Monsters Edging Ever Closer To Title

As we start to get closer to the business end of the league season DTH Redlands Monsters are slowly but surely creeping towards their first ever Division One title. This week saw them overcome a potential banana skin in Worksop Miners Welfare with a narrow 6-4 win, this despite a hat trick from Welfare’s Richard Element. Element defeated all three Riauba brothers in Orestas, Valentinas and Martynas to give his side a chance of getting a result against the league leaders but in the end, it was all in vain as the Riauba brothers just did enough to get all three points. Valentinas and Orestas both defeated Chris Cattell and Dave Marsh with Martynas chipping in with a win over Marsh. As ever the doubles proved to be an important game to win and so it proved to be as Valentinas and Orestas beat Element and Cattell in straight sets to ensure the Monsters got the win.
DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys are the only team who have a realistic chance of catching the Monsters and they were also in action this week with an away fixture at Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘A’. Hat tricks for both Sarah Short and Peter Cowburn set up the win for the Toys and they were well supported by Jeff Reay who added a further two wins beating both Jim Westwood and Russ Webster but losing out to Pete Hodgson. Short and Cowburn then teams up to take the doubles to put the icing on the cake in a 9-1 victory. The win put the Toys 10 points behind the Monsters, but they do have two games in hand and still have to play the Monsters but even if they win their games in hand and do beat the Monsters they are relying on other teams to do them a favour.
Last years title winners DTH Redlands Roosters cemented their mid-table position with an 8-2 win over Stanley Street ‘A’ who weren’t helped by having to play Andy Kirkland up from Division Two to ensure that they could field a full compliment of players. For the Roosters, Ernest Mpundu had little trouble in registering another hat trick of wins over Kirkland, Peter Eyre and Alex Millward. Millward had a good night for Stanley Street as he went on to beat both Steve Fox and Rick Harris but neither of his team mates could match his endeavours and went home empty handed. Mpundu and Harris defeated Kirkland and Millward in the doubles to complete the scoring.
The battle of the Clowne’s was won by Clowne ‘A’ as they defeated the club colleagues Clowne ‘B’ 7-3, but they didn’t have it all their own way. Clowne ‘B’s Joe Zygadlo had a terrific night as he defeated Open Singles finalist John Davies in what was a great 5 set battle whilst adding the scalps of James Wormwell and Kalpesh Bhatt to his tally of singles wins. Zygadlo’ s heroics couldn’t be matched by his team mates as both Rob Vaughan and Ben Crapper lost all their singles games with Zygadlo and Crapper a little unlucky not to defeat Davies and Wormwell in the doubles losing in the deciding set.
Another team who are in touching distance of their respective title are Division Two side Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ and they edged that bit closer to the title this week with an emphatic 10-0 win away at Manton Tigers. Second placed Stanley Street ‘B’ continued to apply pressure on the Snipers as they had a good 7-3 win over a resurgent Sparken Hill Eagles to keep themselves 6 points behind the Snipers in the ace for the title.
The two bottom sides in the division were both involved in close matches with Worksop Welfare Harriers just losing out to Carlton X-Youth by a narrow 6-4 margin win the X-Youth’s Mark Bloomer leading the way with a hat trick of singles wins in a very tight contest. Worksop Welfare Cannon hauled themselves off the bottom of the table with a well earned 5-5 draw against Manton Sports. 2 wins for Dilip Malkan, 1 each for Nick Sievewright and Kay Wilson plus the doubles was enough to grab a share of the spoils.
Division Three side DTH Redlands Rookies who are the forerunners in the race for the Division Three title were helped this week by their opponents only having one player! DTH Redlands Tarr Babies Ethan Shevill was the only Tarr Baby to turn up and he did himself proud by beating both Derek Piper and Dave Lyus before losing to Alan Keeling in a 7-3 defeat.
DTH Redlands Rovers continue to be in the hunt for a promotion place as they beat Sparken Hill Nightingales 10-0 to keep themselves just 4 points behind second placed Sparken Hill Hawks