Falcons Back On Track

Sparken Hill Falcons got their Division Three title challenge back on course this week with a convincing home win against Worksop Owls. The Falcons trio of Mick Potter, Neil Penny and Luke Barraclough were just too strong for the improving Owls outfit of Harry Beer, Finlay Coburn and Jasper Turner but they did make the Falcons work hard for their victory despite the 10-0 scoreline suggesting otherwise. The win puts the Falcons 8 points ahead of their main rivals DTH Redlands Demolition Men, but they do have 3 games in hand on the Falcons.
Second placed Worksop Welfare Harriers kept themselves in the hunt with a hard fought 7-3 win over mid table Sparken Hill Hawks. One stand out feature of the match was that all 10 games were unusually won in straight sets! For the Harriers Dan Saul continued his good form with another hat trick recording wins over Tom Wendon, Paul Wendon and Lee Banton. Saul was well supported by Nick Sievewright who beat both Tom Wendon and Lee Banton losing to Paul Wendon. Veteran Graham Stent chipped in with one win when he defeated Banton. Sievewright and Saul teamed up to take the doubles game against Banton and Tom Wendon to complete the scoring.
The race for the Division One title got even closer this week as league leaders DTH Redlands Monsters had a blank week which gave their rivals the chance to close the gap and even knock them off top spot with DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys doing just that with a 7-3 win over relegation battlers Sparken Hill Starlings. Both Steve Walker and Sarah Short remained unbeaten winning all their singles games before teaming up in the doubles to win that also. The Fluffy Toys had Perry Bradford playing up from Division Three but despite giving it a good go he couldn’t register a win, losing to Andy Lee, Kurt Hutson and Helmuth Osborne.
Third placed DTH Redlands Roosters are now ominously just one point behind the Monsters and Fluffy Toys after a comfortable 8-2 win over DTH Redlands X-Youth with Ernest Mpundu yet again being Man Of The Match after he beat Mark Bloomer, Clive Eden and Keiran Tutter. His team mates, Rick Harris and Steve Fox both beat Eden and Bloomer but couldn’t do the same against Tutter who is having a fine season despite his team being rooted to the bottom of the division.
On the subject of the bottom of the division Stanley Street ‘A’ did themselves a power of good as they took all three points against Sparken Hill Buzzards with the win now probably enough to see Stanley Street retain their place in Division One next season. Jack Kirkland did the damage for Stanley Street registering a fine hat trick of wins over Kartik Lakhani, Terry Emmerson and Chris Cattell but he can’t win a match all on his own with Peter Eyre weighing in with two wins over Lakhani and Emmerson and Alex Millward adding a vital win in the last game of the night over Lakhani in 5 sets winning the last set 13-11 to clinch all the points for his side.
Sparken Hill Ospreys now look like they will finish in the relegation zone unless they can put together a run of wins to drag themselves up the table. This week they were away Worksop Miners Welfare who on occasions have only turned up with 2 players, but this occasion wasn’t one of them. Mark Stanfield, Phil Walton and Dave Marsh were that bit too strong for the Ospreys with Stanfield winning 3, Walton 2 with Marsh also adding 2 wins of his own. The only successes for the Ospreys came when Simon Chatterton beat Marsh and Walton before teaming up with Bhatt in the doubles to beat Marsh and Walton to complete the scoring in a 7-3 win for the Welfare side.
Division Two Results: Manton Sports 6 Manton Tigers 4, Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘A’ 10 Sparken Hill Blue Jays 0, Sparken Hill Vultures 9 Stanley Street ‘B’ 1, Sparken Hill Eagles 0 Worksop Welfare Snipers 10.