Eagles Have Their Wings Clipped

Division Two leaders Sparken Hill Eagles lost their 100% record this week as they lost to second placed Clowne ‘C’. Man Of The Match for Clowne was Ben Crapper who despite making his first appearance of the season returned an impressive hat trick of singles wins against Brian Allen, Keith Swift and Chris Tilstone. His win against Allen was the most impressive of his three wins as it came in straight sets and at a vital time of the match as it set Clowne ‘C’ up for a 7-3 win. Perry Bradford also put in a great performance for Clowne as he was full of cold and had to clamber out of his sick bed to play and the effort was worthwhile as he beat both Swift and Tilstone and when Rob Vaughan also beat Swift and Tilstone it completed the scoring for Clowne. Allen won two singles for the Eagles and then joined up with Swift to win the doubles rubber in straight sets against Crapper and Perry.
Despite their loss, the Eagles still stay top of the division on set difference but Clowne ‘C’ do have a game in hand on them.
Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘A’ moved up into third place in the division with a terrific 10-0 win over Manton Tigers. Their were hat tricks all round for the Harriers team of Dean Marsh, Tony Draycott and Dilip Malkan with all three players enjoying wins over a very experienced and solid player in Tigers Bill Bateman. Bateman’s teammates Steve Beeston and Phil Hall also suffered the same fate as they also lost out in the singles to the Harriers trio.
Tigers didn’t fare much better in the doubles as Bateman and Beeston lost to Marsh and Draycott to end the misery for the Tigers and a 10-0 win for the Harriers.
Manton Sports finally clinched their first win of the season with a 6-4 victory over Carlton X-Youth helped by an Alan Wilson hat-trick. Wilson defeated both Mark Bloomer and Shaun Layden in 4 sets and Mark Cooper in straight sets to complete his hat-trick and was well supported by Richard Robinson who added two wins of his own over Layden and Cooper. Sports third player Keith Smith didn’t manage to win any of his singles games but did play a part in a vital doubles win with Wilson over Bloomer and Cooper to add another win to the Sports tally which contributed to their 6-4 win.
After their first ever match last week, Division Three newcomers Sparken Hill Pigeons chalked up their first ever win with victory over Sparken Hill Nightingales. Luke Hyde with 3 and Keith Bloomfield with 2 set them on their way to a 6-4 win with Hyde and Joseph Hulley winning the double to complete the scoring.
Another Sparken Hill side who enjoyed a win in Division Three this week were the Hawks who beat their club colleagues the Blue Jays 7-3 to extend their lead at the top of the division. Two wins each for Roman Rosser, Adam Pinches and Paul Wendon plus the doubles clinched their win.
Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’ enjoyed an emphatic 9-1 win over Sparken Hill Pigeons which moved them up to second place in the table. Kian Tansley and Graham Stent both secured hat-tricks with Nick Sievewright adding two wins with Sievewright and Tansley adding the doubles to complete the scoring.

Into Division One and Worksop Miners Welfare continued their impressive start to the season as they beat two man Sparken Hill Woodpeckers 8-2 with Richard Element and Chris Cattell both beating Martynas and Orestas Riauba with Dave Marsh having a solo win over Martynas.
Stanley Street continued their fine start to the season with a 9-1 win over Worksop Welfare Snipers with Terry Emmerson winning all his three singles yet again. He was well supported by Peter Eyre who also returned a hat-trick of wins with Alex Millward adding two wins before losing to Erlands Skels. Emmerson was then joined by Mark Sansom in the doubles as they beat Westwood and Skels to complete the scoring.