Record Entries For Carnation Cup

This season’s Carnation Cup saw 50 players enter the competition which is a record for the event since its inception 37 years ago. The large amount of entries meant that there would be several byes and the first round would have to be played over two nights.
The first evening of games were played at Worksop Leisure Centre with three out of the four matches being real close affairs. Andy Vinson and Gary Robinson enjoyed a close 3-2 win over George Makrakis and Joseph Wootton despite Makrakis winning both his singles games. Ben Swain and Glen Gillgrass also won their game against Kay Wilson and Paul Wendon by the same margin with Wendon remaining unbeaten in his two singles games. Another game that was won by the narrowest of margins was the game between Neil Fisher and Nick Sievewright who managed to sneak into the next round by just edging past Erlands Skels and Jerry Collins with Fisher contributing to the victory by winning both his singles games.
Daisy Walshaw and Jack Kirkland looked like a pairing that could go far in the competition beating the pairing of Steve Elkin and Tom Wendon 4-1 but they were helped enormously by the fact that Elkin couldn’t get to the game due to work commitments which meant that Kirkland and Walshaw would have gone through anyway. Despite this, Tom Wendon played anyway and did manage to beat Walshaw in the singles.
The next evening at Sparken Hill saw five pairings go head to head with just one of the matches having a close final scoreline which was the game between Dean Marsh and Dan Saul and Russ Webster and Stefan Mocan which saw the latter pairing edge the match 3-2 helped by Mocan beating both Marsh and Saul in the singles.
The biggest win in the first round belonged to Andy Kirkland and Ivan Stallworthy who remained unbeaten all night and whitewashed Jim Westwood and Grace Dickenson 5-0 despite some close games.
The remaining three games of the night all ended in 4-1 results with wins for Mark Bloomer and Kathy McIntyre over Andy Lee and Michael Candy with McIntyre playing well to beat both Lee and Candy. Perry Bradford and Dave Rix also enjoyed a 4-1 win, beating Pete Hodgson and Anna Mocan with the doubles being the only game that Bradford and Rix lost.
Mark Cooper and Derek Piper enjoyed a victory by the same scoreline against Dilip Malkan and John McIntyre but were another pairing helped by one of their opponents not being able to play as Malkan couldn’t make the fixture.