Holders North London Raiders moved into the semi-finals of the Cyril Anekstein Cup after seeing off 10-man Harmen in the first round of games of 2016, while there was also an important programme in the MGBSFL.
MATCHDAY 17 HEADLINES
CAC – Rampant Raiders ease into last four
Div 1 – Resilient Raiders frustrate Woodford
Div 2 – Super Scrabble storm to 12th straight win
JC HAT-TRICK HERO
Div 2 - Josh Bloom 4 (ML Lions C)
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WEEKEND PHOTOGALLERY
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DANNY CARO'S MATCHDAY 17 AWARDS
SAVE OF THE WEEK: DAVID SIMNOCK (NL Raiders B) - made a great late one-on-one save from Mitch Hahn to earn his team a point
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JC TEAM OF THE WEEK: THE CONTENDERS
GK - Ben Law (Scrabble FC), David Simnock (NL Raiders B), Jake Doffman (NL Raiders A)
DEFENDERS - Adam Newman, Josh Tiano (both Scrabble FC), Lewis Blitz, Danny Bloom (both NL Raiders B), Alex Lee, Simon Davies (both Oakwood A), Ben Myers (SPEC FC), Rob Blackman (Harmen)
MIDFIELDERS - James Abrams (Oakwood B), Ricky Engleman (NL Raiders A), Josh Rose (Oakwood A)
STRIKERS - Josh Bloom (ML Lions C), Danny Sherman, Zak McLeod (both Scrabble FC), David Dinkin (NL Raiders A), Sam Cantor (Oakwood A)
MANAGER - Samuel Marchant (LM Lions C), Ben Gilbey (FC Team A), Rob Richman (NL Raiders A), Dan Kristall, Alex Schock, Ric Blank (Oakwood A), Ray Abrahams (Scrabble FC), Ricky Lawrence (SPEC FC)
REFEREE - Martin Lavender (FC Team A vs Oakwood B), Andy Myerson (North London Raiders A vs Harmen)
Email nominations to dcaro@thejc.com
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JC GOAL OF THE WEEK: THE CONTENDERS
- ZAK McCLEOD (Scrabble) - a goal of the highest quality - controlled Josh Sheridan's dinked pass and volleyed low into the net to put his team in front against NLR
- JOSH GREEN (NL Raiders B) - an impudent chip in to the top corner to haul his team back into the game
- LEWIS BLITZ (NL Raiders B) - finished a super team goal after a flowing move down the right and a 1-2 with Scott Waissel
- HARRISON MIDDA (Woodford Wanderers) - unleashed an absolute beauty from 25 yards into the top corner on 25 minutes
- BEN MYERS (SPEC FC) - intercepted a pass in his own half before carrying the ball forward and unleashing a fantastic strike from long-range
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DANNY CARO'S QUOTE OF THE WEEK
WINNER: - JASON STEIN (Oakwood B) - QUOTE 1 - "Good luck to Team A, they’re a good set of players and it shows the high standard of the Premier Division if they’re one of the weaker sides"
Runner-up: - JASON STEIN (Oakwood B) - QUOTE 2 - "I also thought the referee Martin Lavender was terrific today. Referees rarely get praise but he was top drawer"
3rd.ROB RICHMAN (NL Raiders A) - "We now await the draw for the semi final where I am sure we will be faced with Oakwood for the 3rd year in succession"
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CUP DRAWS
PETER MORRISON TROPHY ROUND 3 DRAW
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YOUR WEEKEND REVIEW STARTS HERE
CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP ROUND FOUR
THREE AND EASY FOR SUPER OAKS
CAMDEN PARK 0 OAKWOOD A 3
A deadly double from Sam Cantor plus one from Kyle Bentwood helped Oakwood ease into the last four at the expense of Premier Division rivals Camden Park.
Oakwood joint-manager Dan Kristall told JC Sport: "We dominated from minute one and its credit to our back-line that our keeper did not have a save to make in the entire 90 minutes."
Camden boss Will Castle told JC Sport: "It was not a great result, although they scored two in the last five minutes. Unfortunately Oakwood were just stronger than us all over the pitch, especially as we have such a thin squad at the moment and I was unable to freshen things up with substitutes. They were worthy winners and good luck to them for the rest of the cup."
DC Prediction: Camden 0 Oakwood 2
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TEAM STILL DREAMING OF WINGATE
FC TEAM A 3 OAKWOOD B 1
Premier Division class told as FC Team A booked their place in the semis with a 3-1 win over Division One title hopefuls Oakwood.
Bobby Abrams registered for Oakwood who trailed 2-1 at the break.
Oaks boss Jason Stein told JC Sport: "Today was always going to be hard with us missing seven key players, but I’m really pleased with the way the side we had out performed."
DC Prediction: Team 2 Oakwood 1 AET
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FIVE-STAR RAIDERS CRUSH 10-MAN HARMEN
NORTH LONDON RAIDERS A 5 HARMEN 1
A brilliant brace from David Dinkin moved Raiders to within 90 minutes of a return trip to Wingate & Finchley as the holders crushed Harmen 5-1 at Brunel.
Harmen forged ahead from the penalty spot via top-scorer James Gershfield before Ricky Engleman levelled the scores. Gershfield then went from hero to villain after receiving a red card for allegedly kicking out at NLR's Alex Bloch. Raiders capitalised on their numerical advantage to ease home, with further strikes from Dinkin, Nick Lewis and Jordan Marks.
NLR boss Rob Richman told JC Sport: "We had a tough 10-minute spell after conceding first but as soon as we managed to equalise through the excellent Engleman I felt confident we would go on and win the game."
Harmen joint-manager Oliver Leslie told JC Sport: "We keep our heads held high and we move on from a game that without the sending off would have been very different."
DC Prediction: NLR 2 Harmen 1
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HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB A P REDBRIDGE JEWISH CARE A P
Match postponed - waterlogged pitch
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MGBSFL PREMIER DIVISION
TOP-SCORERS
15 - James Gershfield (Harmen)
12 - Dovi Fehler (Hendon A)
No matches played ...
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DIVISION ONE
TOP-SCORERS
19 - Reiss Mogilner (Brady Maccabi)
16 - Jacob Richler Kleiman (Oakwood B)
SUPER SPEC HIT BLANCOS FOR SIX
LOS BLANCOS 2 SPEC FC 6
SPEC FC were back to their best as they hit Blancos for six, with Zack Neiman and Ben Myers firing two apiece.
There were also goals for Alex Hershman and Ashley Burns on a memorable day for Ricky Lawrence's men.
Benjy Israel and Adam Hersh grabbed consolations for Blancos, but it was SPEC's day.
SPEC player-manager Ricky Lawrence told JC Sport: "We started like a house on fire and despite dipping for a bit in the middle of the half, we probably deserved to go into half time four goals to the good. The second half was a different story and we let Blancos back into it. However, when we scored our fifth we knew that would kill the game off."
DC Prediction: Blancos 2 SPEC FC 2
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RESILIENT RAIDERS FRUSTRATE WANDERERS
NORTH LONDON RAIDERS B 2 WOODFORD WANDERERS 2
Woodford's promotion challenge was dealt a blow as they were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw against a resilient Raiders, just as predicted!
The east Londoners stormed into a 2-0 interval lead through Harrison Midda and Elliott Gold, but Raiders did enough to share the points thanks to strikes from Josh Green and Lewis Blitz, although they rode their luck, with Woodford hitting the woodwork on three occasions.
Woodford joint-manager Daryl Kay told JC Sport: "I’m not sure how many more times ill be saying this, but once again it was a great first half, and yep, you guessed it, awful second half. Jerome and I will be putting our thinking caps on to see how we can turn a good 45 minutes into a good 90 minutes."
DC Prediction: NLR 2 Woodford 2
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REDBRIDGE JEWISH CARE B P FC TEAM B P
Match postponed - waterlogged pitch
FAITHFOLD B P BRADY MACCABI P
Match postponed - waterlogged pitch
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DIVISION TWO
TOP-SCORERS
14 - Zak McLeod (Scrabble FC)
13 - Josh Bloom (ML Lions B)
MAJESTIC McCLEOD MOVES SCRABBLE TOWARDS TITLE
SCRABBLE FC 3 NORTH LONDON RAIDERS C 1
Scrabble FC started 2016 where they left off as Zak McLeod (2) and Anthony Goodmaker maintained their 100 per cent record with win number 12 against promotion rivals Raiders C.
Oli Nathan netted for Raiders.
Scrabble boss Ray Abrahams told JC Sport: "This was a classic and Raiders were without doubt the toughest opponents we have faced this season."
DC Prediction: Scrabble 3 Raiders 2
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LIONS ARE BLOOM-ING MARVELLOUS
MACCABI LONDON LIONS B 5 REAL HENDON 1
Lions B's promotion bid gathered momentum thanks to a fab four-goal salvo from JOSH BLOOM who came back to haunt his former club. Benji Weinberger completed the win.
DC Prediction: Lions 3 Real 2
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FC TEAM C P TEMPLE FORTUNE P
Match postponed
HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB B P CATFORD & BROMLEY MACCABI P
Match postponed
L’EQUIPE P FAITHFOLD C P
Match postponed
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