Saturday 12th August

Divisions One and Two of the Everards Leicestershire Senior League have another week off, but the Premier Division returned to the fray on Saturday afternoon, and will play again in midweek.

Two of the promoted sides faced off on the opening day, which threw up something funny. Last year's Div1 title was settled by a midweek game between Ashby Ivanhoe Knights and AFC North Kilworth at the NFU Ground, which Knights won 1-0- and on top of that, North Kilworth were deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player in the game. That deduction cost NK not just an automatic promotion place, but also the title, finishing three points behind Knights despite having a better goal difference. So it was richly ironic that North Kilworth, promoted after Glenfield United folded over the summer, should travel to Knights on the opening day. Reece Hookway scored the only goal of the game for the visitors, as this time round, North Kilworth were the 1-0 winners.

Allexton & New Parks missed out on promotion to Step 6 last season after Asfordby's ground-grading appeal was upheld, and ANP set down a marker this time round by putting last year's Premier runners-up Thurnby Rangers to the sword 5-0, Zak Adams (2), Ryan Charles, Brandon Jarratt and Ash Jones the scorers as Thurnby begin a reconstruction job after losing many of their players over the summer. Barrow Town began life down in the LSL for the first time since 2008 with a 2-1 defeat away to Desford & Caterpillar, Callum Brown and Madison Murrell scoring for Desford, Liam Stafford for Barrow. The other new side, last year's Div1 runners-up Aylestone Park Reserves, started life in the Prem with a 1-0 defeat at Sileby Town, Chris Shaw scoring the only goal of the game in the second half.

League Cup winners Burbage & Huncote edged Hathern 1-0 at Pasture Lane, sub James Pye scoring eight minutes from time, with the League Cup runners-up Magna 73 opening their account with a 2-0 win at FC Khalsa, Fin Thomas and Nic Smith doing the damage early on for Magna. A completely brand-new Ellistown started their season with a 3-1 win at Friar Lane & Epworth thanks to goals from Hashim Bakar (2) and sub Daniel Yadav, Christian Smith scoring for FLAE, and lastly, Cottesmore and Highfield Rangers shared the points with a 0-0 draw in Rutland.

We'll be back later on in the week with a Midweek Ramble featuring four Premier games on Tuesday night and four on Wednesday night. They include local derbies between Desford & Caterpillar against Burbage & Huncote, switched to the Caterpillar after a burst boiler put the Huncote Sports & Social changing rooms out of order, and FC Khalsa welcoming Highfield Rangers, and thanks to our friends at the Football Club History Database, we see that Premier Division football returns to North Kilworth for the first time since 1996 when they welcome fellow promoted side Aylestone Park Reserves. There may be similarly useful stats, as well as all the goals, when we next ramble round the Premier. See you then.