EasyGym advanced their chances of winning the league with a hard fought 3-2 victory over StoneArt. EasyGym had wins at three through Rob Boyles and five courtesy of Dave O’Neill fresh from his debut for the Merseyside Over 60s team, but both these matches were close 3-1 battles. StoneArt hit back with wins at two and four for Hamish Thornton and Douglas Jacobsson who is finding his form just in time for the IOM Championships. At 2-2 it was down to the number one players to decide the match and EasyGym’s Dave Norman wrapped it up with a convincing 3-0 win.
At the end of the match between Team AON and Cannell Print we had the strange situation where the losing team actually got more points. Though AON lost 3-2 in individual match-ups they won 143-140 in points. Robin and Jason Crease gained AON’s two victories with very convincing 3-0 wins, limiting their opponents to only 14 and 12 points total respectively. Thomas Whiteway, Rob Colquitt and Dave Freer won matches for Cannell. Both Colquitt and Freer played particularly well to beat higher ranked opponents.
Sharks had a surprising but satisfying 4-1 win against Island Exhausts in the B League. Exhaust’s James Martin beat David Freer at three but all other matches were won by Sharks with commendable performances by all players. The tightest of the matches was at five between Greg Ansara and Peter Sharples, which went to five games. The others were all won in four except for Douglas Jacobsson who managed to beat Dave O’Neil 3-0. Mark Webster Smith played a tight game to beat an in-form Joshua Green, whilst Mark Stratford played well to beat Mark Grace.
Outcasts moved to the top of the B League standings on Thursday with a slender 3-2 win over Conister Racketeers Pioneers. The latter side threatened to pull off a shock as Rob Boyles and Marc Taggart picked up solid wins at number one and four respectively. However, Liam Davies, Mark Henson and Pat Russell picked up wins for the title contenders to wrap up the 240-192 points victory.
In the C League Santander International Academy Racketeers hosted the Jewel Tech Juniors, loosing 3-2 overall. The game of the evening went to Andrew Brown and Beth Jones, with Jones taking the fifth game to win 3-2. Carl Albright played at one for Jewel Tech beating Nic Kieswetter in four games and Christian Webster took the other win for Jewel Tech at three. Wins for Santander came from Fraser Dorling and Nick Corlett who both won 3-0.
Brown Craine Dragons only just got the better of Dohle Stars by a margin of 3-2 in their match. At two and three Luke Tippett and Antony Bentley Roberts gained 3-0 and 3-1 wins for Dohle Stars. However the mother and son combination of Helen and Alex Cave squared things up to make it 2-2. Magnus Lamprecht making his C league debut for the Dragons secured the winning teams 25 bonus points with a 3-1 victory over the experienced Brian Cowley.
Dandara Falcons and Hansard Racketeers had a close match with Racketeers getting the win 3-2. Falcons Lewi Long and Kale Combes won at second and fifth string respectively, Long having a good close battle with Matt Corlett. Jas Singh and Lucy Kerr then evened the match with wins for Racketeers, Kerr having four close games with Simon Jones. This left the number ones to decide the result in a baffling game for players and spectators that went to Racketeers in the end with a 3-1 victory for James Leith.