Snipers Crowned Division Two Champions
Congratulations go to Worksop Welfare Snipers ‘B’ who secured the Division Two title this week in emphatic fashion with a 9-1 trouncing of Sparken Hill Eagles. The Snipers trio of George Makrakis, Mitchell Radford and Paul Linfield all remained unbeaten against the Eagles trio of Keith Swift, Lewis Linacre and Kathy McIntyre and even though both Linacre and McIntyre were both playing up from Division Three they still caused the Snipers team plenty of problems, especially McIntyre who took Linfield to a deciding game and was unlucky not to beat him. Swift also took Linfield to a deciding game with Linfield coming from 2-1 down to hit back to win it in the deciding 5th game. The only joy the Eagles got came via the doubles with Swift and McIntyre upsetting the odds by defeating Linfield and Makrakis in straight sets. Team Captain Nigel Stent who wasn’t playing in the match had led his troops well this season which has seen his Snipers side remain unbeaten in the league so far this season winning 13 and drawing 1 of their 14 matches.
Stanley Street ‘B’ have just about secured the runners up spot in the division and they edged closer to doing so by beating Worksop Welfare Cannon 8-2 with a Mark Sansom hat-trick yet again setting them on their way to victory. Sansom was well supported by Dave Hodgkin and Ralph Rodda who both enjoyed two wins of their own but both losing out to the Cannon’s Dilip Malkan who on a personal level had a good night. Malkan’s team mates in Perry Bradford and Nick Sievewright both fought hard but couldn’t quite match his endeavours which leaves the Cannon side in the battle to avoid relegation to Division Three.
Bottom side Worksop Welfare Harriers knew that if they could earn themselves a draw in their match with Manton Tigers and other results went their way then it could se them drag themselves out of the bottom two relegation spots but it wasn’t to be as they narrowly lost 6-4 to the Tigers. Bill Bateman was the main reason the Harriers didn’t get the point they wanted as he returned a very solid looking hat-trick with Dave Bownes adding wins over Neil Fisher and Graham Stent before going down to Dennis Learad. Stent, Fisher and Learad all beat Phil Hall, but it wasn’t quite enough as Bateman and Bownes took the doubles against Fisher and Learad which ultimately meant that the Tigers went home with all three points.
Another side looking to ease their relegation fears are Sparken Hill Falcons who this week played hosts to Carlton X-Youth but ran into the ever improving Simon Hooley who beat all three Falcons players in Neil Penny, Mick Potter and Luke Barraclough. Hooley was backed up by Mark Bloomer who added two wins by defeating Penny and Potter whilst losing to Barraclough. Barraclough had another fine win when he beat Andrew Dolby as did Penny with Dolby finally getting in on the act by beating Mick Potter. X-Youth also took the doubles set when Hooley and Bloomer defeated Penny and Barraclough without too much trouble in straight sets to leave the X-Youth running out 7-3 winners. The win sees the X-Youth side needing just one more point to mathematically see safe from relegation whilst the Falcons are just one point above the bottom two.
The race for the Division One title which a couple of weeks ago looked to be just about done and dusted has now opened up again because of contrasting results for DTH Redlands Monsters and their club colleagues DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys, both against teams from Clowne.
Redlands Fluffy Toys dispatched Clowne ‘B’ 9-1 on the Wednesday night to apply some pressure on Redlands Monsters as they went into their game with Clowne ‘A’ the following night. An inspired John Davies hat-trick defeating all three Riauba’s along the way set Clowne ‘A’ on their to securing a creditable 5-5 draw against the league leaders. Steve Lyon added a single win over Valentinas Riauba with Davies and Kartik Lakhani beating Orestas and Martynas in the doubles to secure the point for Clowne ‘A’. The draw for the Monsters now means that if The Fluffy Toys win all of their remaining games, (with one of them against the Monsters) then they can clinch the Division One title by a single point.
Sparken Hill Starlings are still battling to avoid relegation to Division Two as they sit just one point above the bottom two sides and their cause wasn’t helped this week as they went down to Stanley Street ‘A’ 8-2. A terry Emmerson hat-trick and two each for Alex Millward and Peter Eyre plus the doubles secures Stanley Streets victory.
Division Three Results: Sparken Hill Blue Jays 3 DTH Redlands Rookies 7, DTH Redlands Rovers 9 Worksop Welfare Real Deal 1