Demolition Men’s Title Hopes Come Crashing Down

DTH Redlands Demolition Men’s Division Three title aspirations were wrecked this week after slipping to the narrowest of defeats against Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ for whom Graham Stent performed heroically to win all his three singles games. Stent’s hat trick of wins all came in 5 sets and what made his achievement even more remarkable is that he did all this at the age of 80! Stent first beat Bob Atkinson and then Perry Bradford but saved the best till last, with the match score at 5-4 to the Harriers Stent came from 2-0 down against Derek Piper to win the next three games to clinch the win and all three points for the Harriers. Stent was well supported by the much-improved Dean Marsh who beat both Atkinson and Piper and had a hand in the doubles win over the same two players as he teamed up with Neil Fisher to add another win for the Harriers. The defeat for the Demolition Men now means that they cannot catch Sparken Hill Falcons if they win their two remaining games which happen to be against the bottom two sides in the division.
DTH Redlands Tarr Babies are still in contention for the runners up spot and recorded a convincing 9-1 victory over club colleagues DTH Redlands Red Devils this week. Adam Pinches and Roman Rosser were the star men for the Tarr Babies as they both beat all three Red Devils players Cliff Briggs, Harry Clarke and Phil Daly before teaming up to take the doubles against Briggs and Clarke. The only success for the Red Devils came when Daly defeated Keith Bloomfield.
The race for the Division One title looks like it will go right down to the wire with just 3 points separating the top three teams. Current leaders DTH Redlands Roosters had a comfortable 8-2 win over Sparken Hill Ospreys who only turned up with two players so were 3-0 down before a ball had been hit. For the Roosters Ernest Mpundu beat both Kalpesh Bhatt and Kerry Harvey with Steve Fox beating Harvey and Rick Harris defeating Bhatt. The Roosters also won the doubles to take the match 8-2 and stay ahead of their nearest rivals DTH Redlands Monsters who also won this week. The Monsters win came against bottom side DTH Redlands X-Youth who are still without a league win this season and found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-0 scoreline. Despite battling bravely, Keiran Tutter, Matt Turner and Clive Eden just couldn’t get a win over the three Riauba brothers Valentinas, Martynas and Orestas and the defeat confirmed their relegation back to Division Two next season.
Sparken Hill Starlings can just about breathe a sigh of relief as they are now virtually safe from relegation after a 7-3 against Stanley Street ‘A’. Kurt Hutson shone for the Starlings as he beat all three Street players in Jack Kirkland, Dave Hodgkin and Peter Eyre. The Starlings win was a real team effort as Andy Lee and Helmuth Osborne both won two games each with Lee beating Hodgkin and Kirkland with Osborne beating Hodgkin and Eyre. Kirkland and Eyre took the doubles against Hutson and Lee to complete the scoring.
Richard Element made his long-awaited comeback from a broken foot to pick up from where he left off earlier in the season by recording yet another hat trick in a 6-4 win over Sparken Hill Buzzards for his side Worksop Miners Welfare. Element didn’t put a foot wrong as he beat Chris Cattell, Steve Lyon and Kartik Lakhani along with taking the doubles with Dave Marsh against Lyon and Cattell. Mark Stanfield added a single win over Lakhani with Phil Walton also winning one game which was the last game of the night against Lyon to clinch the win for the Welfare side.
Another side relegated this week were Sparken Hill Blue Jays who slipped to their 14^th league defeat in a row. The Blue Jays trio of Dave Lee, Dave Rix and Ivan Stallworthy could do nothing to stop Stanley Street ‘B’ running out 10-0 winners against them. There were hat tricks all round for Mark Sansom, Chris Tilstone and Andy Kirkland with Sansom and Tilstone piling more misery on the Blue Jays by taking the doubles set also.
Other Division Two Results: Sparken Hill Vultures 10 Sparken Hill Eagles 0, Worksop Welfare Snipers 8 Manton Sports 2, Manton Tigers 8 DTH Redlands Rookies 2.