Toys And Nomads Take Division One And Two Titles

DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys and Manton Nomads were both crowned champions of their respective divisions this week after both sides recorded vital wins. Fluffy Toys recorded a comfortable 7-3 home win against Manton Misfits to win the Division One title for the sixth consecutive season. The Toys win was largely due to a Steve Johnson hat trick and he was well supported by Tom McIntosh and Peter Cowburn who both added two wins each. The Misfit's Ian Henderson did brilliantly to beat both Cowburn and McIntosh and he also had a match point against Johnson but couldn't quite clinch his hat trick. Kalpesh Bhatt and Kartik Lakhani were the other Misfit players but went home empty handed with the doubles being conceded by the Toys to finish the scoring.
DTH Redlands Joggers battle to avoid relegation back down to Division Two took a blow on and off the table this week as they fell fowl of Rule 7b by not arranging their postponed match with fellow strugglers Ryton Park Adders within 6 weeks so therefore forfeiting all 3 points to the Adders. On the table a Steve Walker hat trick and one from Lea Dickinson left them 5-4 down against club colleagues The Roosters and in with a chance of a valuable point but then decided to concede the doubles due to 'time constraints' at their home venue and ended up losing the match 6-4. The scorers for the Roosters were Steve Fox 2, Dave Gascoyne 2 and Rick Harris 1.
Other Division One Result: Stanley Street 'A'1 MBE 9
Manton Nomads secured the Division Two title this week with three games to spare despite the fact at one stage the race for the title with Ryton Park Eagles looking like it would go right down to the wire. The win that clinched the title for the Nomads came against their club colleagues and potentially tricky opponents Manton Sports in a re-arranged game and despite the 9-1 scoreline for the Nomads the match was a much tighter affair with only 2 of the games not going to at least 4 sets. Both Steve Elkin and Rob Vaughan defeated all three Sports players in Keith Smith, James Weston and John Lowde with  Richard Robinson adding wins over Lowde and Smith before losing to Weston in 4 sets. Elkin and Vaughan then beat Smith and Weston to take the doubles to cap a great team performance.
Two days later the Nomads were back in action away at DTH Redlands Rookies in a match that had no real significance on final league placings but that didn't stop the Nomads putting in another strong performance with a Rob Vaughan hat trick setting them on their way to victory. Steve Elkin added two wins over Alan Keeling and Derek Piper before succumbing to some great attacking play from George Agnew. Richard Robinson added a vital win over Derek Piper before Elkin and Vaughan as they have done on so many occasions this season secured the doubles set with a win against Agnew and Piper to record a 7-3 win.
Another team to fall fowl of the 'time restraints' at Redlands this week were DTH Redlands X-Youth who fought hard to be 5-4 up against the 2nd placed side and former title favourites Ryton Park Eagles despite a John Hallgarth hat trick for the Eagles. Both Clive Eden and Ewan Pickersgill had wins over the Eagles other two players in Keith Swift and Brian Hall and with Mark Bloomer also defeating Hall it left the X-Youth in with a chance of victory if they could win the doubles but time was against them and the disappointingly had to concede it to leave the match outcome as a 5-5 draw.
Other Division Two Result: Manton Sports 3 Stanley Street 'C' 7, Stanley Street 'B' 7 Ryton Park Cougars 3
In the race for the Division Three title and the second promotion spot it's as you were this week as all the top four sides recorded wins over the bottom four teams in the division!
Stanley Street 'D' whitewashed their club colleagues Stanley Street 'E' 10-0 whilst Stanley Street Rascals comfortably beat On-line Elks 9-1 with DTH Redlands defeating bottom side Ryton Park Falcons 7-3. The only result that didn't look as comfortable was the win for Stanley Street Cypriots who just managed to squeeze past Ryton Park Dragons 6-4.
This still means that there are just 2 points separating the top four sides which will make the last week of the season very interesting indeed as the top four have a game against another top four side!