Holders Crash Out Of Mike Tunningley Shield

Defending Champions Stanley Street Cypriots bowed out of The Mike Tunningley Shield after suffering defeat at the hands of Ryton Park Cougars. Despite the Cypriots trio of Graham Stent, Neil Fisher and George Makrakis scoring 354 points out of a possible 378 it wasn't enough to get them over the winning line as their opponents racked up 266 points on the table and when the 126 handicaps points were added to the Cougars score it gave them a final total of 392 points which gave them a winning margin of 38 points. It was a real team effort from the Cougars with Dave Lee, Dave Rix and Connor Bettley all making valuable contributions to their sides total.
The closest match of the first round was the game between Stanley Street 'B' and Worksop Miners Welfare 'A' with only 4 points separating the two teams. For Street 'B' both Jack Kirkland and Paul Linfield didn't let the fact that their opponents are in a higher division get in their way as both had good wins against their more illustrious opponents with Kirkland taking a game off of Stuart Element with Linfield going one better as he beat Dave Marsh 21-16, 21-9 which in the end proved vital to the outcome of the match. For Welfare 'A' Richard Element the current Worksop Open Singles Champion unsurprisingly won all of his matches and only conceding 32 points in the process but with both Linfield's and Kirkland's contribution along with Glyn Williams chipping in with 31 points it meant that it was Stanley Street 'B' who made it through to the quarter finals by 364 points to 360.
After knocking out Ryton Park Eagles in the last round Manton Sports once again managed put their poor league form  to one side to once again progress in the competition, this time knocking out On-Line Elks. Both Keith Smith and Alan Wilson returned the maximum 126 points possible with Richard Robinson adding a further 123 points with his only blemish coming against Jonno Blood as he lost one of the two games against him 21-18. Blood, Neil Houghton and Glen Gillgrass amassed 221 points for the Elks and their hopes rested on being awarded a large enough handicap to overtake the Sports total of 375 but when the sealed envelope was opened at the end of the match their handicap points total of a 144 wasn't quite enough as they eventually lost by just 10 points, going out of the competition by the score of 375 to 365.
Another close match was the game between DTH Redlands Monsters and their club colleagues the Rookies. For the Monsters all three Riauba brothers performed well with both Valentinas and Martynas scoring the maximum points possible with Orestas only being 2 points behind with 124 points. All three Rookies in Dilip Malkan, Chris Clemson and Chris Cutts did well against their opponents who are currently leading the division above the Rookies with the only real mauling coming when Martynas managed to win one of his two games against Chris Cutts 21-0 but that aside they can be pleased with their efforts despite eventually losing 376 points to 369.
3rd Division Ryton Park Falcons upset the odds by knocking out 1st Division opposition in Manton Nomads in a very good match. With two divisions between them it was no surprise that Kartik Lakhani, Rob Vaughan and Kieran Alvey all won all of their games to score the maximum points of 378 so it would be down to how many points the Falcons could manage to score coupled with the sizeable handicap they would surely receive at the end. The Falcons team of Jak Eden, Jordan Potter and Lee Banton all stuck to their task and battled hard to score 102 points and when added to their handicap of 288 it gave them a winning total of 390 points to the Nomads 378 and gave them deserved passage into the quarter finals.
Only one other match was decided on the table DTH Redlands Joggers easily beat Manton Misfits by 431 points to 244 as the Misfits could only turn up with two players and the match was lost before it had even started.
Two matches in the last 16 were disappointingly conceded as DTH Redlands Liver Birds conceded their match against Manton Tigers and DTH Redlands Tarr Babies conceded to their club colleagues Redlands X-Youth.
Division Three Results: Ryton Park Falcons 2 DTH Redlands Rookies 8, DTH Redlands Liver Birds 4 DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 6