Rookies Have Too Much Know How For Sport

The Worksop & District League took a break from league matches this week to concentrate on the Divisional Handicap competitions. The MBE Trophy for 3rd Division teams got underway with DTH Redlands Rookies up against Centre For Sport who currently sit bottom of the division were given a 154 point start due to the handicap system and as they were up against a much more experienced team they were going to need all the help they could get. The Rookies managed to gain the maximum points from each of the 9 games played so it was just a question of whether or not Centre For Sport could score enough to win the match. The ever improving Sport trio Aydon Baker, Sarah Thompson and Glen Gillgrass toiled away all night but try as they might, they couldn't stop the Rookies from going through to the next round by a score line of 491-466.
Joining the Rookies in the next round are Ryton Park Dragons who despite languishing near the foot of the division themselves managed to knock out DTH Redlands Rascals. Justin Flear, Ryan Jarvis and Lee Banton all chipped in with considerable contributions that when added together with their handicap at the end proved too much for the Rascals, eventually running out winners by 581-552.
Also through are the DTH Redlands Cypriots side of Adam and Alan Hamilton and Fiona Halpin-Stent who despite actually losing the match by nearly 140 points still went through due to the large handicap that they enjoyed. Dave Lee, Ivan Stalworthy and Alex Oliffe all put in good performances but just couldn't amass enough points to see them home.
Another Redlands side that made it through are the runaway leaders of division three DTH Redlands X-Youth who must now be serious contenders for a league and cup double after knocking out club colleagues the Dragons by 419-397.
The Reg Wilcox Trophy for Division Two sides saw both teams from Manton Miners Welfare progress into the next round. First Manton Sports comfortably knocked out DTH Redlands Morris Men by a margin of 50 points and they were closely followed by Manton Tigers who as it turned out wouldn't have required any handicap at all as they actually beat DTH Redlands Red Bulls on the night by 32 points and eventually won by 481-447.
Two sides from Division One had wins in the David Hooton Trophy this week and both look like strong candidates for going all the way. MBE beat title chasing Zygabytes and what made the win even more impressive is that they wouldn't have needed any handicap points as they scored 31 more points than the Zygabytes before the handicap points were even added, eventually winning by a margin of 68 points.
The other side through were Global Marble who had a simple passage into the semi finals as their opponents could only field 2 players. Despite this DTH Redlands Joggers still played some great table tennis but they were never going to get anywhere near Global's total points score with a player less and eventually went down by a massive deficit of 225 points.
Division Three League Results: Ryton Park Cougars 5 DTH Redlands Dynamos 5, DTH Redlands Rascals 5 DTH Redlands Cypriots 5, DTH Redlands Rookies 7 Centre For Sport 3, DTH Redlands Allsorts 9 DTH Redlands Rascals 1, DTH Redlands Dynamos 7 DTH Redlands Rookies 3