Sports Fall Through Relegation Trap Door

With Redlands School being closed this week due to work being carried out there weren't many matches actually played but Manton Sports were in action and were finally relegated to Division Three despite putting up a spirited display which saw them battle to a 5-5 draw away at Stanley Street 'B'. Both James Weston and Keith Smith won two games each for Sports as they both managed to beat Paul Linfield and Glyn Williams with Richard Robinson also adding a win against Williams but none of them could beat an inform Jack Kirkland who registered an impressive hat trick which went a long way to denying the Sports team all three points and sent them tumbling into Division Three.
At the other end of the Division Two table Worksop Miners Welfare 'B' continued their march towards promotion to Division One with a 7-3 win over one man DTH Redlands Joggers who had two players that didn't turn up for the match! Dennis Learad, the one player that did turn up personally had a good night beating all three Welfare players in Ben Swain, Nigel Stent and Adam Hamilton and he must have gone home tired as the games against Swain and Hamilton went the distance and his game against Stent went to 4 sets as well. The win for the Welfare side now leaves them needing just a draw from their last match to seal promotion but they may not even need that as the team chasing them have 3 tough matches yet to play.
Division One side Manton Nomads continued their recent run of good form with another win that has propelled them into 3rd place in the league table. This week's victory against already relegated Ryton Park Adders was their 5th on the bounce and could see them attain their highest ever finish in the Worksop League. Kartik Lakhani and Kieran Alvey did most of the damage for the Nomads as they both returned maximums with wins over Andy Lee, Ivan Guilliatt and Mark Fisher with the only joy for the Adders coming when both Lee and Guilliatt defeated Ian Henderson. Henderson then teamed up with Alvey to defeat Lee and Guilliatt in straight sets to seal an 8-2 win.
The team chasing the Nomads for 3rd place were also in action this week and kept up the pressure with an 8-2 win of their own. Worksop Miners Welfare 'A' had a fairly comfortable evening as both Dave Marsh and Phil Walton won all their three games with Stuart Element chipping in with a solo win over Matthew Williams but losing out to both Peter Eyre and Dave Hodgkin in straight sets. Marsh and Walton finished the scoring off as they beat Eyre and Hodgkin in a 5 set battle that could have gone either way in the 5th game.
Matters on the table didn't seem so important this week as the League sadly announced the passing of a former player and a current player in the Worksop League. Dennis Bembridge sadly passed away at the age of 83 and many of our older players will remember Dennis playing in our League for CWS Glassworks and also for serving on the Committee for many years as Treasurer.
The league also sadly announced the death of Neil Houghton who sadly passed away after a short illness. Neil was an integral part of the On-Line Elks team and only last week he helped clinch promotion to Division Two  and he also made the Finals of the Division Three Singles and Doubles competitions which I know he was very proud of but it will be off the table that Neil will be best remembered for as he gave many hours to the coaching of young players not only in Worksop but at Wellow, Chesterfield and Burton to name but a few whilst also selflessly giving up his evenings running junior players to matches, often going miles out of his way to help progress young players.
Our thoughts are with both Dennis's and Neil's family and friends at this sad time.