Roosters Crowned Division One Champions

Despite it being a blank week in the league due to it being Championship Finals Night, DTH Redlands Rookies clinched the Division One title without actually having to hit a ball. The Roosters main rivals DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys who were the only team that could catch them were playing a re-arranged match from the previous week against Manton Nomads who had beaten the Roosters only seven days earlier to deny them winning the title. The Nomads made it up to the Roosters by beating their nearest rivals with Ian Henderson being the man in form for the Nomads as he returned a hat trick of wins beating all three Toys players in Steve Johnson, Lea Dickinson and Dennis Learad who was playing up from Division Two. Henderson was well supported by Sarah Short who beat both Learad and Dickinson before losing out to Johnson in 5 sets. Kartik Lakhani chipped in with a win over Learad before Short and Henderson teamed up to take the doubles to cement a 7-3 victory but more importantly handing the Division One title to the Roosters.
As previously mentioned the 2nd of the Championship Finals nights took place this week at Stanley Street Club and despite two of the finals having to be postponed due to injury some great matches took place. As expected Tom McIntosh won both the Cadet Singles and Junior Singles titles with wins over two different Riauba brothers. McIntosh won the Cadet Singles final by beating Martynas Riauba in straight sets 11-2, 11-8, 11-8 and then made even shorter work of it in the final of the Junior Singles beating Orestas Riauba 11-3, 11-6, 11-4. In the final of the Division Two Singles Martynas Riauba made up for his earlier defeat by beating the much fancied Pete Hodgson but he didn't have it all his own way. Martynas won the first two games 11-7, 11-7 but Hodgson hit back to take the next game also 11-7 before he finally clinched the title by just winning the fourth game by the narrowest of margins 11-9.
The final of the Plate Singles which is a competition for all players that lost in the first round of the Open Singles was always going to be a close contest between Helmuth Osborne and Steve Lyon and so it proved to be with Lyon taking the first game 13-11. Lyon then took the second before Osborne hit back to take the third game 11-8 but he couldn't repeat that feat again in the fourth losing it 11-8 which meant Lyon ran out the winner.
The Carnation cup came to a conclusion this week with both the semi finals and final being played at Sparken Hill Academy. The first semi final was a close affair and could have been won by either of the two pairings of Pete Hodgson & Ben Swain and Erlands Skels & Tony Swain. Pete Hodgson had to give Tony Swain a 7 point start in each game and subsequently lost the first game 21-3 before winning the next and despite looking like he was going to win the decider he eventually lost it 21-19. In the other singles match Ben Swain starting with 7 points beat Skels 2-1 to level the match at 1-1. The doubles was a close game with Hodgson and Ben Swain taking it 2-1 to leave the last two singles games to decide the outcome of the match. Tony Swain beat Ben Swain in straight sets in the battle of the brothers to square the match at 2-2 before Hodgson beat Skels also in straight sets to give Hodgson and Ben Swain a 3-2 victory.
The second semi final was a much more straight forward affair as Chris Cutts and Peter Eyre beat Andy Lee and Chris Clemson 3-0. Cutts beat Lee 2-0 with Eyre also winning 2-0 against Clemson before they paired up to win the doubles also in straight sets to gain an easy passage into the final.
In the final it always looked like the doubles match was going to be the pivotal point of the match and so it proved to be as the first two singles games went to form as Hodgson beat Cutts and Eyre beat Swain to leave the match all square and in the balance. In the doubles Hodgson and Swain took the first game before Cutts and Eyre took the next to take it to a deciding game which ebbed one way and then the other before Cutts and Eyre finally took it 21-18 which gave them a 2-1 lead going into the final two singles games. Swain and Cutts had a great match with Swain just doing enough to win it 21-19, 21-17 to make the match score 2-2 but any hopes that Swain and Hodgson had of winning it were soon to disappear as Eyre hit top form to easily beat Hodgson 21-13, 21-10 to leave Cutts and Eyre as winners of the Carnation Cup.
Division Two Results: Manton Tigers 1 Worksop Miners Welfare 'B' 9
Mike Tunningley Shield Semi Final: Ryton Park Falcons 437 DTH Redlands X-Youth 378