It's Elementary For McIntosh On Finals Night

Tom McIntosh was in his element on the first of the Leagues Championship Finals Night held at Stanley Street Club as he beat the much fancied Richard Element in the final of the Handicap Singles. McIntosh was given 4 start in a best of 3 up to 21 match and he soon set about his task taking the first set 21-16 but Element hit back to take the second set 24-22 which took the match into a deciding set which ebbed and flowed throughout before McIntosh won it by the narrowest of margins 21-19.
It wasn't long before Element had a chance to gain revenge on McIntosh as he and his partner Dave Marsh faced Tom and his older brother Kyle in the final of the Open Doubles with Element and Marsh proving to have too much for the McIntosh brothers taking the title 3-1.
The last of Tom McIntosh's appearances in a final came in the Cadet Singles and as the current holder of the title McIntosh was in no mood to relinquish it without a fight but as it turned out he didn't have to fight too hard as he comfortably retained the title beating Matthew Mudd 3-0.
Another player to have a good night by winning two titles was Graham Stent who defeated Luke Barraclough 3-0 to win the Division Three Singles final and then teamed up with Mitchell Radford to beat Justin Flear and George Makrakis 3-1 to take the Division Three Doubles title.
Last year's Over 50's and Over 60's Singles champion Steve Lyon had once again made it through to both of this year's finals, the first being the Over 50's were he was up against Paul Linfield but Linfield could do little to stop Lyon defending the Over 50's title as he comfortably won 3-0.
In the Over 60's Single final Lyon came up against his club team mate Malcolm Manuel who in his debut season in the Worksop League had done well to make it into a Championship final at the first attempt but as Linfield did before him, he couldn't stop Lyon retaining the title although he did manage to take a set off of Lyon before losing 3-1.
This week also saw a break from the league campaign as the Divisional Handicap Trophy competitions reached their respective semi-final stages. The Division Two competition, the Reg Wilcox Trophy will this year be won by either Stanley Street 'C' or Manton Sports after both were victorious in their semi-final matches. Street 'C' had a good win over current Division Two leaders Manton Nomads with all three Street players of Andy Kirkland, Paul Linfield and Daniel Cutts all contributing to a real team performance to win by 457-431.
In the final Street 'C' will meet Manton Sports who had a humdinger of a game with Stanley Street 'B' which could have easily gone either way. Due to the handicapping Street 'B' started the match 24 points in front which was soon whittled away when Alan Wilson beat Ralph Rodda and Keith Smith defeated Glyn Payne and they were soon in front on the night when Wilson and John Lowde beat Adam Hamilton and Payne by 7 points in the first of the three doubles matches. Sports pretty much kept a comfortable lead throughout the match and were 21 points ahead going into the last set of the night which was a doubles match between Wilson & Smith and Hamilton & Rodda which Hamilton & Rodda won and very nearly clawed enough points back winning 21-10 and 21-17 but it wasn't quite enough as they lost by just 6 points 469-463.
In the MBE Trophy for Division Three teams On-Line Elks, who have also made it into the semi-finals of the Mike Tunningley Shield continued their good cup form as they overcame Stanley Street Cypriots by a scoreline of 486-476 and despite starting 42 points in front still played really well to win the match against opponents who are pushing for the Division Three title. Glen Gillgrass, Jonno Blood and Jerry Collins all made significant contributions to the On-Line Elks total points and must now be considered as potential winners of the trophy.