Falcons Stretch Lead At Top Of Three

Sparken Hill Falcons pulled six points clear at the top of Division Three this week with a solid 8-2 win over club colleagues Sparken Hill Blue Jays. Connor Bettley and Neil Penny did most of the damage for the Falcons as they recorded wins over all three Blue Jays players in Ivan Stallworthy, Dave Lee and Dave Rix with the only success in the singles coming when Stallworthy managed to defeat Mick Potter. The Blue Jays did manage to win the doubles when Rix and Stallworthy teamed up to beat Potter and Penny 3-1. The result leaves the Falcons in pole position at the top of the table although second placed Sparken Hill Hawks do have a game in hand  

and do have to play the Falcons one more time before the end of the league campaign.
At the other end of the table, Sparken Hill Robins and Worksop Welfare Real Deal were involved in a real tussle which in the end ended in stalemate with both sides coming away with a point each in a 5-5 draw. For the Robins, Luke Hyde continued his rich vein of form by registering a hat trick of wins defeating Tom Ogley, Jerry Collins and Glen Gillgrass in the process and then he capped a Player Of The Match performance by also having a hand in winning the doubles with Reece Carnall as they defeated Collins and Ogley. The only other Robins player to get on the scoresheet was veteran Keith Bloomfield who defeated Collins in straight sets but it was a vital win as it earned the Robins a point. For the Real Deal side both Ogley and Gillgrass won two games each with Collins adding a single win in an entertaining draw.
The big news this week was in Division One in the match between Clowne ‘A’ and Worksop Miners Welfare as two unbeaten records went on the same night. The unbeaten Welfare side lost their first match of the season and in the process the previously unbeaten Richard Element also lost his 100% record in the singles as he went down to Clowne ‘A’s John Davies in a 5 set thriller. Davies went on to complete a superb hat tick with additional wins over Chris Cattell and Phil Walton. Clowne’s Ernest Mpundu also added vital wins over Cattell and Walton before Steve Lyon chipped in with a win over Walton to secure a 6-4 win and a well earned 3 points.
Clowne ‘B’ were also involved in a match that finished 6-4 but they were on the wrong end of the result losing to Sparken Hill Woodpeckers for whom Orestas Riauba registered a terrific hat trick of wins to set his team up for the victory.
An even closer match in Division One was the game between Sparken Hill Starlings and Stanley Street which ebbed and flowed throughout before ending in a 5-5 draw. Stanley Street’s Terry Emmerson was Player Of The Match as he won all his three singles games before teaming up with Peter Eyre to claim the doubles. Mark Sansom added a win over Andy Kirkland to complete the scoring for Stanley Street.
Division Two leaders Clowne ‘C’ stretched their lead at the top to 8 points with a comprehensive 9-1 win over Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘A’. Hat tricks for both Ian Henderson and Rob Vaughan and a double for Ben Crapper plus the doubles did the damage for the Clowne side although there was some consolation for Harriers Andy Vinson as he had a really good win over Crapper.
Third placed Manton Tigers closed the gap to second placed Sparken Hill Eagles by whitewashing Carlton X-Youth 10-0. There were hat tricks all round for the Tigers trio of Ron Firth, Steve Beeston and Dave Bowns before Firth and Beeston added the doubles to complete the scoring.