Stanley Street 'C' Make It Into MBE Trophy Final

Stanley Street 'C'  took their impressive league form into the MBE Trophy, which is the team handicap competition for Division Three sides when they met DTH Redlands Rookies. Street
started the match having to concede a deficit of 30 points but the trio of players comprising of  Martynas and Orestas Riauba and Andy Kirkland cleared this deficit after the first two singles matches and the first doubles match and immediately and turned it into a 21 point lead.
With both sets of players producing some fantastic rallies the Stanley Street team ended up winning six out of the nine matches against the Rookies trio of Alan Keeling, Derek Piper and Bob Atkinson which proved pivotal and they went on to claim victory and a place in the final with a 25 point overall lead.
Back to league action and Global Marble 'A' had a terrific win in their quest to claim the Runners Up spot in Division One as they swept aside DTH Redlands Roosters with a 10-0 whitewash. Marble's Kerry Harvey, Adrian Baldi and Kalpesh Bhatt all hit top form registering impressive hat tricks with Harvey and Bhatt teaming up to take the doubles. Despite the scoreline The Roosters trio of Tom McIntosh, Rick Harris and Dave Gascoyne were involved in some tight games, especially Harris who went to a deciding set with both Harvey and Bhatt but it wasn't enough to get himself or his team on the score sheet on this occasion. The win now puts Marble 8 points clear in the race for the Runners Up spot.
The battle for the Division Two title took another twist this week as just when it seemed Stanley Street 'B' were out of sight up popped DTH Redlands Joggers who not only beat Street 'B' but also put themselves right back in the title race with an impressive 8-2 win. Lea Dickinson was the Street's main tormentor as she registered a hat trick against Street's Kyle McIntosh, Paul Linfield and Matthew Williams to continue her very impressive run of form. Dickinson was well supported by Lewis Comley and Matthew Mudd who both beat Linfield and Williams in a tough night for Street and especially Linfield who for the first match this season lost all his three games. Kyle McIntosh spared the Street's blushes by beating both Comley and Mudd but couldn't win the doubles with Williams as they lost in straights sets to Dickinson and Comley.
Another side that made ground on Stanley Street 'B' were Manton Tigers who beat DTH Redlands X-Youth by the now familiar score line for X-Youth of 6-4. For the Tigers Paul Allison won a comfortable hat trick with team mate Bill Bateman adding a further 2 wins surprisingly losing to Mark Bloomer and when Bloomer, Clive Eden and Matt Turner all beat Tiger's Steve Beeston it left the match poised at 5-4 to the Tigers with just the doubles to be played with Allison and Bateman winning it in straight sets to secure the victory and all three points.
With Stanley Street 'B' losing and both the Joggers and Tigers winning it now means that Street lead the Division by 6 points but both the Joggers and Tigers have a game in hand.
Elsewhere in Division Two bottom side Manton Sports now look favourites to fall through the trap door into Division Three as they lost again, this time to Ryton Park Eagles. John Hallgarth remained unbeaten for the Eagles with both Alex Olliffe and Keith Swift winning two games each to set the Eagles on their way to comfortable 8-2 victory. Only Alan Wilson managed to trouble the scorers for Manton Sports beating both Olliffe and Swift with Wilson's team mates Phil Fisher and Keith Smith going home empty handed on this occasion. Hallgarth and Swift then compounded the Sports misery by winning the doubles.