Bettley Stars As Falcons Stretch Lead Over Hawks
Sparken Hill Falcons Connor Bettley put in a great performance to help his side beat their closest rivals for the Division Three title, Sparken Hill Hawks. Bettley recorded a fine hat trick of singles wins over the Hawks trio of Paul Wendon, Adam Pinches and the previously unbeaten Lewis Linacre. But Bettley wasn’t finished yet as he also had a hand in securing the doubles win with his partner Luke Barraclough as they came from two games to nil down against Wendon and Linacre to win it in the deciding 5th set. Bettley was aided by his team mates as they both produced a vital win each over Wendon to enable the Falcons to win by the closest of margins 6-4. The win now puts the Falcons 6 points in front of the Hawks although all is not lost for the Hawks as they do have a game in hand and still have to play the Falcons again.
Elsewhere in Division Three, two more Sparken Hill sides met this week with the Blue Jays enjoying a 7-3 win over the Robins to keep their hopes of a promotion spot alive. Dave Lee, John McIntyre and Dave Rix all won two games each for the Blue Jays, defeating Reece Carnall and Joseph Hulley but none of them could beat the Robin’s Luke Hyde who registered a fine hat trick of wins to walk away with the Player Of The Match accolade. Kathy McIntyre joined husband John for the doubles beating Carnall and Hulley in straight sets to complete the scoring.
Sparken Hill Nightingales continue to improve the more they play and to prove the point they enjoyed a well earned 6-4 victory over the more experienced Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’. Harrison Holland enjoyed a fine hat trick with good wins over Nick Sievewright, Billy Fowler and Cliff Briggs. Holland was well supported by Charlie Shepherd who beat both Sievewright and Fowler with the latter of the two wins coming in the last game of the night which secured the win. The Nightingales third player Isabella Saul didn’t manage to defeat any of the Harriers trio although she did have some close games with Cliff Briggs.
The last match in Division Three this week didn’t even get played as Sparken Hill Pigeons failed to turn up as they wrongly thought the match was on a different night so Worksop Welfare Real Deal were awarded the match 10-0.
Into Division One and the league leaders were in action again this week as they beat Stanley Street ‘A’ 7-3 to stretch their lead at the top to 8 points and it we be a massive surprise if they’re not crowned Division One Champions come the end of the season. Welfare’s Richard Element was Player Of The Match as he won al f his singles games and in doing so ended Stanley Streets Terry Emmerson’s 100% record. Chris Cattell added two wins over Pete Eyre and Alex Millward with Dave Marsh also defeating Millward plus the doubles gave them victory.
Sparken Hill Starlings dragged themselves off the foot of the table by beating Worksop Welfare Snipers. Captain Andy Lee lead the way with a hat trick of wins over Erlands Skels, Jim Westwood and Ben Swain. Ivan Guilliatt defeated both Swain and Westwood with Andy Kirkland also beating Swain. Andy Lee and Jack Kirkland teamed up to beat Skels and Westwood in the doubles to complete a much needed 7-3 win.
Clowne ‘A’ played two matches this week with contrasting fortunes. Wednesday night they could only field 2 players in a rearranged game against Sparken Hill Woodpeckers and subsequently lost 8-2. However, it was a different story in their scheduled fixture against club colleagues Clowne ‘B’. Ernest Mpundu and Joe Zygadlo each registered hat tricks with Farrel Anthony adding two wins to secure an 8-2 win. James Wormwell defeated Anthony before he teamed up with Kartik Lakhani to take the doubles against Zygadlo and Anthony. Both teams are now level on points in the table, siting 2nd and 3rd.
At the time of writing only one result in Division Two has been submitted with Clowne ‘C’ enjoying a 10-0 whitewashing of Carlton X-Youth. Hat tricks all round for Ben Crapper, Ian Henderson and Rob Vaughan with Crapper and Henderson also adding the doubles.