Falcons In Pole Position To Take Title

Sparken Hill Falcons took a massive stride towards the Division Three title this week after thumping their closest rivals Sparken Hill Hawks. The Hawks who desperately needed a win to go level on points with the Falcons found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-0 thumping that now puts clear daylight between the two teams with the Falcons now 6 points clear at the top with just 6 games to go. The Falcons trio of Connor Bettley, Luke Barraclough and Neil Penny all hit top form and all beat the Hawks players of Lewis Linacre, Paul Wendon and Adam Pinches to take all 9 singles games before Bettley and Barraclough teamed up in the doubles to beat Wendon and Pinches to put the icing on the cake of a terrific all round team performance. The result leaves the Falcons just one win away from clinching promotion.
Third placed Sparken Hill Blue Jays had a terrific battle with Sparken Hill Robins with the Robins almost snatching a draw before eventually just losing the match 6-4. Luke Hyde continued in his rich vein of form for the Robins as he beat all three Blue Jays players in Kathy McIntyre, Ivan Stallworthy and veteran Dave Lee. Another veteran, Keith Bloomfield added a solo win over Dave Lee but it wasn’t enough to earn the Robins a draw. Dave Rix and Stallworthy took the doubles for the Blue Jays with a straight sets win over Hyde and Carnall to complete the scoring. Despite closing the gap to second placed Sparken Hill Hawks by 3 points, the Blue Jays are still 7 points adrift and look like missing out on promotion back to Division Two.
Another close match came when Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’ played hosts to Sparken Hill Nightingales with the Nightingales Charlie Shepherd being Player Of The Match with a fine hat trick of singles wins that set helped his side to a narrow 6-4 in. Shepherd was well backed up by Harrison Holland who beat Nick Sievewright and Bill Fowler before losing to Ethan Shevill. The doubles proved to be a real pivotal moment in the match with Shepherd and Holland winning it against Sievewright and Fowler in the deciding set. The doubles win for the Nightingales put them 4-3 up which set them up nicely to go on and win the match and clinch all 3 points.
The final game in Division Three this week saw two man Sparken Hill Pigeons beat Worksop Welfare Real Deal 6-4 on the table but because of the rules that stipulate that a side with only 2 players in it can only get a 5-5 draw they went from winning and gaining 3 points to drawing and only getting one. For the Pigeons Evan Bownes played well in defeating Real Deal’s Tom Ogley, Michael Candy and Jerry Collins with Zak Betteridge adding wins over Candy and Collins before they both teamed up to win the doubles against Ogley and Candy.
Division One Round Up
Worksop Miners Welfare continued their march towards the Division One title with a hard earned 6-4 win away at Stanley Street with Richard Element with 3, Chris Cattell with 2 and then the same two players teamed up to take the doubles to get them over the line. Worksop Welfare Snipers registered only their second win of the season as they beat Sparken Hill Starlings 6-4 with an around team performance as Jim Westwood, Ben Swain and Russ Webster all won two games each to enable then to claim all three points.
Clowne ‘A’ earned the bragging rights in the battle of the two Clowne teams as they beat Clowne ‘B’ 9-1. Roy Bowes and Steve Lyon registered hat tricks for the ‘A’ team with Farrel Anthony added two wins of his own before losing out to Simon Chatterton.
Division Two Round Up
Runaway leaders Clowne ‘C’ almost lost their 100% record away at Carlton X-Youth having to win 3 out of the last 4 games to register a hard fought 6-4 win. Rob Vaughan, Ben Crapper and Ian Henderson all won 2 games each to clinch their thirteenth win in a row.
Second placed Sparken Hill Eagles kept their promotion push on course with a 7-3 away win at Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ with Brian Allen leading the way with a hat trick of singles wins. Allen was well supported by John Hallgarth and Keith Swift who both added two wins each to cement the win which now leaves the Harriers ‘B’ side potentially just one more loss away from relegation.
The battle of the Manton sides saw the Tigers come out on top with a 7-3 victory helped by hat tricks for both Bill Bateman and Dave Bowns with Steve Beeston going home empty handed on this occasion. Beeston did have a hand in the doubles though as he teamed up with Bowns to add it to their sides tally.
MBE Trophy Result: Sparken Hill Falcons 429 Sparken Hill Pigeons 479