Roosters Crowing As They Win Division One Title!

DTH Redlands Roosters had reason to celebrate this week as they retained their Division One title without even lifting a bat! Worksop Miners Welfare ‘A’ were the only team that could mathematically catch the Roosters and whilst the Roosters had a blank week this week in the fixture list it was up to the Welfare ‘A’ side to keep the pressure up but they were unable to field their strongest side against Manton Nomads and it cost them dearly. The Roosters top player Richard Element was able to turn out and duly won his three singles matches beating Chris Cattell, Sarah Short and Ian Henderson along the way but that was where the scoring for the Welfare side ended as the Nomads trio all beat the Welfare’s other two players in Mick Bell and Stuart Element with Cattell and Short also winning the doubles against Richard Element and Mick Bell to seal a 7-3 victory, a victory that ended the slim hopes of the Welfare ‘A’ side catching the Roosters.
Whilst the top end of the division was sorting itself out the bottom end was getting even more complicated as two of the bottom three sides met with the real threat of relegation to Division Two hanging over the both. Stanley Street ‘A’ and Sparken Hill Starlings were level on points but the Street side sat just above them on sets difference and both sides knew that a win would put the other in real relegation trouble. Unfortunately, Stanley Street could only field two players as Alex Millward had to pull out at the last minute which meant because of the rules that the best result the Stanley Street could achieve was a 5-5 draw, even if they won all the seven games that they could win on the table which ironically is just what happened! Both Peter Eyre and Jack Kirkland beat Andy Lee, Ivan Guilliatt and Helmuth Osborne and then won the doubles against Osborne and Guilliatt but even though they scored seven wins to their opponents three, the match result was a 5-5 draw.
To Cup matters now and DTH Redlands Tarr Babies won the MBE Trophy for Division Three sides this for week defeating Worksop Welfare Cypriots ‘A’ 449 points to 427 in the final. The Tarr Babies started the match with 190 handicap points to just 54 for the Cypriots, a gap that the Cypriots just couldn’t claw back in the end. The young Tarr Babies side of Roman Rosser, Ted Rizzo and Adam Pinches fought all the way and put in a terrific performance against their opponents who are pushing for the Division Three title and were probably favourites going into the match. Not to single any one player out for the Tarr Babies as it was a real team performance but the one game the Tarr Babies did manage to gain an advantage in was when Adam Pinches lost the first game to Kay Wilson 20-21 but won the second 21-16. There were also some narrow losses as well as Rosser only just lost to Nigel Stent by 5 points and Rosser and Pinches lost by just 7 points in one of the doubles games to Farhad Saiepour and Wilson.
League Round Up
Staying on the theme of Division Three sides there were some big wins in the division this week as Sparken Hill Blue Jays beat DTH Redlands Red Devils 10-0 which puts them on top of the Division on sets difference with just two games remaining for them and their title rivals Worksop Welfare Cypriots ‘A’.
Sparken Hill Falcons grabbed the bragging rights against their club colleagues Sparken Hill Hawks and what a way to do it giving the Hawks a right old 10-0 thumping with hat tricks all round for Mick and Jordan Potter and Neil Penny.
Worksop Cypriots ‘B’ cemented a 3^rd place finish in the Division with a solid 7-3 win over Real North Notts ‘B’ but the Cypriots ‘B’ side of Graham Stent, Nick Sievewright and Dan Saul didn’t have it all their own way as Real North Notts Elliot Jordan managed to beat both Sievewright and Saul and then helping Glen Gillgrass to a doubles win over Sievewright and Saul but it wasn’t enough to stop his side slipping to a 7-3 defeat against the Cypriots.
The two Manton sides in Division Two had good wins this week with Manton Sports hammering Real North Notts ‘A’ 10-0 and Manton Tigers beating 2 man Sparken Hill Eagles 9-1 with only James Wormwell troubling the scorers when he defeated Chris Mokes.