Hanworth Villa denied place in Middlesex Senior Cup Final

One of our member clubs, Hanworth Villa would have been expecting to have progressed into the Final of the Middlesex Senior Cup, when their opponents, Hampton & Richmond Borough, were found guilty of playing an ineligible player against them in the Quarter Final, the player concerned having already appeared in the competition for another club.

However, the County has instead ordered the match to be re-played, stating that it was an “administrative error”. Although their rules allow this, the flimsy reason given almost beggars belief: surely all such errors of this nature are administrative errors: no-one commits them on purpose and surely it would have been common sense to check beforehand after signing a player from another Middlesex club. Who’s to say and it would obviously be denied, but it does nothing to prevent the obvious conclusion that the County is looking after one of its bigger clubs – would Hanworth have been allowed to replay if the boot had been on the other foot?

The League has carefully heeded and filed this decision should any of our member clubs from Middlesex inadvertently field an ineligible player in the future, as a precedent has been clearly set.

There is no date yet for the replay.