X-Youth Secure League And Cup Double

Division Three Champions DTH Redlands X-Youth crowned a highly successful season with the addition of The MBE Trophy and can in fact claim a 'clean sweep' of the Third Division competitions having already had players win the individual singles and doubles titles at the Annual Championships. In the MBE Trophy Final they were up against club colleagues DTH Redlands Rookies and although they were firm favourites the handicap system has proved in the past to be a great leveller. X-Youth's Clive Eden led the way returning maximum points and with both Jeff Reay and Mark Bloomer only being a few points behind it proved to be too much of a gap to close for the Rookies despite gaining 61 points through the handicap points system. For The Rookies Bob Atkinson, Daniel Cutts and Derek Piper all battled hard but just couldn't get enough points on the board to stop X-Youth claiming the trophy 391-360.
It was a repeat of last year in the Reg Wilcox Trophy Final for Division Two sides as two Manton teams clashed again. Manton Sports who were defending champions but who have ended up finishing bottom of the division started the match off well only losing by a few points in the first three games John Lowde, Keith Smith and Alan Wilson couldn't maintain their good start and fell away in the last 2/3rds of the match with the Tigers Trio of Dave Bownes, Paul Allison and Bill Bateman all hitting top form at the crucial part of the match and after some very consistent table tennis the Tigers eventually got revenge on their local rivals by winning 467-453.
The Handicap Shield which features teams from all three divisions reached the semi-final stage this week and both semis featured a side from Division One against a side from Division Three. Zygabytes who came runners up in Division One this season faced DTH Redlands Allsorts who had finished mid table in Division Three. True to form Dean Brookes, Joe Zygadlo and Bob Hume all returned the maximum of 378 points for the Zygabytes and so the result would all hinge on whether or not they could keep the Allsorts score down enough for when the handicap points were added at the end. The Allsorts young players Caius Tweed, Ethan Warner and Josh Nelson all fought hard and put up a brace performance but despite being awarded 295 handicap points they couldn't close the gap to the Zygabytes and lost 378-368.
In the Final Zygabytes will play Division Three side DTH Redlands Tarr Babies who beat another Redlands side The Roosters from Division One. TheTarr Babies side of Matthew Mudd, Lewis Comley and Jack Tarr comfortably won their semi final in the end after the handicap of 285 was added to the points they won on the night of 196 and even though Sarah Short, Dave Gascoyne and Rick Harris won all their games The Tarr Babies had done enough to go through to the final.
With only one league game across all divisions still to be played focus turned to the Hard Bat Competition which was held over from the Annual Championships due to time restraints and players descended on Worksop Leisure Centre to do battle. From the group stages there were a trio of younger players that made it into the semi finals with Jack Kirkland, Matt Williams and Lewis Comley all doing well to get though their respective groups. The other player to reach the semis was a previous winner of the competition in Peter Eyre who was now the clear favourite to once again take the title. Eyre was up against Matthew Williams and his experience told as he comfortably made it through to the final 31-10 where he would meet Jack Kirkland who dispatched Lewis Comley 31-15. The final once again played up to 31 was a terrific contest which ebbed and flowed one way then another before Jack Kirkland pulled off a fantastic result by beating Eyre 31-27 in a tense finish to be crowned Hard Bat Champion.