Easter Monday Soccer ANOTHER SETBACK FOR EXETER CITY

Monday, April 5th 1926.

EXETER CITY 1 SWINDON TOWN 2.

The Easter Monday match at St James's Park was favoured by brilliant. weather and attended by a crowd in excess of ten thousand. The City had a splendid opportunity of creeping further away from the bottom of the Southern Section, but the Swindon Town defence proved vastly stronger than the Grecians' moderate attack, and the City suffered a further setback.

Exeter City.
Bailey
Lowton Charlton
Pullan Pollard Potter
Newman Kirk Lievesley Shelton Compton

Referee:- Mr E.E.Small, of Bristol.

Davies Petrie Rowley Wall Denyer
Adey Bew Cooper
Weston Dickinson
Nash
Swindon Town.

Twice Denyer caught the Exeter defence napping. Each time he crossed the ball squarely to his centre-forward, a low and sharp pass. Each time Rowley turned the ball into the home goal with an accurate and quick side-tap which gave Bailey no chance of saving. The range was short and the move was executed in a twinkling. Sandwiched between these two goals was another header by Lievesley, made possible by a particularly good centre from Compton. Seldom does a home team get so much of the play and yet retire beaten, as was the case in this match. It was the strength of the City halves and backs which kept the ball at the Swindon end of the field for so long. It was the weakness, the raggedness, and the crudeness of the Exeter forwards which lost the match.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE.
SWINDON RESERVES v CITY RESERVES.

At the Wiltshire County Ground, Swindon, in the Southern League, the
City Reserves were beaten by Swindon Town Reserves by four goals to nil.

Tuesday, April 6th 1926.
Western League
City Reserves v Bristol Rovers 

Jack Milsom, the slim youngster from the Bristol district, who has been assisting Exeter City Reserves regularly as an amateur, is a "star" footballer in the making, and he continues to win praise for his neat, thoughtful, and fearless play. Despite Milsom's presence, however, the City Reserves were defeated at St James's Park by Bristol Rovers Reserves, who scored twice with no reply from the Grecians. The match was in connection with the Western League. Dick Jones, captaining Bristol Rovers, came in for a deal of friendly recognition by the crowd, and thoroughly enjoyed his visit.

• EXETER'S SCHOOLBOY INTERNATIONAL.
  The selection of Clifford Bastin for the English eleven, v. Wales at Aberdare next Saturday, is the direct consequence of opportunities which have been given to elementary schoolboys to develop their skill by such competitions as the Football Express Challenge Shield, the English Schools' Shield, and the Exeter Schools' League. Bastin first appeared in the ranks of the Ladysmith Road XI in the season 1922-23 when he was ten years old, and made his debut at St James's Park in the Final of the Football Express Shield that year,
  against Ashleigh Road, Barnstaple.
• Fine Equalising Goal. Those who were present on that occasion will remember how he scored a fine equalising goal. The following season he was chosen for Exeter, and he has appeared in all representative games for the city, until last Monday, when he was absent at Sunderland. Bastin is not a player of moods, very rarely having a bad day, and his goal scoring has been as consistent as his football. This season he has scored over sixty goals for his school team, and fourteen for Exeter, but he is not a boy who goes out to get goals against weak sides, for he has stood down in some of the games when it is known the opposition is weak, and in others has played at left back, a position in which he performs quite capably. To those who know him intimately, the trait in his character which appeals most is his modesty. There is not the slightest doubt that Bastin the best of success in what will be the culminating point of every lover of schoolboy soccer in Exeter and East Devon will wish a brilliant school career.