Roosters Start Defence Of Division One Title With Win

DTH Redlands Roosters got their league season off to a good start with a comfortable 9-1 win over newly promoted Worksop Welfare Simpers ‘A’. Ernest Mpundu and Rick Harris both remained unbeaten on the night with Mpundu’ s hat trick being a little more comfortable than Harris’s. Mpundu had comfortable straight sets wins over all three Snipers in Jim Westwood, Russ Webster and Erlands Skels whereas Harris had a little more trouble. Harris beat Westwood in three straight sets but each one went to deuce and on a different night they could all have gone a different way. Harris also defeated Skels in straight sets but again he had to dig in to do so winning all three games 11-9. Russ Webster also troubled Harris and managed to take a set off of him before going down 3-1. The Roosters third player was Steve Fox who comfortably beat both Westwood and Webster before Skels got the better of him in 5 sets to get a win on the board for the Snipers. Mpundu and Fox teamed up to beat Skels and Webster in the doubles to complete the scoring.
Runners up in Division One last time out were DTH Redlands Monsters and they also faced another promoted team in Clowne ‘B’ who last year were Sparken Hill Vultures before moving to Clowne to form their new club. Clowne ‘B’ had a very rude awakening to life in the top division as they were thumped good and proper 10-0 with each game apart from the doubles being won by the Monsters in straight sets. The Riauba trio of Martynas, Valentinas and Orestas were all in top form as they brushed aside the Clowne trio of Steve Elkin, Ben Crapper and James Weston with little resistance and the only trouble they had was in the doubles when Crapper and Weston took Orestas and Martynas to a deciding set before losing that as well.
Another Redlands side with eyes on the top spot are the Fluffy Toys who had a very tricky looking match away at Worksop Miners Welfare who had strengthened in the Summer by adding Chris Cattell to their squad and must have fancied their chances of getting one over their title rivals in the first week of the season. Richard Element who went all last season the league unbeaten for the Welfare side was up first against Peter Cowburn and it was Cowburn who came out on top winning 3-1 to put the Fluffy Toys in front. 1-0 soon became 2-0 as Sarah Short defeated Phil Walton in straight sets before Chris Cattell got his debut off to a flying start by beating Jeff Reay to reduce the deficit but it didn’t last long as Cowburn the beat Walton to restore the Fluffy Toys 2 sets lead. Element then got in on the act for Welfare as he beat Reay and a comeback looked on the cards but the Toys yet again stretched their lead to 2 sets when Short just edged out Cattell in a 5-set thriller to give the Toys a 4-2 lead. Next up was the doubles with Element and Cattell winning in by beating Cowburn and Short 3-1 and when Walton defeated Reay in the next rubber the match was all square at 4-4. The next two sets were the battle of the big guns and it was the Fluffy Toys who got their noses in front when Cowburn beat Cattell to gibe his side at least a draw. The last game of the night would decide the contest and it was Short who came out on top as she defeated Cattell to not only complete her hat-trick but to secure the Fluffy Toys a 6-4 victory.
Division Two Results: Worksop Welfare Harriers 1 Manton Sports 9, Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ 8 Stanley Street ‘B’ 2, Sparken Hill Falcons 7 Sparken Hill Eagles 3, Manton Tigers 6 Worksop Welfare Cannon 4.
Division Three Results: Sparken Hill Blue Jays 9 DTH Redlands Mean Machine 1, Sparken Hill Hawks 8 Sparken Hill Nightingales 2, DTH Redlands Rookies 10 Worksop Welfare Real Deal 0, DTH Redlands Rovers 9 DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 1