It's An All Manton Final For Reg Wilcox Trophy.......Again!

For the second year in succession the handicap final for Division Two sides The Reg Wilcox Trophy, will be between Manton Tigers and Manton Sports after both sides made it through their respective semi final matches. First through were Sports who in the end comfortably beat runaway leaders in Division Two Stanley Street 'A' who hadn't lost to another Division Two side all season by 91 points. Sports having a much better handicap doesn't tell the whole story as in particular Alan Wilson put in a fabulous performance for the Sports and only gave away a 9 point deficit in his singles games and with both John Lowde and Keith Smith keeping the losing margins down it was Sports who ran out winners after the handicaps were added to the scores. For Stanley Street Paul Linfield returned maximum points for his side with both Matt Fowkes and Alex Millward contributing well to their points tally.
In the second semi final Manton Tigers had a home tie against DTH Redlands Geriatrics who sit one place above them in the league table and who played a strong looking side in Dennis Learad, Jim Kenny and Lea Dickinson and were perhaps the slight favourites. Not to be outdone the Tigers played their strongest side which end the made the difference and ensured a safe passage through to the final. Bill Bateman, Paul Allison and Dave Bowns just had too much for the Geriatrics and managed to win by 39 points to make it a repeat of last year's final.
In the first of the semi finals of the MBE Trophy which is for teams in Division Three there was an absolute classic of a match which would have worthy of the final. DTH Redlands X-Youth who currently sit on top of Division Three and are unbeaten in the league so far this season came up against club colleagues DTH Redlands Tarr Babies who currently lie second in the league and their closeness in terms of league position reflected in the final match score . In a match that ebbed and flowed all night the outcome of the result came down to the last doubles rubber of the night which X-Youth won 21-18 and in doing so won the match by just one point 369 to 368 to leave X-Youth's dream of a league and cup double alive.
The David Hooton Trophy which is the handicap cup competition for Division One teams threw up a fascinating looking semi final tie as Global Marble came up against DTH Redlands Roosters. Not much separated the two teams in league position but Global had hit a poor run of form which reflected in the outcome of the Trophy match. The Roosters trio of Phil Beresford, Sarah Short and Rick Harris had too much on the night for Global and had accumulated a lead of 83 points before he handicaps were added at the end and with Global only having a better handicap of 57points to add it just wasn't enough as the Roosters won by a 26 point margin.
As this week was a cup week in the fixture list there wasn't much activity regarding league matches with only two scorecards for Division Three games being received. DTH Redlands Rookies are having a much better 2nd half to the season and chalked up another good win against DTH Redlands Rascals. Despite the Rookies being the much more experienced side the Rascals battled hard all night with Liam Stead coming in for a special mention as he ran all three Rookies players close managing to beat Derek Piper in 5 sets. Unfortunately for the Rascals this was to be their only success on the night but can take heart as Stead, Macauley Bartrop and Ellis Spacey are all improving greatly as the season goes along. For the Rookies Bob Atkinson and Daniel Cutts both returned hat tricks and then teamed up to take the doubles set before eventually running out  9-1 winners.
The other Division Three match saw DTH Redlands Allsorts climb up a place to sixth after whitewashing Ryton Park Dragons 10-0. The Allsorts led by Captain Neil Houghton were just too strong for the Dragons Houghton, Caius Tweed and Ethan Warner all remaining unbeaten with Houghton and Tweed also teaming up to take the doubles. Despite the loss the Dragons can take heart from their season so far as all three players have improved and can look forward to next season with much optimism.