Tarr Babies Quest For Promotion Dealt A Blow

DTH Redlands Tarr Babies push to finish in the top two promotion places of Division Three were dealt a setback this week as they suffered a narrow 6-4 defeat to Stanley Street 'E' who sat a massive 24 points behind the Tarr Babies in the league before their match. Street 'E' didn't let a few points between themselves and the Tarr Babies bother them as they soon swept into a 4-1 lead as both Matt Turner and Tai Chen won their opening two games and it wasn't long before they both completed their hat tricks against Jack Tarr, Greg Suchalski and Adam Pinches. The improving  Jasper Turner fought hard against the Tarr Babies trio but couldn't quite defeat any of them and despite Suchalski and Pinches winning the doubles against Chen and Jasper Turner they couldn't stop the Tarr Babies slipping to a narrow 6-4 defeat.
Whilst the Tarr Babies were licking their wounds all they could hope for was that not all of their closest rivals were enjoying victories and as two of them were playing each other a draw would have been the ideal outcome and an ideal outcome they got as Stanley Street Rascals and Stanley Street 'D' played out a 5-5 draw. Lee Webb had a great night for Stanley Street 'D' as he won all his three games beating Liam Stead, Ellis Spacey and Thomas Gladwin and he was well backed up by Glyn Williams who beat both Gladwin and Spacey to earn Street 'D' a vital point in the race for promotion. For the Rascals Liam Stead won two games with both Gladwin and Spacey each winning one with Stead and Spacey taking the vital doubles set.
Whilst all of the rest of the promotion contenders  were dropping points Stanley Street Cypriots closed the gap to their rivals with a win over Ryton Park Falcons. Both Mitchell Radford and Tom Parker registered hat tricks with Harvey Renshaw missing out on this occasion as he lost to the Falcons trio of Jak Eden, Brian Hall and Mick Potter with Parker and George Makrakis beating Eden and Potter to take the doubles to cement a 7-3 victory.
Other Division Three Result: On-Line Elks 9 Ryton Park Dragons 1
The league win wasn't the only success the Cypriots enjoyed this week as they also made it to the Final of The Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield with a fabulous win over DTH Redlands Roosters from Division One. Despite losing every set against Division One players in Clive Mitchell, Rick Harris and Dave Gascoyne the Cypriots amassed 119 points on the table against the Roosters 378 which is the maximum a team can score on the table in this competition. When the sealed envelope containing the handicap was opened it revealed that the Cypriots had been awarded 285 handicap points which when added to their 119 points scored on the table gave them a winning score of 404 points to 378. Special mention must go to all three Cypriots player of Mitchell Radford, George Makrakis and Graham Stent who all fought hard and perhaps Stent's only losing by a few points to Gascoyne by 42-33 was the key to their fine victory.
In Division One DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys relentless march to the title continued this week with their latest victims being Ryton Park Adders who took a 9-1 thumping in a one sided match. There were hat tricks for both Richard Wesley and Tom McIntosh with a double for Tom Wesley who lost out to Andy Lee in 4 sets. Lee also nearly upset the odds against Tom McIntosh who had to come back from 2-1 down to win in the deciding set. McIntosh and Richard Wesley then teamed up to take the doubles to seal the win. The other players for the Adders were Ivan Guilliatt and Gary Sides.
Elsewhere in Division One Manton Misfits picked up 3 points this week in their scramble to get to safety from the dreaded relegation trap door into Division Two. Their win came against Manton Tigers who are already relegated with the Misfits sweeping the Tigers aside in a 10-0 whitewash with hat tricks all round for Ian Henderson, Malcolm Manuel and Kalpesh Bhatt with Bhatt and Henderson teaming up to take the doubles.
Division Two Results: Manton Sports 7 DTH Redlands Rookies 3, Stanley Street 'B' 5 Ryton Park Eagles 5, DTH Redlands X-Youth 9 DTH Redlands Rookies 1