Starlings And Clowne Kick New Season Off

Sparken Hill Starlings and Clowne ‘B’ got the new Worksop & District Table Tennis league season underway at Sparken Hill on Tuesday night. The Starlings Division One campaign didn’t start well for them as they struggled to field a full strength team and had to play two players up from Division Three in Connor Bettley and Luke Barraclough whilst Clowne ‘B’ welcomed two new signings in Jeff Reay and Simon Chatterton. Clowne’s other Kalpesh Bhatt was the Player Of The Match as he beat Bettley, Barraclough and Andy Lee. Bettley and Barraclough were dispatched comfortably enough but beating Lee took some doing. Bhatt was 2-0 down before he came storming back to win the next three games 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 to complete his hat trick. Lee did have success against Reay and Chatterton with his win over Chatterton also going to 5 sets but on this occasion Lee managed to win the final game 13-11.
Clowne ‘B’ eventually ran out 7-3 winners but not before there was one upset when Bettley managed to beat an injured Jeff Reay in 5 sets but that’s not taking anything away from Bettley as even an injured Jeff Reay is still a formidable opponent.

Whilst Clowne ‘B’ were enjoying sitting at the top of Division One, their club colleagues Clowne ‘A’ were not having such a good time in their home match against Stanley Street as they could only field 2 players. Steve Lyon and new signing Roy Bowes battled hard for Clowne but they were always up against it playing a full strength Stanley Street side when they started the match already 3-0 down. Street’s Terry Emmerson remained unbeaten on the night as he beat both Lyon and Bowes and he was well supported by the new Hard Bat Champion Peter Eyre who beat Bowes in 5 sets but lost out to Lyon. Street’s third player Alex Millward also lost to Lyon but had a real ding dong with Bowes before losing in the final set. Emmerson and Millward teamed up to beat Bowes and Lyon 12-10 in the deciding set to cement a 7-3 victory.
The last match in Division One this week saw one side fall foul of the rules and regulations which turned a 10-0 victory into a 7-3 loss! Sparken Hill Woodpeckers trio of Steve Fox, Orestas Riauba and Martynas Riauba actually won all of their games against the Worksop Welfare Snipers trio of Erlands Skels, Russ Webster and Jim Westwood but because both the Riauba brothers hadn’t yet paid their League registration fees then none of their singles wins or the doubles win counted for them and all 7 of those sets were awarded to the Snipers to give them the win.
Steve Fox for the Woodpeckers was Player Of The Match as he beat Webster, Skels and Webster, with the games against both Webster and Skels going the distance before Fox eventually won them both in the deciding set.
In Division Two, Sparken Hill Eagles kicked off their campaign with a 10-0 whitewash of Carlton X-Youth with hat tricks for Brain Allen, Chris Tilstone and Andy Vinson to make them early leaders of the division. The only other match card received in Division Two saw Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘A’ and Manton Sports share the spoils in a 5-5 draw with Sports Stuart Element registering a fine hat trick.
Sparken Hill Falcons who are one of the pre-season favourites for the Division Three title got their season off to a fine start with a 10-0 whitewashing of Worksop Welfare Real Deal with hat tricks for Roman Rosser, Lewis Linacre and Adam Pinches. One of the other favourites in Division Three also got their season off to a flying start with a 9-1 victory over Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘C’. Luke Barraclough and Connor Bettley fresh from playing up the night before in Division One both returned hat tricks for the Falcons and were well supported by Mick Potter who added two wins over Graham Stene and Nick Sievewright before losing out to Kian Tansley who was playing his first ever match in the Worksop League.