It's Tight At The Top Of Two!

As last season, Division Two is proving to be a very close affair at the top but with not much between all the teams in the division there have been some very nervy moments for the top two teams this week. Ryton Park Eagles who are currently lying in 2nd place couldn't play their strongest team in their match with DTH Redlands X-Youth and only just managed to come away with a 6-4 win. For the Eagles, Brian Allen continued his fine run of form by registering another hat trick and he was well supported by Keith Swift who added two more wins before the two of them teamed up to take the doubles to secure the victory. There were some very close games but the stand out contest on the night was the game between Allen and Clive Eden which not only went to the deciding set (which Allen took 11-9) but also had a remarkable 3rd set that Allen won 21-19! Despite Eden losing out to Allen he hit back to beat both Swift and Brian Hall who was playing up from Division Three. Mark Bloomer and Jeff Reay also beat Hall but it wasn't quite enough to snatch a draw.
The current league leaders Manton Nomads also had a close call in the match with another of the Redlands sides in the Rookies but unlike The Eagles, they opted to not play their strongest three players and very nearly paid the price for it. For the Rookies George Agnew was making his first start of the season and had a good night beating both Jayden Budworth and Dilip Malkan before Richard Robinson denied him the chance of completing his hat trick. Alan Keeling also added two wins for the Rookies with a good win over Robinson and another over Malkan but that was it for the Rookies as Dave Cowburn couldn't get on the score sheet on this occasion. The outcome of the match hinged on the doubles rubber between Keeling and Alan Brown and Robinson and Malkan with the latter finally taking it 3-1 to ensure all three points went to Manton Nomads.
Just to confirm how close the division is Manton Sports and Stanley Street 'C' fought out a 5-5 draw in a terrific contest from start to finish. The man in top form on the night was Street's Paul Linfield who beat all three Sports players in Alan Wilson, John Lowde and Keith Smith with Daniel Cutts beating Lowde and Andy Kirkland beating Smith to ensure the spoils were shared, although Street 'C' nearly pinched all three points in a very tight doubles set before Lowde and Smith defeated Cutts and Linfield 14-12 in the fifth and deciding set to earn themselves a point.
The team that's finding the going hardest in Division Two are Ryton Park Cougars who came up from Division Three last season. The Cougars can consider themselves a little unfortunate as they only came up as part of the League deciding to make all three divisions have an even number of teams in them and as a consequence the Cougars are struggling somewhat. In their latest match they were up against Stanley Street 'B' and despite losing 9-1 all three Cougars players in Dave Lee, Dave Rix and Ivan Stallworthy can take some comfort that the scores were a lot closer than the 9-1 score line suggests. The Cougars did have some success as Rix beat Glyn Payne to take their only se on the night. Stanley Street 'B's Ralph Rodda and Adam Hamilton both returned hat tricks with Rodda and Nigel Stent comfortably taking the doubles against Lee and Stallworthy to complete the scoring.
Division One Results: Stanley Street 'A' 1 MBE 9, DTH Redlands Roosters 9 DTH Redlands Joggers 1, DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 9 Manton Misfits 1.
Division Three Results: On-Line Elks 3 DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 7, Ryton Park Dragons 2 Stanley Street Rascals 8, Stanley Street Cypriots 5 Ryton Park Dragons 5, Stanley Street Rascals 6 On-Line Elks 4, Stanley Street 'E' 4 Stanley Street 'D' 6