Harriers And Snipers In Close Encounter

The league fixtures took a break this week to make way for the last 16 of the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield with the match of the round being between Worksop Welfare Harriers and Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ and what a match it turned out to be with just one point separating the sides at the end of the night. For the Snipers Mitchell Radford, Nigel Stent and George Makrakis kept a tight rein on proceedings ensuring that they didn’t give away many points against their opponents in Dan Saul, Graham Stent and Dean Marsh. The pick of the bunch was Nigel Stent who only conceded 53 points throughout the match whilst scoring 126. The Harriers battled bravely throughout the night and scored 185 points to the Snipers 378 but when the sealed envelope that contained the handicap was opened it gave the Harriers 192 points and when added to their total scored on the table it meant that they lost the match by just one point.
Last year’s winners Sparken Hill Hawks from Division Three continued in their attempt to defend their title with a win over Division One side Stanley Street ‘A’. Although Lewis Linacre, Tom Wendon and Paul Wendon didn’t win any of their games throughout the match, they did however amass enough points to see them through to the next round after their handicap points were added to their total. Stanley Street ‘A’s Terry Emmerson, Alex Millward and Peter Eyre returned the maximum 378 points whilst conceding just 161. However, a 161 points proved too many in the end as the Hawks were awarded a further 252 points giving the win by 413 points to 378.
Another Sparken Hill side hoping to make it through to the quarter finals were Sparken Hill Falcons but they came up short against their opponents DTH Redlands Rovers who despite being a division below, actually managed to beat the Falcons without the need for any handicap points! Adam Pinches, Roman Rosser and Keith Bloomfield put in a terrific performance to beat the Falcons 344 points to 340 on the table before the handicap envelope was opened to reveal another the 112 points to add on for the Rovers who eventually ran out 456-340 winners.
One Sparken Hill side that did join the Hawks in the next round was the Eagles who enjoyed a fairly comfortable in over Division Three runaway leaders DTH Redlands Rookies. The Eagles returned the maximum points of 378 having not lost a game all night with the Rookies surprisingly only managing to muster up 213 points of their own. The handicap awarded to the Rookies was 95 and even when they were added to the 213 points scored on the table it only gave them 308 which meant they still lost by 70 points.
Worksop Miners Welfare who currently sit 3^rd in the Division One table came up against DTH Redlands Mean Machine who sit 3^rd bottom in Division Three and it was a tough night for the Mean Machine trio of Joseph Wootton, Daisy Walshaw and Harry Clarke but credit where credit is due they kept plugging away and despite the gulf in experience they managed to score a valiant 69 points against the 378 that the Miners Welfare side of Mick Bell, Dave Marsh and Phil Walton amassed. So, the result of the match would all come down to the amount of handicap points awarded to the Mean Machine and in the end the 260 points awarded when added to the 69 scored on the night just wasn’t enough and the Welfare side went through to the quarter finals.
Two division three sides vying to get through to the next round were DTH Redlands Tarr Babies and Sparken Hill Blue Jays with the more experienced Blue Jays being slight favourites to go through. However, the Tarr Babies tore up the form book and out in a solid performance to send the Blue Jays crashing out of the competition. The ever improving Tarr Babies trio of Ethan Shevill, Anna Mocan and Stefan Mocan scored 286 points with Shevill beating both Dave Rix and Dave Lee and Stefan Mocan being level on points when he played Dave Lee. The Blue Jays scored 352 points out of a possible 378 but had to give the Tarr Babies 158 handicap points which meant they lost 444-352.
The two remaining last 16 matches were walkovers due to two teams struggling to put a team out with DTH Redlands Roosters conceding to Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘A’ and Sparken Hill Starlings having to do the same against their club colleagues The Nightingales.
The draw for the Quarter Finals has been made and is as follows: Worksop Miners Welfare v Sparken Hill Nightingales, DTH Redlands Tarr Babies v DTH Redlands Rovers, Worksop Welfare Snipers 'A' v Worksop Welfare Snipers 'B', Sparken Hill Eagles v Sparken Hill Hawks.