Hawks Take Down Woodpeckers In Cup

Division Three side Sparken Hill Hawks caused a cup upset this week as they knocked out Division One side Sparken Hill Woodpeckers out of the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield. Despite not winning a single game in the Handicap Shield format of two games up to 21 against each player the Hawks managed to score enough points after the handicap was added to make it through to the next round.
The Woodpeckers trio of Martynas Riauba, Orestas Riauba and Mitchell Radford comfortably won all of their games to ten points or under but there were a couple of games were the Hawks managed to break the shackles as both Adam Pinches and Paul Wendon took 15 and 16 points off of Mitchell Radford to swing the contest their way. On the table the Woodpeckers scored 378 which the maximum amount of points possible with the Hawks scoring 165 but when the sealed envelope was opened at the end of the game it revealed that the Hawks were awarded 234 points and when added to their total it gave them the win by 399 points to 378.
Manton Tigers managed to avoid another cup upset when they played away at Sparken Hill Pigeons. Tigers Bill Bateman, Ron Firth and Steve Beeston scored the maximum points against Evan Bownes and Harry Stott whilst only allowing them to score an average of just over four and a half points a game against them but when they came to play Zak Berridge it was a different story altogether. Over the two games Berridge managed to score 24 points against Bateman losing 21-17, 21-7, 28 points against Firth losing 21-8, 21-20 and then he went one better by actually beating Beeston 21-11, 21-18!
Despite Berridge’s efforts it wasn’t enough to stop the Tigers winning the match as they scored 365 points to the Pigeon’s 149 on the table with a further 195 points added to the Pigeon’s score which saw them lose 365 points to 344.
Sparken Hill Nightingales and Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’ who are both in Division Three battled it out for the right to go through to the next round of the competition. On paper their match was always going to be fairly close affair and so it turned out to be with both sides winning games against each other with no player remaining unbeaten on either side. The Nightingale’s team of Harrison Holland, Charlie Shepherd and Issy Saul scored 274 points whilst the Harriers trio of Kian Tansley, Bill Fowler and Ethan Shevill scored 342, a lead of 68 points and once again the fate of the match hung on the handicap points and when the envelope was opened it revealed that the Nightingale’s had been awarded 90 points which game them victory by 364 points to 342.
Harriers C’s club colleagues Harriers ‘B were also in cup action this week as they faced fellow Division Two side Clowne ‘C’ who were looking to carry their good league form into the cup competitions. Rob Vaughan led the way beating all three Harriers players and only conceding 43 points along the way. Vaughan was well supported by Ian Henderson and Perry Bradford with Henderson dropping 59 points and Bradford dropping 101 against Neil Fisher, Dan Saul and Graham Stent with Saul playing really well to defeat Bradford 21-12, 21-18 which all meant that the Harriers scored 203 points to Clowne’s 366 and despite being awarded 135 handicap points, the Harriers still went out of the competition losing 366 points to 338.