Fluffy Toys Close In On Division One Title

DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys are now only one win away from retaining the Division One title after defeating their closest rivals MBE. Toy's Richard Wesley was the Player Of The Match returning solid wins over Andrew Cave, Dave Marsh and Stuart Element to set his team up for a win that leaves them a massive 10 points ahead of their opponents. Both Tom McIntosh who is having a fabulous season and Tom Wesley both beat Cave and Marsh but couldn't get past a stubborn Stuart Element who beat them both to register MBE's only wins on the night with the Wesley brothers beating Cave and Marsh in the doubles to secure an 8-2 win.
In the battle to avoid the dreaded drop into Division Two Stanley Street 'A' did themselves a power of good with two wins within a week to move themselves away from the bottom two relegation places. Their first win came against bottom side and already relegated Manton Tigers in a fairly comfortable 9-1 scoreline with hat tricks for both Peter Eyre and Alex Millward with two wins for Matthew Williams who lost out to Paul Allison in 5 sets with Millward and Williams winning the doubles set to cement their victory.
Street 'A's next win was probably more important than their first as it came against fellow strugglers Ryton Park Adders and what a match it was! Despite a superb hat trick from Adder's Andy Lee over Eyre, Millward and Williams the Adders captain still found his team 5-4 down going into the deciding doubles set at the end of the night. Lee and Brian Allen, who had earlier managed to beat Williams to get his team's 4th win of the night teamed up against Eyre and Millward and they must have fancied their chances to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat but instead ended up losing in straight sets to narrowly lose the match 6-4 and leave themselves only 6 points away from the relegation zone having played a game more than the team below them.
Other Division One Results: Manton Misfits 2 DTH Redlands Roosters 8, DTH Redlands Joggers 3 Manton Misfits 7
The race for the Division Two title became much clearer this week with events on and off the table. Ryton Park Eagles who are currently lying in 2nd place behind Manton Nomads had a narrow win over DTH Redlands Rookies with both John Hallgarth and Keith Swift managing to win two games each whilst Alex Olliffe surprisingly only won one and they then had to rely on Hallgarth and Swift taking the doubles rubber to get them over the line to record a 6-4 win. George Agnew and Alan Keeling both won two each for the Rookies whilst Derek Piper went home empty handed.
Off the table the Eagles fell fowl of rule 9h as they weren't able to re-arrange a postponed match against Ryton Park Cougars within 6 weeks of the original fixture and therefore the match was awarded to their club colleagues 10-0 which would put them further behind their rivals.
With the Eagles falling fowl of the rules it gave Manton Nomads a chance to put themselves 8 points ahead of the Eagles with a game in hand if they could overcome Stanley Street 'B' who were struggling to put a team out and had to play two players up from Division Three in Mitchell Radford and Graham Stent and the Nomads made no mistakes taking advantage winning 8-2. A Steve Elkin maximum helped them on their way with two wins each for Rob Vaughan and Richard Robinson who both lost to the ever improving Adam Hamilton with Robinson and Elkin taking the doubles.
If the results in Division One and Division Two made their respective divisions look a lot clearer this week then the same can't be said for Division Three as results made the chase for promotion and the title about as clear as mud!
The biggest clash by far was the rearranged match between Stanley Street Cypriots and DTH Redlands Tarr Babies and on paper it looked like it would be very close affair but despite 4 of the 10 games going the distance the Cypriots ran out comfortable 8-2 winners in the end. The Cypriots George Makrakis set up their win with a terrific hat trick and he was well supported by Graham Stent and Tom Parker who both beat Adam Pinches and Greg Suchalski but both lost out to Josh Nelson. Parker and Makrakis then beat Pinches and Suchalski in 5 sets to take the doubles and with it a vital 3 points.
The very next night The Tarr Babies managed to put the disappointment of losing to their rivals behind them with 7-3 win away at On-line Elks which now leaves the top four teams separated by only one point!
Other Division Three Results: Ryton Park Dragons 2 Stanley Street Rascals 8, Ryton Park Falcons 3 Stanley Street 'E' 7
David Hooton Trophy Semi Final: Stanley Street 'A' 598 Ryton Park Adders 508