This season's first trophy has been decided with last year's losing finalist, Cyril Mitchener, beating Mike Newton 1-0 in a closely fought tie. In the Junior event it was another case of not always being the bridesmaid as last year's second placed player, John Burns, took the trophy on shots after a 0-0 draw with Matthew Bosomworth.

The keenness of the competition in this year's Wessex League was demonstrated in the senior section of the City Life Cup. Only six players were available for this year's competition and in the six group games only one of them ended in a decisive result!

In Group 'A' Malcolm Bosomworth took an early lead against Cyril and looked to be holding on despite mounting pressure until a spare goalkeeper error let the Salisbury man back in to square the tie. Cyril then fell behind to Panos Stemitsiotis but another great second half fightback saw the game end on one goal each. This left Cyril's chances of progressing to the final hanging on the hope that Malcolm and Panos would grind out a goalless draw. Panos kept up relentless pressure on Malcolm's tight defence throughout the game but could not find a way through. Similarly, the Weymouth man could never find room for his normal long ball game through the Greek's well-marshaled side. With neither player willing to take that extra chance, Cyril topped the table on goals scored.

In the other group, Mike Newton brushed Tony Wall aside with a 2-0 win. Tony never really recovered from the opening goal where Mike used a figure from his own goal area to chip the ball over the keeper from six inches after an accurate pitch-long slide. This left Tony requiring a result from his next game with Andy Dawkins to have any chance of survival. A 1-1 draw snuffed out those hopes and left Andy with the prospect of beating Mike in their deciding game in order to progress through to the final. In a game of few chances, Andy failed to break down Mike's defence and the resultant 0-0 draw meant that he would be the third player out of four in the evening to be eliminated without losing a game!

The final saw Cyril's normal careful style pitted against Mike's long range accuracy. Due to a colour clash, Mike had to forgo his normal Ignazio bases and revert to his Biemme bases that had not seen the light of day for some time. Cyril opened the scoring in the first half after a well-worked move down the centre right. This spurred Mike into action and, especially in the second half, he virtually laid siege to Cyril's goal but to no avail (and Cyril's relief!).

The Junior event saw seven players compete for this year's trophy. In Group 'A' John Burns encountered few problems in topping the group with two wins and a draw from his three games. Second placed Chris Wall saw his chances fade when, after a winning start, he could only produce a goalless draw against Kieran Bosomworth's packed defence. A similar result against John meant that it was the end of Chris' competition despite being unbeaten.

Group 'B' saw the first and second placed juniors pitched against each other. The game between the two Matthews (Wall and Bosomworth) was always likely to be decisive. It was Matthew Bosomworth who secured the top spot after a tight 1-0 win after he had previously beaten Dimitris Stemitsiotis by two goals.

The Junior Final saw few chances for either player and it was no surprise when it had to be decided on shots (which in fairness was probably the most exciting part of the game!). John Burns quickly went two shots up in his first two attempts as Matthew failed to score. However, a remarkable turnaround then occurred as Matthew put his next two shots away as John drew a blank. With the score on 2-2, a save by John followed by a chip over Matthew's keeper saw the Trophy on it's way to Portsmouth.