Tigers In The Hunt For The Mike Tunningley Shield

Division Two side Manton Tigers roared into the quarter finals of the Mike Tunningley Shield with a narrow win over Division One side Sparken Hill Starlings. The man in form for the Tigers was Ron Firth who despite being a division below all three of his opponents managed to only just lose to Helmuth Osborne by 8 points, by 7 to Andy Lee and then went on to draw with Ivan Guilliatt. Firth's efforts backed up with Chris Mokes and Steve Beeston's points proved to be too much for the Starlings despite Osborne giving Beeston a proper hammering as he beat him 21-6, 21-1. On the table the Tigers scored 211 points against 373 for the Starlings but when the handicap envelope was opened the Tigers were given 90 points which when added to their points scored on the table meant they just pipped their opponents by 385 points to 373.
Division Three leaders Sparken Hill Blue Jays continued their good league form in the Handicap Shield by knocking out fellow Division Three side Real North Notts 'B' by 34 points. Both Elliot Jordan and Tom Ogley played really well and both only lost to Ivan Stallworthy, Connor Bettley and Dave Rix by a few points but the damage was done by all three Blue Jays as they all beat the inexperienced Mick Candy easily to build up enough of a points total before the 90 handicap points were added to the Real North Notts total to ensure that they ran out the winners by a scoreline of 364-330.
There was an all DTH Redlands 2nd round battle as the Red Devils beat the Tarr Babies with the Tarr Babies trio of Keith Bloomfield, Roman Rosser and Adam Pinches winning all but one of the 9 singles games to comfortably beat the Red Devils by 374 to 318. Despite the defeat there were some positives for an improving Red Devils side to take away from the game as Phil Daly beat Roman Rosser 21-19, 21-19 with both Cliff Briggs and Jacob Hodkinson also taking points off of their opponents.
There were also two Worksop Welfare Cypriots sides that had made it through to the second round but they both had contrasting fortunes. Cypriots 'A' were up against Sparken Hill Eagles from the division above but they didn't let that put them off the task in hand. The Cypriots Andrew Hughes and Kay Wilson both managed to contribute vital points to their sides total but it was Farhad Saiepour who starred for them as he managed to beat James Wormwell 21-10, 21-16, Keith Swift 21-9, 21-14 before beating Brian Allen on aggregate 19-21, 21-14. Saiepour's efforts proved to be far too much for the Eagles and despite the Eagles winning on the night by 337 to 252 they ended up losing 414-337 after the 162 handicap points were added at the end.
Their club colleagues Cypriots 'B' had what looked on paper an easier task than the 'A' team against fellow Division Three side Sparken Hill Hawks but that's not how the match panned out. The Cypriots won all but one of the nine singles matches, the only loss coming when Sam McFarland had a good win over Nick Sievewright 21-19, 21-18. Neil Fisher and Dean Marsh both remained unbeaten for the Cypriots beating Brian Hall, Lee Banton and McFarland with Sievewright also defeating Hall and Banton but it wasn't enough to avoid defeat to the Hawks as the handicap of 154 added to the 227 points the Hawks scored on the table proved to be too much of a total to overcome eventually losing 381 points to 373.
Third Division Sparken Hill Falcons produced the giant killing act of the second round by dumping out Stanley Street 'A' from Division One. Despite all three Street 'A' players in Jack Kirkland, Alex Millward and Rob Eyre winning all but one game on the night it just wasn't enough to overcome their opponents. For the Falcons Mick Potter, Neil Penny and Jordan Potter all battled hard scrapping for every point with Jordan Potter actually winning one of his two games against Rob Eyre who was making a welcome return to the Worksop League after many seasons. The Falcons scored 136 points whilst Street 'A' scored 375 and when the sealed envelope which contained the handicap points was opened at the end of the match it revealed that the Falcons had been awarded 257 points ensuring that the Falcons ran out eventual winners by 393 points to 375.
Other Mike Tunningley Shield Results:  DTH Redlands Joggers 378 Redlands Monsters 0, DTH Redlands Rookies 378 Worksop Owls 0 (both matches conceded).