The Race For Third Place Goes Down To The Wire

Who finishes in third place in Division One this season will go down to the last match of the season with both Worksop Miners Welfare 'A' and Manton Nomads still in the hunt. Both sides were in action this week and both had vital wins to keep up the pressure on each other. Welfare 'A' who last week had a comfortable 8-2 win over Stanley Street 'A' were again on the winning trail but were made to work hard for their win against a Ryton Park Eagles side who had been relegated the week before. Welfare's Richard Element's hat trick went a long way to ensure his side took all three points with Dave Marsh and Stuart Element adding a win each over John Hallgarth and when Marsh and Richard Element won the doubles it was just enough to see the Welfare side run out 6-4 winners. For the Eagles both Brian Allen and Helmuth Osborne had good wins over both Marsh and Stuart Element.
Manton Nomads finished their league campaign off with yet another win, this time against Stanley Street 'A' with Sarah Short yet again returning an impressive hat trick. Short's wins all came in straight against Peter Eyre, Matthew Williams and Dave Hodgson with her team mates Kartik Lakhani and Kieran Alvey both beating Williams and Hodgson but both losing out to Eyre. Short and Alvey then teamed up to take the doubles against Williams and Hodgson to seal an 8-2 win which  puts them 3 points clear of Welfare 'A' who if they win their game in hand will finish in 3rd place by virtue of winning more sets.
Champions elect DTH Redlands Roosters won their 19th league game of the season out of 20 this week against Ryton Park Adders who will be glad to see the back of this season  having being relegated to Division Two for the first time in their history. The Roosters trio of Steve Fox, Tom McIntosh and Rick Harris had little trouble in dispatching their opponents with only Rick Harris dropping a game when he lost out to Harry Tomlinson in a gripping 5 set contest but Tomlinson's team mates Ivan Guilliatt and Mark Fisher couldn't repeat his feat losing all of their three games. Fox and McIntosh compounded the Adders misery by winning the doubles in straight sets against Guilliatt and Tomlinson to seal a 9-1 victory.
Division Three champions DTH Redlands Rookies enjoyed two victories this week, one on the table and one off of it. A minutes silence was held before their match against On-Line Elks in memory of  Elk's player Neil Houghton who sadly passed away last week. Jonno Blood gave the Elks a 1-0 lead when he defeated Chris Clemson but that was the first and last win for the Elks as both Bob Atkinson and Dilip Malkan each recorded hat tricks with Clemson adding a further two wins against Glen Gillgrass and Jerry Collins with Malkan and Atkinson winning the doubles to put the icing on the cake of a 9-1 victory. The Rookies last league match of the season should have been against DTH Redlands Liver Birds but not for the first time this season the Liver Birds didn't turn up for a fixture so all three points were awarded to the Rookies who finish the season with a perfect league record of 18 out of 18 wins.
Ryton Park Cougars finished their league campaign strongly with a 7-3 win over club colleagues Ryton Park Falcons with the Cougars Dave Rix being the Man Of The Match as he won all his three games against Mick Potter, Jordan Potter and Justin Flear. Rix was well supported by Dave Lee who had good wins over Flear and Mick Potter with Connor Bettley chipping in with a solo win over Mick Potter with the Eagles completing  the scoring by taking the doubles.
Division Two Results: Manton Tigers 6 Stanley Street Cypriots 4, Worksop Miners Welfare 'B' 7 Stanley Street 'B' 3, Stanley Street Cypriots 1 DTH Redlands Monsters 9