Henderson Relish's Life In Worksop League

Manton Misfits new signing Ian Henderson soon got off the mark in his first ever match in the Worksop Table Tennis League with a brace of impressive wins to help set his team up for a 6-4 win over rivals MBE. The Misfits who have changed their name from Global Marble 'A' got their league season off to a solid start against a team who narrowly pipped them for the Runners Up spot in Division One last season with the 6-4 result showing that once again there will be nothing between the sides this season. Henderson's wins came against Craig Straw and Dave Marsh and he was well supported by Kalpesh Bhatt who also added two wins with Kerry Harvey adding a solo win over Andrew Cave. The result of the match came down to the doubles with Henderson and Bhatt taking it 3-1 against Straw and Marsh to secure all three points.
Another team to change their name this season are 2nd Division side Manton Nomads who have for the last few years been Global Marble 'B' and they also got their league campaign off to a flying start by whitewashing Ryton Park Cougars who have come up from Division 3. However, the 10-0 scoreline doesn't reflect the closeness of some of the games and as the Cougars trio of Dave Rix, Dave Lee and Ivan Stallworthy adjust to life in a higher division I'm sure some of their narrow defeats will start to turn into wins. For the Nomads Richard Robinson, Jayden Budworth and Rob Vaughan all registered hat tricks with Robinson and Vaughan adding the doubles defeating Rix and Stallworthy to make Nomads the early season Division Two leaders.
One of the favourites for the Division Two title Ryton Park Eagles got off to a good start with a solid win over Stanley Street 'C' who fielded a strong side in Paul Linfield, Andy Kirkland and Daniel Cutts but couldn't quite do enough to stop themselves slipping to an 8-2 defeat. Linfield who finished well up in the averages last season surprisingly only won one of his games defeating Keith Swift who Cutts also defeated but that was their lot on the night with both John Hallgarth and Brian Allen both hitting top form and winning all of their three games with Hallgarth and Swift teaming up to take the doubles.
Another two fancied sides in Stanley Street 'B' and DTH Redlands X-Youth had a great match when the met at Worksop Miners Welfare Club but couldn't be separated as they shared the spoils in a closely fought 5-5 draw. Nigel Stent of Street 'B' was the man in top form on the night as he registered a comfortable looking hat trick and was well backed up by Adam Hamilton who added a further two wins of his own over Clive Eden and Ewan Pickersgill before losing out to Jeff Reay in a 5 set grueller. Debutant for Street 'B' Glyn Payne lost out to all three X-Youth players before Eden and Reay teamed up in the doubles to beat Stent and Ralph Rodda 3-2 to at one stage looked like an unlikely looking point.
For once Manton Sports have started their season off in Division Two on a positive note leave themselves joint second  with a good win over Division Two newcomers DTH Redlands Rookies. For Sports Keith Smith bagged himself a hat trick of wins with John Lowde and new signing James Weston both adding two wins each with Lowde losing to Alan Keeling and Weston losing out to Derek Piper with the Rookies Dave Cowburn going home empty handed on this occasion. Weston and Smith then teamed up to take the doubles against Cowburn and Piper.
The surprise leaders of Division Three are Stanley Street Rascals who defeated club colleagues Stanley Street 'E' to sit proudly on top of the division after a resounding 10-0 win. Liam Stead, Ellis Spacey and Harry Downing all remained undefeated against a Street 'E' side which contained three players all making their competitive debuts and despite their 10-0 defeat all three players in Tony Turner, Jasper Turner and Tai Chen showed encouraging signs  in some close games against their more experienced opponents and in time these close games will surly turn into wins.
Other Division Three Results: Stanley Street Cypriots 3 DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 7, On-Line Elks 9 Ryton Park Falcons 1, Ryton Park Dragons 3 Stanley Street 'D' 7.