All Still To Play For In Relegation Battles

With all the titles won in each of the three Divisions the spotlight is now on the fight to avoid he drop into Division Two and Three. In Division One Clowne ‘B’ are already doomed to dropping out of the division which leaves two teams fighting it out to avoid the last relegation spot and ironically Clowne ‘B’ have still to play both teams in their last two fixtures! Sparken Hill Starlings are just two points ahead of Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘A’ and they were looking to take advantage of the Snipers not having a game this week and to pull further away from them in their home game with Worksop Miners Welfare. Any thoughts of getting one let alone three points from the match soon disappeared as the Welfare trio of Richard Element, Dave Marsh and Chris Cattell put them to the sword and in a blink of an eye they were 6-0 down and had already lost the contest and now it was a battle just to avoid the whitewash. 6-0 down quickly turned to 7-0 down as Helmuth Osborne and Andy Lee lost to Element and Cattell in straight sets in the doubles and they then went further behind when Luke Barraclough who was playing up from Division Two lost to Cattell. In the 9^th game of the night Lee tried his best to get his team on the scoresheet by winning the first game against Marsh but then lost the next three and the whitewash was complete when Element defeated Osborne in straight sets to cement the 10-0 victory for the Welfare side.
Looking at the remaining fixtures, who fills the last relegation place could come down to set difference then the Starlings having a better set difference than the Snipers night just be the thing that saves them.
Survival from ending up in the relegation places in Division Two is still up for grabs with three teams being separated by just one point with two of them meeting next week in their final fixture of the league season. Worksop Welfare Cannon who currently occupy second to bottom spot in Division Two had no match this week whilst the sides below and above them both had tricky looking matches. Sparken Hill Falcons were up against the Division Two Champions in Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ and if the form book was anything to go by then the Falcons would have to play out of their skins and hope that the Snipers had an off day. For the Snipers, George Makrakis remained unbeaten although it took a 13-11 win in the fifth and deciding set against Neil Penny to clinch his hat-trick. Penny had a good night as he went on to beat both Mitchell Radford and Paul Linfield, but this was to be the Falcons only joy as both Mick Potter and Luke Barraclough couldn’t add to Penny’s two wins and the Falcons slipped to an 8-2 defeat.
Worksop Welfare Harriers were away at Sparken Hill Eagles and also suffered an 8-2 defeat with only Neil Fisher managing to win a game in the singles when he defeated Keith Swift but Fisher did have a hand in the doubles win the Harriers secured as he and Dan Saul beat Alex Olliffe and Swift. For the Eagles both Brian Allen and Alex Olliffe registered a hat-trick of wins in the singles with Olliffe’s win over Fisher being the pick of the bunch as he came from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
The fight to avoid the drop will come down to a very interesting looking the final week as Sparken Hill Falcons are away at Worksop Welfare Harriers and Worksop Welfare Cannon away at Carlton X-Youth with everything up for grabs!
Other Division One Results: DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 5 DTH Redlands Roosters 5, Clowne ‘A’ 4 Stanley Street ‘A’ 6.
Other Division Two Results: Stanley Street ‘B’ 6 Carlton X-Youth 4, Manton Sports 0 Manton Tigers 10
Division Three Results: Sparken Hill Nightingales 0 Sparken Hill Blue Jays 10, Sparken Hill Hawks 9 DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 1, DTH Redlands Mean Machine 0 DTH Redlands Rookies 10