Magnificent McIntosh Rescues Toys From Jaws Of Defeat

Although last week in the fixture list was Carnation Cup week some teams decided to catch up on cancelled league games from earlier in the season. Two such teams were club colleagues and Division One title rivals DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys and DTH Redlands Roosters who played out a terrific 5-5 draw with The Toys being indebted to young Tom McIntosh who had a fantastic night and capped a fine week personally for him as he was also voted Bassetlaw U14 Sportsman Of The Year!. McIntosh was playing alongside more experienced team mates in Richard and Tom Wesley but turned out to be his teams saviour with a very impressive hat trick which was made even more impressive when you consider that Richard Wesley who has hasn't lost more than one game per season for the many a season only managed to win one game on the night. McIntosh defeated all three Roosters players in Steve Fox, Clive Mitchell and Rick Harris and then teamed up with Richard Wesley to win the doubles to snatch a point for his team. Richard Wesley's defeats came against Clive Mitchell and Rick Harris with his only win coming against Steve Fox. Harris who is having a great season himself also defeated Tom Wesley as did Fox and Mitchell to end a miserable night for the Wesley brothers.
With the two Redlands teams fighting out a draw it gave third placed MBE the chance to close the gap on their rivals and close the gap they did with a comfortable 8-2 win over Ryton Park Adders. Craig Straw and Stuart Element both registered hat tricks with Mick Bell only managing a solo win over Gary Sides losing to both Andy Lee and Ivan Guilliatt. Bell and Straw then teamed up to take the doubles against Guilliatt and Sides to seal their win which now means that they are only two points behind The Roosters and only one point behind the Fluffy Toys which should all make for a very interesting run in after the Christmas break.
In Division Three DTH Redlands Tarr Babies also caught up on one of their outstanding league fixtures but may have wished they'd played it earlier in the season! The Tarr Babies who are one of three teams chasing the leaders Stanley Street Rascals played at home against Stanley Street 'D' who are also in the chasing pack and both teams contributed to a fabulous match with Street 'D' just managing to edge out their opponents by a 6-4 scoreline. Despite Street 'D's Andrew Agnew losing his 100% record to the Tarr Babies Antony Coupe his team still managed to dig out the win with Lee Webb playing superbly to register a very impressive hat trick which included an incredible game against Coupe in which he came from 2-0 down to win it 19-17 in the deciding 5th set!
Lee Webb also defeated Adam Pinches and Greg Suchalski as did Agnew to leave the Street team 5-4 up going into the doubles which Agnew and Webb managed to win against Jack Tarr and Antony Coupe to take all three points.
The Carnation Cup Pairs Competition reached the quarter final stage this week with three matches going the distance and one not going much distance at all! Andy Lee & George Makrakis defeated Paul Linfield & Josh Nelson 3-2 with Lee winning both his singles games before he and Makrakis took the doubles to go through. Another pairing to win 3-2 were Clive Eden & Valentinas Riauba who both won a singles game each against Ivan Guilliatt and Luke Barraclough and then managed to take the doubles in straight sets to also take the match. Despite Matt Lemon winning both his singles matches in the third quarter final it wasn't enough to stop himself and his partner Connor Bettley going out of the competition to Matthew Williams & Daniel Cutts by the same narrow 3-2 scoreline with the key match being the doubles encounter which Williams & Cutts took in the deciding set. The one match that wasn't won by the 3-2 scoreline but was probably closer than the final score suggested was between Steve Elkin & Andy Kirkland who by their own admission had a bit of an off night and went down 5-0 to Jeff Reay & Orestas Riauba but that's not taking anything away from Riauba & Reay who played well and will be tough opposition for any of the other three semi-final pairings.