WILTSHIRE JUNIOR CUP: WHEN Broughton Gifford and Rudloe step out at Corsham Town's Southbank ground on April 17 for an all-Trowbridge League Wiltshire Junior Cup final, the Division One rivals will be making history four times over.
For Gifford, three times winners of the trophy, it will be an unrivalled seventh appearance in the final, while for Rudloe it will be their first.
And while the league has never produced two finalists in its 107-year history it will also be the first time since the Second World War that two teams from the same league have figured in the county showpiece.
The first occasion in the competition's 95-year history was when Salisbury League sides Tidworth United and Figheldean featured in the 1936 final.
On Saturday in the driving rain and gale force winds the two Trowbridge League sides created history by coming from behind to win their semi-finals.
At Marlborough, Gifford twice wiped out arrears to beat Swindon League Premier Division leaders Zurich 4-2 after extra-time.
In the other semi-final at Warminster, Rudloe, 2-0 down to Wiltshire County League side and last season's finalists Ferndale-Rodbourne who had knocked out holders Windmill in the previous round, won with embarrassing ease where a 5-2 result hardly reflected Rudloe's supremacy.
Ferndale striker and former Chippenham Town target man Terry Bown punished Andy Sibbick's weak pass to neatly set up Allan Hellawell for a 20th-minute opener and when Terry Offer latched onto another mistake at the back, Russell Griffin headed Ferndale further ahead after keeper Kevin Hodgkinson had done well to half block Offer's effort.
Rudloe, despite losing Richard Boore early on and receiving a warning when Hodgkinson thwarted Ferndale, had looked far more threatening but it was substitute Simon Young who turned the tie inside out with a match-winning performance which Ferndale never came remotely close to equalling.
Young's superbly struck free kick on 36 minutes was followed a minute later by Russell Gibbings levelling and from that point Rudloe never looked back.
Three goals inside the first 15 minutes of the second half turned the contest into a one-sided affair.
Simon Gray's half-struck shot was good enough to put Rudloe ahead before joint team boss Tim Jefferies drilled in a fourth. Gray completed victory which should have been a lot bigger.
Gifford came close to facing a two-goal arrears against Zurich, who took the lead through Craig Alexander's 55th minute deflected free kick.
Three minutes later Chris Stiles was fouled and Adam Gingell equalised from the spot.
Alexander struck again in the 73rd minute only for goal-ace Stiles to force extra-time with a 87th minute second leveller. In the 103rd minute John Hubbard converted a second Gifford penalty and a minute from time substitute Dave Keen clinched a history making final.
The Trowbridge League have announced that they will have no objections to teams allocated a fixture on April 17 from starting earlier as long as the correct procedures are followed.
The kick-off for the final is 2.30pm.
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