Holders Safely Through In Mike Tunningley Shield

The league took a break this week from the usual divisional battles for promotion and relegation places as the league's flagship Cup Competition , The Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield took centre stage. Last year's winners Sparken Hill Falcons safely navigated their way through a potentially trick first round match against an in form DTH Redlands X-Youth who currently sit at the top of Division Two, one division above the Falcons. Because of the divisional difference the Falcons were always going to be awarded a sizeable handicap and was going to come down to how many points X-Youth could keep the Falcons down to in the match. All three X-Youth players Jeff Reay, Clive Eden and Mark Bloomer all beat the Falcons trio of Mick Potter, Kyle Moore and Jordan Potter 2-0 and therefore amassed the maximum points a team can score on the table of 378. Jordan Potter put up the biggest fight for the Falcons as he earned his side 59 points with his father Mick adding a further 49 points and with Moore chipping in with 38 it meant the Falcons had managed to score 146 points between them and when the sealed envelope was opened it revealed that the Falcons had been awarded 285 handicap points which when added to the 146 points they had won on the table it meant that they ran out winners by 431 points to 378.
The closest game of the first round was the match between DTH Redlands Red Devils and Real North Notts 'A' with the victorious side winning by just 4 points!  Adam Kijak, Dave Piper and Jonno Blood all remained unbeaten for Real North Notts who again amassed the maximum 378 points available with their opponents who are in the division below and making their first ever appearance in the competition making a real fist of it by scoring 182 points. Phil Daly, Cliff Briggs and Jacob Hodkinson all made pretty much the same contribution to their total and when they were awarded 200 handicap points at the end of the match it meant that they just edged out their more illustrious opponents 382-378.
Another close game saw DTH Redlands Joggers from Division Two squeeze past Manton Nomads from Division One in a match that was played in a terrific spirit. Kyle McIntosh contributed 95 points to the Joggers total of 242 which included a terrific win over Kartik Lakhani 21-20, 21-15. Both his team mates Lewis Comley and Matthew Mudd chipped in with 79 and 68 points respectively but neither could manage a win themselves as both Chris Cattell and Rob Vaughan returned maximum points for the Nomads which meant on the table the Nomads had scored 371 to the Joggers 242. The final result of the match had to wait until the following day as the home team had failed to bring the sealed envelope with the handicap points in it but when it when the points were finally revealed the day after it gave the Joggers 144 points to add to their 242 and therefore went through to the next round by a score line of 386-271.
Another Division One side to fall at the first hurdle were Worksop Miners Welfare 'A' who are the current league leaders. They were up against club colleagues and the leaders in Division Three Worksop Welfare Cypriots 'A' who despite the difference of 2 divisions put in a great performance managing to take a very creditable 155 points off of their division one opponents. That 155 points proved to be pivotal in their victory and the Cypriots trio of Kay Wilson, Andrew Hughes and Farhad Saiepour can take great pride in their performance against Mick Bell, Stuart Element and Mark Stanfield. Cypriots were awarded 270 handicap points which helped them to a 425 points to 378 victory.
Other Mike Tunningley Shield Results: DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 388 Worksop Welfare Snipers 'B' 376, DTH Redlands Roosters 378 Worksop Welfare Cypriots 'B' 412, Worksop Welfare Snipers 'A' 295 Sparken Hill Starlings 364.
Division Three Result: Sparken Hill Hawks 5 Real North Notts 'B' 5