Toys Start Defence Of Title With Convincing Win

DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys made a convincing start to their defence of the Division One crown with a 9-1 drubbing of annual relegation battlers Ryton Park Adders. There were hat tricks for both Peter Cowburn and Steve Johnson with Lea Dickinson adding two wins over Ivan Guilliatt and Worksop League debutant Mark Fisher. Andy Lee spared the Adders from suffering an opening week whitewash by defeating Dickinson in 4 sets. Cowburn and Johnson then teamed up to compound the Adders misery defeating Guilliatt and Lee is straight sets .
Early joint leaders alongside the Toys are Manton Misfits who beat the Adders club colleagues Ryton Park Eagles by the same 9-1 scoreline. Steve Lyon and Kalpesh Bhatt both registered hat tricks with Richard Robinson who was playing up from Division Two managing to beat John Hallgarth and Keith Swift but losing out to Helmuth Osborne in straight sets. Lyon and Bhatt completed the scoring by beating Osborne and Hallgarth in 5 sets in the doubles.
DTH Redlands Roosters got their league campaign off to a good start with pretty straight forward 8-2 win over Stanley Street 'A' with Man Of The Match Tom McIntosh defeating Alex Millward, Matthew Williams and Dave Hodgkin all in straight sets whilst also helping to win the doubles set with Steve Fox. Fox himself had a good night beating both Hodgkin and Williams as did the Roosters third player Dave Gascoyne but neither Fox or Gascoyne could beat Street 'A's Alex Millward who was the only Street player to get on the score sheet.
Last season's Division Two champions Manton Nomads may have thought they were going to continue with their winning ways in Division One especially as they raced into a 2-0 lead at home to Worksop Miners Welfare 'A'. Wins for Ian Henderson and new signing Kieran Alvey over Dave Marsh and Phil Walton respectively gave them a false dawn and it wasn't long before Welfare 'A' were 7-2 ahead as Stuart Element rallied his side with an impressive wins over Henderson and Alvey before defeating Rob Vaughan in straight sets. Ian Henderson added another win as he beat Walton to leave the Nomads 7-3 losers in their first ever match in Division One.
Division Two looks like it could be one of the closest divisions for many years with seven of the eight teams capable of beating each other on their night. The early pace setters are DTH Redlands Joggers who were relegated from Division One last season and Worksop Welfare 'B' who have a squad big enough to field three teams let alone one! Both teams sit at the top of the table as they both recorded 9-1 wins with the Joggers defeating newly promoted Stanley Street Cypriots and Welfare 'B' beating Manton Sports. For the Joggers both Kyle McIntosh and Matthew Mudd won all their three games with Lewis Comley adding two wins losing out to George Makrakis. Welfare 'B's two debutants Pete Hodgson and Erlands Skels both got their Worksop League careers off to the perfect start with both of them remaining unbeaten with fellow team mate Adam Hamilton adding a further two wins before losing out to Sports James Weston.
Many people's tip for the Division Two title are DTH Redlands Monsters and they backed that up by winning their first league match 7-3 against Manton Tigers for whom Dave Bowns stood out as he beat all three of the Riauba brothers but it wasn't enough to stop his side losing. All three Riauba brothers, Orestas, Martynas and Valentinas all won two games each with wins over Phil Hall and Steve Beeston with Orestas and Valentinas pairing up to beat Hall and Beeston to take the doubles.
Stanley Street 'B' could well be in the mix for promotion at the end of the season and they got off to a winning against DTH Redlands X-Youth. Both Jack Kirkland and Paul Linfield each recorded hat tricks with Andy Kirkland adding a solo win over Clive Eden after losing to both Jeff Reay and Mark Bloomer who after 3 years has actually now managed to by his own bat! The doubles also went the way of the X-Youth team as Reay and Eden defeated father and son Andy and Jack Kirkland in 4 sets to leave the final score 7-3 to Street 'B'.