Snipers Have Reg Wilcox Trophy In Their Sights

Worksop Welfare Snipers got their Division Two Reg Wilcox Handicap Trophy campaign off to a great start this week after having to give a big start to Sparken Hill Blue Jays of 203 handicap points. Clawing back such a large deficit was even more remarkable when considering that after the first three games of the match the Snipers had only managed to reduce the deficit by a mere 53 points and a Snipers win looked very doubtful. The Snipers trio of Tony Swain, Erlands Skels and Jim Westwood stuck to their task and turned up the pressure and started to dominate the match making inroads to the remaining 150 points that they were behind and in the end won they managed to eventually win the match by 6 points, 472 points to 466.
The result could have been a lot different, in the very first match of the night Swain was 20-14 down to Ivan Stallworthy, and if Stallworthy would have won the next point the Snipers would have lost the whole match, but Swain stuck to his task and manged to win the next 7 points to win it 21-20 which in the end made all the difference to the match.
Manton Sports also started their campaign off with a win away at Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘A’, albeit a little more comfortable that the Snipers win. Sports had to give the Harriers 68 points start but Ian Henderson, John Lowde and James Weston chipped away at the handicap points deficit and were 5 points ahead with 2 games still to play in the match. In the penultimate game of the night Lowde beat Kay Wilson by 11 points with Henderson and Weston beating George Makrakis and Mitchell Radford in the last doubles of the night by 19 points to give the Sports side a 447 to 412 points win.
Stanley Street ‘B’ were also winners this in the Reg Wilcox Trophy this week with perhaps an unexpected but well deserved win away at Sparken Hill Vultures who currently sit top of the Division Two table. The Vultures had to give their opponents a 109 point start but from the first game of the match never looked like overturning the handicap points. Chris Tilstone, Andy Kirkland and Ralph Rodda played really well to keep the scores tight and not allow the Vultures to take big chunks out of their lead. Kirkland did especially well to beat Ben Crapper 40-39 over the two games and then lose narrowly 40-38 to Kyle McIntosh. Rodda and Tilstone also had their moments in the match with Tilstone only losing by 4 points to James Wormwell with Rodda matching his team mates achievement by again losing by just 4 points to Crapper. On the table the Vultures were ahead at the end of the night by 367 points to 305 but after both sides handicap points were added they lost the contest by a scoreline of 493-446.
In the David Hooton Handicap Trophy, a competition for Division One sides, there were wins for both Stanley Street ‘A’ and Sparken Hill Buzzards. Stanley Street had a very comfortable win over DTH Redlands Monsters with Peter Eyre, Alex Millward and Dave Hodgkin beating the Monsters trio of the Riauba brothers by 536 points to 397 after Stanley Street had started 123 points ahead after the handicap points had been applied.
Sparken Hill Buzzards win was a little closer as they just squeezed past the Fluffy Toys by 475 points to 472! The Buzzards started just 9 points in front before a ball was hit and managed to just keep their noses in front throughout the match before finally winning by just 3 points.
In the Divisional Cup for Division Three the MBE Trophy three sides got off to winning starts in the round robin format. Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ beat The Real Deal 448-422, DTH Redlands Tarr Babies defeated their club colleagues DTH Redlands Red Devils by just 6 points 370-364 and Sparken Hill Falcons beat their nearest rivals for the Division Three title DTH Redlands Demolition Men by 463 points to 417.