The JCR premier division looks like it is turning into a three team race with Teddy Hall, Exeter and Worcester all in with a shout for the title. Both Teddy Hall and Exeter remain undefeated, after Exeter this week beat Wadham 2-0. Exeter scored two goals in the first half in a smash-and -grab victory over Wad- ham who were without their captain Jeremy Stothart – sidelined for two weeks with a knee injury.
Sandy Clark set up James West’s sumptuous finish before West returned the favour for
Sandy to put the Turl Street outfit two up in the first fifteen minutes. In a fantastic game which showed the high standard of the JCR Prem, Wadham were unable to muster a substantive reply. Exeter keeper Jack O’Mahoney made sev- eral good saves to keep out a Wadham side who have failed to score from open play this season. In a game of roughly even possession it was Ex- eter’s superior finishing that counted.
Stothart looking on from the side comment- ed, “We played really well, it was probably our best game of the season – we definitely missed my presence though.”
This week Worcester took on a St Catz side who have been struggling for form so far. Initially Catz kept the ball well and aimed to build from the back and were engaging in some intricate midfield interplay. However Catz failed to break through the Worcester holding midfield which included an impressive Luke Devereux.
Worcester’s main early threat came from corners and in the thirtieth minute they made this count with a Nick Murray corner being bundled into the St Catz goal after a goalmouth scramble. Catz were not flustered, and continued their possession play although once more it remained ineffective.
Nick Murray looked a threat the whole match and could have had a penalty just before half time but it was waived away by the referee. In the second half Worcester started to press more, and Sam Gomarsall put in some dangerous crosses for Worcester.
One of these crosses was headed out only as far as Murray, whose volley took a cruel deflection and nestled in the back of the net for 2-0, the final score. Catz may feel hard done by given their possession, but they failed to turn that into any significant attacking threat.
In the other JCR Prem game of the week, Teddy Hall beat a disheartened Balliol side 4-1 on Monday at a drizzly Uni Parks to take remain the top side in the JCR Prem. Jack Moran scored two and assisted two in the comfortable victory over their Broad Street opponents.
After falling 4-0 behind Balliol managed to rescue a late goal through Math Williams, whose chip came back off the post and multi- plied Williams’s goal tally for the year to two. In truth, Teddy Hall could have scored more, but Ed Mole and Harry Lighton failed to convert on a couple of occasions. It’s been a disappointing week for Balliol, who had lost 5-0 to Exeter on the previous Friday.
That result leaves them languishing just above St. Catz at the “bottom of the JCR Prem.
However this league looks definitively
 split as we approach the half-way stage, with Teddy Hall, Worcester and Exeter closely grouped at the top and six points clear as a group from the bottom four of Wadham, St Hugh’s, Balliol and St Catz.
The second half of the season will certainly be interesting at both ends of the table with all teams having something to play for.
