Four Way Battle At The Top Of Three

Possibly the most interesting title/promotion run in for many a year is starting to unfold in Division Three with just 2 points separating the top four places with Stanley Street Cypriots really putting the cat amongst the pigeons with their victory over former league leaders Stanley Street Rascals. The player of the match was the Cypriots Tom Parker who returned an impressive hat trick of wins over Liam Stead, Thomas Gladwin and Harry Downing with his game against Stead being a real tight affair before he finally won it in the 4th set. Parker was well supported by George Makrakis who had wins over both Stead and Downing with Graham Stent adding a solo win over Downing to leave the Cypriots with an unassailable 6-3 lead before Parker teamed up with Mitchell Radford to win the doubles to put the icing on the cake of a very good 7-3 victory.
The Rascals were back in action again 24 hours later playing a postponed match from a few weeks earlier against Ryton Park Dragons and despite a 10-0 victory to the Rascals the match was a lot tighter than the scoreline suggests with 4 of the 10 games going to 5 sets. There were hat tricks all round for Stead, Downing and Ellis Spacey for the Rascals as they all defeated Luke Barraclough, Connor Bettley and Luke Banton and the misery was completed for the Dragons as Luke and Lee Banton lost to Stead and Spacey in the doubles.
The other two teams fighting to get into the top two places and ultimately promotion to Division Two are Stanley Street 'D' and DTH Redlands Tarr Babies who both met this week in a pulsating match that was played in a terrific spirit. Stanley Street 'D' are on a great run at the moment and were looking to stretch their unbeaten run to 11 matches but their task wasn't going to be an easy one as the Tarr Babies have been there or thereabouts at the top of the division all season and a close match was expected by both teams and a close match they got! The highlight of the match was another Josh Nelson hat trick which included a great win over Andrew Agnew and further wins over Lee Webb and Louis Spray and when both Adam Pinches and veteran Jack Tarr also beat Spray it put the Tarr Babies in the box seat being 5-4 ahead before the doubles match which would ultimately decide the outcome of the match. For Street 'D' Agnew and Webb teamed up to face Nelson and Tarr and soon raced into a 1-0 lead before Nelson and Tarr won the next to level at 1-1 but they could do nothing in the next two games as Agnew and Webb won them both to secure the doubles set and with it a 5-5 draw to keep the race for promotion wide open.
Other Division Three Result: On-Line Elks 6 Stanley Street 'E' 4
Division One side Stanley Street 'A' eased their  relegation worries somewhat this week with the narrowest of wins against fellow relegation battlers DTH Redlands Joggers despite another unbeaten night for the Joggers Steve Walker. Despite all three Street players losing to Walker they still managed to dig out a 6-4 victory with two wins each for both Peter Eyre and Alex Millward and a solo effort for Dave Hodgkin and the doubles set giving them 3 vital points in their quest to stay up. The other scorer for the Joggers was a single win for Lea Dickinson over Hodgkin.
Other Division One Results: MBE 9 Manton Tigers 1, DTH Redlands Roosters 3 DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 7.
Division Two Results: Manton Nomads 9 DTH Redlands X-Youth 1, Manton Sports 5 Stanley Street 'B' 5, Stanley Street 'C' 8 DTH Redlands Rookies 2.