Chasing Pack Close Gap On Leaders

The sides in second and third places in Division One took advantage of the league leaders having a blank week this week by closing the gap between themselves and the runaway leaders.
Sparken Hill Woodpeckers who are in second place closed the gap to just 6 points with a comfortable 9-1 win over bottom side Worksop Welfare Snipers. Bothe Steve Fox and Orestas Riauba won all their 3 singles games over Russ Webster, Ben Swain and Erlands Skels with Mitchell Radford adding 2 wins of his own, losing out to Skels. Fox and Riauba completed the scoring when they teamed up in the doubles to defeat Webster and Skels in straight sets.
Despite another Terry Emmerson hat trick for Stanley Street, third placed Clowne ‘A’ also closed the gap on the leaders with a hard earned 6-4 win over the Street side. Although Clowne’s John Davies and Roy Bowes both lost to Emmerson, they did manage to beat both Mark Sansom and Peter Eyre with Steve Lyon chipping in with a single win over Eyre and their victory was complete when Davies and Bowes added the doubles to their teams score after defeating Emmerson and Sansom to secure victory.
At the other end of the Division One table Sparken Hill Starlings, who are scrapping for points in their quest to avoid relegation, entertained Clowne ‘B’ who themselves are not completely safe themselves. The Starlings had a player playing up from Division Three in Mark Fisher so it was going to be up to Andy Lee and Jack Kirkland to get something out of the game for the Starlings and get something they did. Kirkland had wins over Kartik Lakhani and Jeff Reay with Le adding 2 wins of his own over Reay and Kalpesh Bhatt before they both teamed up in the doubles to beat Lakhani and Bhatt in a 5 set thriller to earn their side a point in a 5-5 draw. The draw puts the Starlings 8 points clear of bottom side Welfare Snipers but they still remain 5 points behind Clowne ‘B’.
Into Division Two now and Carlton X-Youth did Clowne ‘C’ the league leaders a massive favour this week by beating second placed Sparken Hill Eagles and at the same time eased their relegation worries. Simon Hooley was Player Of The Match with a fine hat trick of wins for X-Youth over the Eagles John Hallgarth, Brain Allen and Keith Swift to set up their victory. Hooley was well supported by Mark Bloomer who beat Hallgarth and Swift and almost beat Allen before going down in the deciding 5^th set with X-Youth’s third player Mark Cooper not being able to the scorers on this occasion.
X-Youth wrapped up a fine 6-4 win when Hooley and Bloomer beat Allen and Hallgarth in the doubles.
Manton Sports are looking increasingly in danger of falling through the relegation trap door into Division Three as they suffered a loss to fellow strugglers Worksop Welfare ‘A’. Welfare’s Dilip Malkan and Tony Draycott did the damage with Draycott registering a fine hat trick of singles wins over John Lowde, Keith Smith and Richard Robinson with Malkan beating Lowde and Smith before the pair teamed up to win the doubles against Lowde and Smith to get them over the line in a tight 6-4 win.
The Sports club colleagues Manton Tigers have no such relegation worries as they sit comfortably in third place after an 8-2 win over bottom side Worksop Welfare ‘B’. Ron Firth lead the way with a hat-trick of wins with Steve Beeston and Bill Bateman adding two wins each, both losing out to the Harriers Dennis Learad. The win puts them just 4 points behind second placed Sparken Hill Eagles.
Division Three Results: Sparken Hill Blue Jays 5 Sparken Hill Nightingales 5, Sparken Hill Falcons 10 Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’ 0, Sparken Hill Robins 6 Sparken Hill Pigeons 4, Worksop Welfare Real Deal 1 Sparken Hill Hawks 9.
Mike Tunningley Shield Quarter Final: Sparken Hill Robins 374 Clowne ‘A’ 378