Divisional Cup Competitions Get Under Way
With the league season now finished the spotlight fell on the Divisional Handicap Trophy with all three Divisions getting under way this week. Each competition has 8 teams in them and are split into two groups of four with the winners of each group meeting in the final on Wednesday the 24th of April at Sparken Hill Academy.
The David Hooton Handicap Trophy for Division One sides got underway with a win for Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘A’ against DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys with Pete Hodgson playing well for the Snipers side. With each game being played over two games up to 21 Hodgson only just lost to Sarah Short 40-36 over the two games and he then went on to beat Steve Walker 42-35. Hodgson was well supported by his teammates Jim Westwood and Russ Webster who contributed vital points. The Snipers scored 241 points on the table to the Fluffy Toys 364 but when both sides handicap points were added the Snipers ran out winners by 478 to 408.
The other two sides in the group had a very close match, a match that wasn’t decided right up until the last game of the night. Sparken Hill Starlings scored 263 points on the table to Worksop Miners Welfare’s 347 with Ivan Guilliatt having a terrific night for the Starlings beating Dave Marsh 21-11, 21-15 and taking a game off of Chris Cattell but despite his efforts the Starlings narrowly lost 456-449 after both team’s handicap points were added.
In the other group in Division One DTH Redlands Monsters could only field two players against Clowne ‘A’ so had already lost before a ball was hit. Orestas and Martynas Riauba battled bravely but with 4 of the 9 scheduled games having to be conceded due to only having 2 players it was a hopeless task and they ended up losing 512 points to 200.
The other game in the group didn’t go ahead due to lack of available players and Clowne ‘B’ had to concede their match with Stanley Street ‘A’.
The first round of group games in the Reg Wilcox Handicap Trophy for Division Two sides were all played and by the looks of the scorecards there were some terrific games. Worksop Welfare Harriers registered a good win over Sparken Hill Falcons despite the Falcon’s Neil Penny being on top form winning both his singles games. The Falcons amassed 293 points on the table with their opponents scoring 342 and when each team’s handicap points were added at the end of the match it was the Harriers who ended up winning by 546 points to 512.
The other two sides in the Falcons and Harriers group met on Tuesday night with Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ losing to Carlton X-Youth 472-420. The Snipers trio of Nigel Stent, Mitchell Radford and Paul Linfield won all 9 games, but X-Youth managed to amass enough points on the table of 235 to win the match once their handicap points of 237 were added to their total.
The other group in Division Two saw the two Manton sides in action but against other opposition and having differing fortunes. Manton Sports had a cracking game with Worksop Welfare Cannon which could have gone either way but in the end went the way of Manton Sports. Richard Robinson, John Lowde and Keith Smith all made significant contribution to the Sports points total even though they lost 6 of the 9 games and Welfare Cannon can consider themselves unluck not to nick the game but eventually lost it 509-493.
Manton Tigers put in a real effort against Stanley Street ‘B’ who are one of the favourites to get to the final but didn’t let the favourites tag to weigh them down. Mark Sansom, Ralph Rodda and Andy Kirkland all played well winning 8 out of the 9 games with only Rodda losing one as he went down 42-27 to Bill Bateman. After the handicap points were added to the teams totals Stanley Street ran out winners by 441 points to 428.
At the time of writing only one result out of four has come in for the MBE Handicap Trophy which involves sides from Division Three. Worksop Welfare Real Deal had a great game with Sparken Hill Blue Jays and despite the Blue Jays winning every game and amassing the maximum 378 points possible the Real Deal still ran them close. Real Deal scored only 181 points on the table but had 245 handicap points to add which game them a total of 426 points, but it wasn’t quite enough as the Blue Jays had 78 handicap points to add to their total giving them victory by 456 points to 426.