Match Reports

Division Three side Sparken Hill Hawks caused a cup upset this week as they knocked out Division One side Sparken Hill Woodpeckers out of the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield. Despite not winning a single game in the Handicap Shield format of two games up to 21 against each player the Hawks managed to score enough points after the handicap was added to make it through to the next round.
The Woodpeckers trio of Martynas Riauba, Orestas Riauba and Mitchell Radford comfortably won all of their games to ten points or under but there were a couple of games were the Hawks managed to break the shackles as both Adam Pinches and Paul Wendon took 15 and 16 points off of Mitchell Radford to swing the contest their way. On the table the Woodpeckers scored 378 which the maximum amount of points possible with the Hawks scoring 165 but when…full report »

League leaders in Division One Worksop Miners Welfare’s 100% record in Division One finally went this week as Sparken Hill Woodpeckers held them to a 5-5 draw. One 100% record for the Welfare side that didn’t fall though was Richard Element’s unbeaten run in the singles as he made it 20 wins out of 20 with wins over al three of the Woodpeckers players in Orestas Riauba, Martynas Riauba and Steve Fox. Despite Element’s hat trick, the Woodpeckers went toe to toe with the Welfare side as both Riauba brothers beat Chris Cattell and Dave Marsh with Steve Fox chipping in with a single win over Marsh to clinch a share of the spoils. Element and Cattell won the doubles for Miners Welfare beating Fox Orestas Riauba in straight sets to complete the scoring.
Two sides at the foot of the table had contrasting fortunes this week in the…full report »

Terry Emmerson and Kathy McIntyre have been crowned DTH Senior Doubles Champions for this season. The competition named after the League’s Sponsor DTH Engineering attracted 24 players who were ranked from 1-24 with the player ranked 1 paired with the player ranked 24, player ranked 2 with 23, 3 with 22 and so on. The pairings were then split into two groups of 6 pairings who then all played each other with the top two teams going through to the semi-finals.
Group A was a tight affair which was topped by Ben Swain and John Lowde who won 4 out of their 5 group games scoring 153 points and dropping only 2 points in the process to go through to the semi-finals as group winners. Who would finish as runners up in the group wasn’t as clear cut as two pairings were in with a chance of making it…full report »

Sparken Hill Falcons Connor Bettley put in a great performance to help his side beat their closest rivals for the Division Three title, Sparken Hill Hawks. Bettley recorded a fine hat trick of singles wins over the Hawks trio of Paul Wendon, Adam Pinches and the previously unbeaten Lewis Linacre. But Bettley wasn’t finished yet as he also had a hand in securing the doubles win with his partner Luke Barraclough as they came from two games to nil down against Wendon and Linacre to win it in the deciding 5^th set. Bettley was aided by his team mates as they both produced a vital win each over Wendon to enable the Falcons to win by the closest of margins 6-4. The win now puts the Falcons 6 points in front of the Hawks although all is not lost for the Hawks as they do have a game in hand…full report »

The quarter finalists of this season’s Carnation Cup are now known after this week’s preliminary round matches have been played out.
The closest match out of the four preliminary matches in this handicap pairs competition was the game between Mark Sansom & Nick Sievewright and Mark Bloomer & John McIntyre. Sansom got his pairing off to a great start when he defeated McIntyre 21-16, 21-14 despite having to give his opponent a 10 point lead in each game. Bloomer then levelled the contest by beating Sievewright 21-20 in the deciding game. Next up was the doubles with Bloomer and McIntyre having a slender 3 point start in each game and they made it count by winning the doubles 21-15, 21-17 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. McIntyre and Sievewright then met in the reverse singles game and with both players having the same handicap a close encounter…full report »