtlington have won a great reputation in local junior football. They have carried off trophies and medals galore and have shown themselves to be an outstanding side by virtue of playing good football. On Easter Monday at the Sports Ground they joined battle with Fritwell and were victors by two second half goals. They have now won the Lord Jersey Cup eight times.

During the first half the play was mainly dominated by a swift-moving Fritwell forward line, who, with a little luck, would have held a comfortable lead at the interval. In the second half Kirtlington did the bulk of the attacking and after an early goal we saw the Fritwell side collapse in their efforts to prevent further goals. If Fritwell had taken this reverse in their stride and continued to play up to first half standard they would probably have won, but instead, all constructive play disappeared and for the last thirty minutes we saw the kick and rush style of football with players throwing themselves at each other in a very robust manner.

The weather was not encouraging, but never the less, supporters from both villages turned up in strength and about 1,200 saw the kick-off under a grey, cloudy sky. Fritwell at once went into the attack and the Kirtlington defence was hard pressed to clear. When the Kirtlington forwards began to move we saw some skilful play from Kurftain and Buswell. Fritwell went near to scoring on several occasions and within five minutes forced an equal number of corners. Hayes was called upon to make many good saves and the Kirtlington captain, D. Allen, was a veritable rock at centre half. The Fritwell forwards would have done well to shoot first time instead of trying to take the ball into the net. Pressure against the Kirtlington goal was maintained until the interval score of 0 – 0, after which a remarkable change came over the game. As the teams took the field again, it was raining steadily, and Kirtlington were soon to show their fighting powers. Before Fritwell had settled down, the Kirtlington forwards were on the move and Mulcock was forced to concede a corner after a good try by Buswell.

A good run by Kurftain resulted in the ball travelling high into the goalmouth and Buswell leapt to nod the leather past Mulcock for a timely goal. Fritwell never recovered from this unexpected reverse and their decision to play a defensive game was the wrong one. The Kirtlington halves were thus enabled to take an attacking part in the game for the first time instead of a defensive role, and the Kirtlington forwards were well fed with long accurate passes. As the rain fell with increasing fury, play began to degenerate. Tackles were fierce and robust, and free kicks plentiful. In the last ten minutes Fritwell made a brief attack but were never dangerous and just before the final whistle, the Kirtlington left back came up to score from the edge of the penalty area.