There’s Snow Stopping Divisional Cups

Despite the winter weather descending on Worksop most of the scheduled Divisional Cop matches went ahead this week. The only casualties because of the weather were a couple of games at Redlands due to the heating packing up but with some temporary heating brought in a couple of the games went ahead.
There were two extremely close matches this week with both been won by just 2 points! In the David Hooton Handicap Trophy for Division One sides Worksop Miners Welfare and Stanley Street ‘A’ had a right old tussle. Worksop Welfare started with 93 handicap points and Stanley Street with 198 points leaving the Welfare side with work to do. They set about their task with Richard Element beating Alex Millward 42-19 which immediately reduced the 105-point deficit down to 82. Mark Stanfield then beat Dave Hodgkin with Element and Dave Marsh then teaming up to beat Hodgkin and Kirkland by just 3 points in the first of the doubles games. In the closest game of the night Kirkland defeated Stanfield 21-20, 21-20 to give Stanley Street their first win of the night. In the next game Marsh dispatched Millward before Hodgkin and Millward then beat Marsh and Stanfield to edge slightly further ahead. As the match entered the final stages Worksop Welfare turned up the heat as Element beat Kirkland and Marsh did the same to Hodgkin which all meant that the last game of the night was going to decide the winners of the match. Element and Marsh not only had to beat Kirkland and Millward, but they had to concede no more than 17 points which was going to be a big ask. They won the first game 21-9 which meant that they had to concede no more than 7 points to win the match outright and low and behold they won it 21-6 to give the Welfare side victory by just 2 points.
Other David Hooton Trophy Results: Sparken Hill Ospreys 0 Sparken Hill Buzzards 378 (Walkover)
The Reg Wilcox Handicap Trophy for Division Two sides threw up another close encounter as top played bottom. Sparken Hill Vultures who currently sit on top of the division had only 52 handicap points to start with whereas their opponents Sparken Hill Blue Jays had a massive 264 which gave them a healthy lead of 212 points before a ball was it. Rob Vaughan made inroads into the deficit by beating Ivan Stallworthy by 23 points over the 2 games which and when James Wormwell beat Dave Lee by 30 points in the next game it meant the Vultures had reduced the gap by 53 points. In the first of the three doubles games Vaughan and Crapper defeated Lee and Connor Bettley 21-12, 21-10 to knock another 20 points off the Blue Jays lead. Wormwell then beat Bettley by 25 and Crapper beat Stallworthy by 28 points to reduce the Blue Jays lead to 86 with 4 games to go.
Wormwell and Crapper then teamed up to beat Lee and Stallworthy by 30 points with Vaughan then beating Bettley 21-6, 21-10 to leave the Vultures only 30 points behind and in with a real shout of puling off an unlikely win! Crapper then played Dave Lee who played extremely well and only lost 21-14, 21-14 to leave the Vultures just 16 points behind going into the last game of the night but knowing that they couldn’t afford to allow the Blue Jays to get more than 17 points to win or 18 points to draw the match. Vaughan and Wormwell won the first game 21-12 against Bettley and Stallworthy leaving them 7 points behind on the night and needing to not let the Blue Jays score more than 13 for outright victory. Vaughan and Wormwell raced in front and were cruising before Stallworthy and Bettley started to hit form but it wasn’t quite enough as Vaughan and Wormwell won 21-12 to win the match by just 2 points!
Other Reg Wilcox Trophy Results: Sparken Hill Eagles 285 Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ 490 (Eagles only 2 players), Stanley Street ‘B’ 385 Worksop Welfare Snipers 452
MBE Trophy Results: Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’ 381 DTH Redlands Demolition Men 421, Sparken Hill Falcons 451 The Real Deal 422