Can Anyone Stop The Fluffy Toys?

DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys unbeaten start to the season continued this week as they made it eight straight league wins in a row in Division One without reply. Captain Steve Walker was on song in a comfortable 7-3 win against Global Marble 'A' registering his 4th hat trick of the season whilst being well supported by Steve Fox and Peter Cowburn who each won two games each. The only success for Global came via Steve Lyon who beat both Fox and Cowburn and the doubles which was conceded. Both Kartik Lakhani and Rob Vaughan who had to play up from Division Two due to Global being short on numbers this week didn't manage to win a game between them and if the Fluffy Toys continue in this form they could have the league title sewn up by the end of January!
Whilst the Fluffy Toys are running away with it at the top the other five teams in the division are left to fight it out between themselves for the Runners Up spot or to avoid the dreaded drop into Division Two. Two such teams met this week in Stanley Street 'A' and Ryton Park Adders who have had contrasting starts to the season, Adders made a flying start whilst Street 'A' have had to find their feet somewhat. For Street Nigel Stent was the man in form winning all his three games albeit not against the strongest side that the Adders will put out this season in Andy Lee, John Hallgarth and Brian Allen. Both Peter Eyre and Alex Millward lost out to Andy Lee but both Hallgarth and Allen couldn't follow suit and the Adders ending up going down by an 8-2 score line.
In Division Two Stanley Street 'B' followed the example shown by their 'A' team and also ran out 8-2 winners this week against Manton Sports, a win that keeps them on the top the Division Two table. Both Paul Linfield and Jack Kirkland completed impressive hat tricks whilst Matthew Williams chipped in with a solo effort against Phil Fisher but losing out to both Alan Wilson and Keith Smith with Kirkland and Williams teaming up to win the doubles rubber against Smith and Fisher to complete the scoring.
Despite the win one of their closest rivals Manton Tigers also won this week and are still hot on their heels and only 2 points behind in the race for the title. In a close match with Global Marble 'B' both Bill Bateman and Paul Allison played impressively to win all their three games with Steve Beeston having a tough night losing out to all three Global Players in Rob Vaughan, Richard Robinson and Ewan Pickersgill. Beeston did however have some success when teaming up with Allison to beat Vaughan and Pickersgill in the doubles to cement his team's 7-3 win.
One result in Division Three stood out this week, not because of the final match result but the fact that all three Tarr Babies beat Jayden Budworth who had only lost once all season! A magnificent performance from Daniel Cutts, Joshua Nelson and Keiran Tutter saw all three register impressive hat tricks in a 10-0 battering of On-Line Elks which sent out a message to their title rivals and they must surely be the team to beat in Division Three. The other two Elks players Glen Gillgrass and Reece Blower fared no better losing all their singles games and their misery was compounded when they teamed up in the doubles only to lose out to Nelson and Jack Tarr.
Sat only two points behind the Tarr Babies in 2nd place are DTH Redlands Rookies who comfortably dispatched Ryton Park Falcons 8-2 this week to keep the pressure on their club colleagues. Veterans Derek Piper and Bob Atkinson both came away with three wins each with Cauis Tweed adding a single win over the improving Jordan Potter but came unstuck against the Langley brothers Regan and Nathan. Tweed then paired up with his team mate Atkinson to beat Regan and Nathan Langley in 4 sets to take the doubles.
Other Division Three Result: Ryton Park Dragons 2 Stanley Street Cypriots 8