Island Exhaust Vets gain maximum points in opening match of the winter league
The deciding match in this encounter was between Ashley Sandyford-Sykes and Jason Blue. Leading up to this match Crazies training partners Adam Corcoran and James Ramsey had both secured 3-1 wins in the bottom order matches. However StoneArt’s Hamish Thornton and Lyndon Cheetham levelled the match score at 2-2, Lyndon had a ‘classic’ match with Dave Freer, he was greatly encouraged by his team and just came through winning the 5th game 14-12. Ash and Jason were fighting for the 15 match bonus points, the Crazies captain Ash really did raise his game to beat his higher ranked opponent 3-0.
Team AON managed to secure another 3-2 win in their match against Mid-Court-Criss (MCC). AON’s Robin and Jason Crease both played well to bag 3-0 wins. MCC’s Dave Norman and Dave O’Neill had to work a bit harder than the crease boys to get their 3-1 wins. The fifth string match was between Peter Ginty and Harvey Douglas, making his A league debut for MCC. Peter’s experience was the difference taking the match 3-2, the setting in 2 of the 5 games shows how close this match was.
A good victory for Racketeers with them winning 3 of the 5 strings. Dafydd Lewis had a solid 3-0 win and Marc Taggart playing at 2 got the better of his Racketeers sparing partner Baillie Watterson 3-0. The third Racketeers victor was Joe Burrows, he really is moving up the rankings with every match. The Sharks successes came through James Ramsey and Alan McNair, with Alan being the only person to drop a game in the whole match. the overall points score was 222-184.
Retiring captain Jon Shepherd leaves Crowe Dragons with a 5-0victory. The shock result of the night came at 1 with James Martin beating the much higher ranked and highly favoured EX dragon Ben Peach. In what was a reverse of the fixture pre Christmas as James took the spoils 3-1. Beth Jones overcame Isaac in another reverse of the pre Christmas fixture taking the win 3-2 after initially cruising to a 2-0 lead. Darren Smethurst also overcame his demons by finally beating Emma Leith! Jon Shepherd was made to work for his victory against the vastly improved and enthusiastic Ben Leith. The Doc (Dave Hedley) took a comfortable win at 2nd strIng against Christian Webster with a 45-20 win. This was a strong result to start the new year for the Dragons and some encouraging signs for a few of the junior players also!
At the end of this match, before the 25 winning bonus points were added Outcasts had 215 points and Island Tyres & Exhausts had 212 – just 3 points separated the 2 sides. Peter Baker gave the Exhausts the lead in a tough 3-2 battle, his father Steve Baker made it 2-0 to the Exhausts by winning his match 3-2. Magnus Lamprecht secured the 25 bonus points for the Exhausts by defeating his opponent in yet another 3-2 encounter. The Outcasts success came courtesy of Toby Woolard who won 3-1 and Chris Cave who just came out on top 3-0 in his match against the other Baker boy. It was a super matched between to evenly matched teams.
Doyle Stars enjoyed a friendly game to celebrate the arrival of PwC Playables into the C League! More adventures await. It was a little bit of a baptism of fire, as despite a spirited performance from PwC, Dohle ran out comfortable 4-1 winners on the night. Lots of positives for PwC to take, and a little more experience will see them with well in future matches. Many thanks to Meg Jenkinson for standing in at short notice and putting in a stellar performance to take Kunal Patel to 5 games in the best game of the night.
Island Exhaust Vets met the Junior Academy C tram in there first fixture of the winter league. Their experience told as they gained maximum points and all their players won 3-0. The junior Academy C league team are really a development team and they will improve as a result of playing these more experienced players. Academy player Harrison Callow made his league debut and did well to get 23 points of the experienced Les Callow.
Outcast Dragons achieved a good 4-1 result against Santander Academy Racketeers. There were 3-0 victories for Peter Ginty, Stuart Highy and Fatheha Essa. Dragons captain Darren Smethurst had the match of the night against Andrew Brown coming through 15-12 in there fifth game to achieve a 3-2 win. The Racketeers only win came through Charlie Beard who managed a good 3-1 win over a higher ranked opponent.
Dandara Falcons had a great match with Buchanan & Pitts Misfits just achieving the 3-2 win. Falcon’s Lewi Long and Misfit’s Andy Dixon and John Watterson all won without dropping games. It was the Falcons captain Vusimbe Zivave and their number 1 player Julien Uzzell who secured the points for the Falcons by battling hard for their 3-2 wins. Julien did particularly well to beat Misfits debutant Mark Henson, a player ranked well above him.
The above picture is of the Island Exhausts Team. Back Row, left to right – Mark Stratford, Peter Sharples, Phil Shaw and Ian Sheard (Captain) . Front Row, left to right – Lee Loughren and Richard Cretney