Eden And Hallgarth Claim DTH Senior Doubles Title

Clive Eden and John Hallgarth have won the first competition of the 2014-2015 season after being crowned DTH Senior Doubles winners with their win being especially sweet for Hallgarth who managed to successfully defend the title he won last year with Keith Smith.
14 players entered this year's competition with all players being seeded from 1 to 14 and then the  pairings being decided by the highest seed playing with the lowest seed, the number 2 seed playing with the number 13 seed etc. with a round robin format to decide the 4 semi-finalists.
After all 7 pairings had played each other the semi-finalists had been decided with Kartik Lakhani & Andy Kirkland up against Steve Elkin & Keith Smith and Andy Lee & Mark Bloomer against John Hallgarth & Clive Eden. Having come top of the round robin group stage Lakhani and Kirkland probably fancied their chances against Elkin and Smith especially as they had already beaten them earlier in the night and their optimism didn't prove to be misplaced as they comfortably eased past Elkin and Smith 25-18 to take them through to the Final.
The second semi-final was always going to be a much closer affair after Hallgarth & Eden had only just beaten Lee & Bloomer 25-22 in the round robin stage earlier in the night and after another close match Hallgarth & Eden did exactly the same again, just managing to squeeze past Lee & Bloomer to get into the final by the same 25-22 scoreline as earlier!
The final took on a slightly different format with the games being up to 21 and the best of three and Hallgarth & Eden wasted no time at all in taking the first game 21-14 to leave Lakhani & Kirkland with it all to do if they were going to claim the trophy for themselves. In the second game Hallgarth & Eden quickly opened up a lead on Lakhani and Kirkland and it was a lead that they wouldn't let slip and eventually took the second game 21-15 and with it the honour of being crowned DTH Senior Doubles Champions.
Back to League matters now and Stanley Street Rascals maintained their push for the Division Three title with a hard fought 6-4 win over the ever improving Ryton Park Falcons who despite currently sitting at the foot of the table very nearly caused a major upset. The Falcon's Brian Hall took all three of the Rascals scalps and when Jak Eden beat Ellis Spacey an unlikely draw was on the cards going into the all important doubles rubber which the Rascals duo of Spacey and Liam Stead took comfortably in straight sets to seal all three points. The scorers for the Rascals were Liam Stead and Harry Downing with 2 wins each with Spacey adding a solo win over Mick Potter.
DTH Redlands Tarr Babies who have games in hand on the Rascals finally played their postponed match from 6 weeks ago against the Falcons who themselves had to play two games in two nights, both against teams fancied to get promotion. The Falcons who took the Rascals so close the night before couldn't match that feat again but went down fighting in an 8-2 defeat with Jordan Potter getting both wins for the Falcons against Greg Suchalski and Adam Pinches but that was to be the only joy for the Falcons with both Jak Eden and Mick Potter going home empty handed on this occasion. For the Tarr Babies Josh Nelson continued his good run of form winning yet another hat trick with Suchalski and Pinches adding two wins each.
Other Division Three Results: Stanley Street Cypriots 8 Stanley Street 'E' 2, On-Line Elks 3 Stanley Street 'D' 7.
Division One Results: Manton Tigers 0 DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 10, DTH Redlands Roosters 9 Ryton Park Adders 1, DTH Redlands Joggers 4 MBE 6, Manton Misfits 3 Manton Tigers 7, DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 10 Stanley Street 'A' 0.
Division Two Results: Stanley Street 'C' 4 Manton Nomads 6, Stanley Street 'B' 9 DTH Redlands Rookies 1, Manton Sports 4 Ryton Park Eagles 6, Ryton Park Cougars 0 DTH Redlands X-Youth 10.