Holders Win Cup Replay

Sparken Hill Falcons who are the current holders of the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield made it through to the quarter finals after yet another close match with Sparken Hill Blue Jays. After the original second round match ended all square the replay looked as if it could go the same way as the same three players for each side had to play in the replay with the same handicap points of 72 being allocated to the Falcons. The Blue Jays set about reducing the deficit and started to chip away as Ivan Stallworthy beat Mick Potter and Connor Bettley beat Luke Barraclough to reduce the deficit to 62 points, but Jordan Potter then beat Dave Rix to put the Falcons 70 points back in front. The up and down scenario continued throughout the match with the Falcons managing to stay in front and by the last game of the night the Falcons had an unassailable lead and despite Bettley beating Mick Potter by 14 points it proved to be too little to late to stop the Falcons winning by 367 points to 347.
Due to having to play the replay, the Falcons will now play Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ in a delayed quarter final tie.
In the quarter finals that were played on time, Stanley Street ‘B’ carried their good league form into the Handicap Shield and recorded a 4 point win over The Real Deal who are in the division below the Stanley Street outfit. Street ‘B’ knew that the amount of handicap points given to their opponents would be a sizeable amount and therefore knew that they couldn’t afford to drop many points along the way and, so it proved to be as Ralph Rodda dropped 42, Chris Tilstone 36 with Mark Sansom being even more miserly as he only dropped 29. Although the Real Deal players of Tom Ogley, Glen Gillgrass and Michael Candy inevitably lost every game they never stopped plugging away and between them scored 109 points on the table but even with 267 handicap points to add to their total it wasn’t quite enough as they lost 378-374.
The highest ranked team left in the competition were Division One side Sparken Hill Starlings and they found themselves up against Division Three side DTH Redlands Demolition Men who despite being two divisions below their opponents would still be a tough nut to crack. The Starlings as expected won every game on the table with Andy Lee, Kurt Hutson and Helmuth Osborne all managing to only drop a few points against two of the Demolition Men in Bob Atkinson and Derek Piper but against Perry Bradford it was a different story altogether. Bradford had a great night managing to take 18 points off of Osborne and 25 points off of both Lee and Hutson which in the end proved to crucial to the result. The Starlings scored 378 points on the table with the Demolition Men accumulating 146 and when the sealed envelope was opened at the end of the match it revealed that the Demolition Men had been awarded 146 handicap points meaning that they eventually ran out winners by 393 points to 378.
The last of the scheduled quarter finals took an identical pattern to the match between the Starlings and the Demolition Men with one player having a great night and scoring more points than expected. Sparken Hill Vultures from Division Two were up against Division Three side and club colleagues Sparken Hill Hawks with the Vultures knowing that they would have to keep the Hawks down to as few as points as possible. Ben Crapper, Kyle McIntosh and Rob Vaughan only dropped a few points against Tom Wendon and Lee Banton with Crapper dropping 25, McIntosh dropping 22 and Vaughan dropping only 14 points against the two Hawks players but against Paul Wendon they would all find it tough to keep the score down. Paul Wendon played really well to pick up 20 points against Vaughan, 23 against McIntosh and then did even better by scoring 27 points against Crapper which again proved pivotal to the outcome of the match. The Starlings scored 378 points as expected with the Hawks scoring 131 points of their own and when the handicap points of 275 were added to the Hawks total it gave them a well-earned victory by 406 points to 378.