The quarter finalists of this season’s Carnation Cup are now known after this week’s preliminary round matches have been played out.
The closest match out of the four preliminary matches in this handicap pairs competition was the game between Mark Sansom & Nick Sievewright and Mark Bloomer & John McIntyre. Sansom got his pairing off to a great start when he defeated McIntyre 21-16, 21-14 despite having to give his opponent a 10 point lead in each game. Bloomer then levelled the contest by beating Sievewright 21-20 in the deciding game. Next up was the doubles with Bloomer and McIntyre having a slender 3 point start in each game and they made it count by winning the doubles 21-15, 21-17 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. McIntyre and Sievewright then met in the reverse singles game and with both players having the same handicap a close encounter was in store. Sievewright took the first game 21-16 but McIntyre hit back to take the second 21-19 to take it into a decider which McIntyre won 21-17 to give himself and Bloomer an unassailable 3-1 lead. The final singles game would have no meaning on the outcome of the match but it was a real battle as Sansom beat Bloomer in the first game only for Bloomer to level at one game all by taking the second. Sansom then took the decider 21-16 to restore some pride for himself and Sievewright, eventually losing a close match 3-2.
Although a 4-1 score line doesn’t suggest a close match, there was in fact some very close games when Andy Kirkland & Harrison Holland played Andy Vinson & Michael Candy. First up was Kirkland against Candy and with Kirkland having to give his opponent a 9 point start it was always going to be a tough ask for Kirkland to claw back the deficit and so it proved to be as Candy recorded a ‘sweet’ victory 21-16, 21-18 to give his pairing a 1-0 lead. In the next singles contest Vinson and Holland had a real topsy turvy match as Vinson took the first game 21-17 despite having to give away an 11 point lead due to the handicapping but then it all went wrong for him in the next game as he didn’t quite get out of the starting blocks losing it 21-8 which took the contest into a deciding game and what a game it was as Vinson managed to beat Holland by the narrowest of margins 21-20 to put himself and Candy 2 up with 3 to play.
The next game was the doubles with both pairings having the same handicap so starting level at 0-0 and it was Vinson and Candy who just had the edge by winning it 21-16, 21-18 to secure a 3-0 overall victory and their place in the quarter finals.
Although the reverse singles would have no outcome on the overall result of the match they were both good games with Holland beating Candy 21-19, 21-10 and Vinson getting the better of Kirkland 21-20, 21-17 to give Vinson and Candy a 4-1 victory.
The next two matches were technically over before they even started as two players for varying reasons didn’t turn up.
Mitchell Radford & Lewis Linacre had a 5-0 win over Kartik Lakhani and Isabella Saul, Lakhani didn’t make the match so Radford & Linacre were already 3-0 ahead before Saul played them both in the singles and despite giving it a real good go, she lost both.
The exact same scenario happened in the next game as Jeff Reay didn’t make the match which left him and his partner Jerry Collins out of the competition before a ball was hit. Collins took both Dan Saul and Kathy McIntyre close in his singles games before eventually losing to Saul 19-21, 17-21 and to McIntyre 20-21, 19-21 to leave Saul and Kathy McIntyre to go through to the quarter finals by virtue of a 5-0 victory.
The draw for the quarter finals is as follows:
Dean Marsh & Glen Gillgrass v Mitchell Radford & Lewis Linacre
Connor Bettley & Dave Lee v Dan Saul & Kathy McIntyre
Pete Eyre & Tom Ogley v Mark Bloomer & John McIntyre
Mark Cooper & Luke Barraclough v Andy Vinson & Michael Candy
The was a rearranged game in Division One this week which saw Worksop Miners Welfare put some clear daylight at the top of the table between themselves and the teams chasing them for top spot.
In a close game Welfare managed to just edge past Clowne ‘A’ with a 6-4 victory with Welfare’s Richard Element being Player Of The Match with singles wins over Clowne’s John Davies, Farrel Anthony and Roy Bowes. Chris Cattell followed that up with wins over Davies and Anthony with team mate Dave Marsh not managing to trouble the scorers on this occasion as he lost to all three Clowne players. The doubles proved to of vital importance with Cattell and Element taking it over Anthony and Bowes in straight sets to ensure all 3 points went to the Welfare side which now puts them 5 points clear at the top with a game in hand on all of their rivals.

This season’s Carnation Cup has now reached the quarter final stage after the latest round of matches were completed this week. The second round of the pairs handicap competition kicked off with three matches being played at Worksop Leisure Centre on Tuesday night with two close games and one comfortable game. Simon Hooley and Harry Clarke found little resistance in overcoming Peter Eyre and Isabella Saul 5-0 and easing themselves into the quarter finals. Perry Bradford and Dave Rix found the going much tougher in their match as they came up against Mark Bloomer and Kathy McIntyre. When Bradford beat McIntyre and Rix defeated Bloomer to take a 2-0 lead the match looked all over but McIntyre and Bloomer hit back to win the doubles and then levelled the match at 2-2 when McIntyre beat Rix. That left the match beautifully poised with Bradford and Bloomer left to fight it out for the right to go through to the next round. Bradford took the first game 21-17 before Bloomer took the next 21-20 to take it into a decider with Bradford hitting top form to take it 21-12 to reach the quarter finals.
Another match to go to a deciding set was the match between Jack Kirkland and Daisy Walshaw and Jeff Reay and Tom Ogley. Kirkland beat Ogley to lead 1-0 before Reay pulled out all the stops to scrape past Walshaw to level the contest at 1-1. Kirkland and Walshaw then took the doubles to lead 2-1 and put themselves in the box seat and favourites to go through, but Reay and Ogley weren’t ready to leave the competition and took the next two singles rubbers to run out 3-2 winners.
The second batch of games took place the night after at Sparken Hill Academy with eight pairings looking to progress into the next round of the competition. The first match to finish was the one between Luke Barraclough and Lewis Linacre and Ben Swain and Glen Gillgrass with the latter pairing being able to do nothing to stop Barraclough and Linacre steamrollering them 5-0 to go through to the quarter finals.
Another result that made the match look comfortable was the game between Andy Vinson and Gary Robinson and Rob Vaughan and Ethen Shevill but in reality was anything but comfortable. Shevill played well to take the first singles match 2-0 to put the pair 1-0 up with Vaughan having to come from behind to take the next 2-1 to give them a 2-0 lead. The doubles game went the way of Vinson and Robinson who comfortably won it 2-0 to give themselves hope of a comeback but it wasn’t to be as Shevill hit top form to beat Robinson to give them and unassailable 3-1 lead with Vaughan beating Vinson 2-0 to put the icing on the cake of a 4-1 victory.
The too closest matches of the night naturally went on the longest with the match between Mark Sansom and Dave Lee against Mark Cooper and Derek Piper finishing a fair few minutes before the last game of the night which I will come to later. Sansom defeated Piper with Cooper overcoming Lee to level the contest at 1-1 with the doubles match looking like it could prove pivotal to the whole match with Piper and Cooper winning it in straight sets to take a 2-1 lead. Any hopes of a comeback for Sansom and Lee soon disappeared as Piper comfortably beat Lee to take a winning 3-1 lead with Sansom managing a ‘consolation’ win over Cooper to give a result of 3-2 in favour of Cooper and Piper.
The last match to finish was an intriguing game between Andy Kirkland and Ivan Stallworthy who were up against Michell Radford and Dave Lyus with the match ebbing and flowing all they way through. Kirkland and Lyus were first up to contest the first singles game with Kirkland winning it 21-15, 21-14 to take a 1-0 lead but Radford hit back for him ad his partner as he managed to overcome Stallworthy 2-1 to level the match at 1-1 and when he and Lyus also took the doubles in the very next game t take a 2-1 lead they must have thought that they had one foot in the next round. Any thoughts of a place in the quarter finals were son dispelled as Stallworthy defeated Lyus to level the match at 2-2 and take the contest into a decider between Kirkland and Radford. The game was a tense affair but with Kirkland never allowing Radford to get into his stride and in the end his experience told as he beat Radford in straight sets to complete a 3-2 win.