A League
On Thursday night, the Stone Art team missing the in-form Lyndon Cheetham suffered a heavy 4-0 loss to Crazy Billions.There were comfortable wins for James Ramsey and Mike Hayler. The match of the night saw Mark Webster-Smith steer a 3-2 win in a highly entertaining game with great sportsmanship from Angus Hopkinson.
Argosy returned to winning ways this week with a 3-1 victory over Team AON. The standout matches were 3-2 victories for Argosy duo Malcolm Levy and Paul Barnett against their opponents. Elsewhere there was an impressive debut from George Weston to seal the win, with Liam Davies picking up a consolation win for AON with a straight set victory.
The Jaguars won 4-0 in matches against the Global Monetary Solution Junior Academy but had to work a lot harder than the score line suggests. Micheal Fernandes kept his hot streak going with another 3-0 win. In the match of the night Shaun Wyllie battled back from 2-0 down to secure a win against Harvey Douglas and end his long losing streak!
Cannell Print had a bye this week but continue to be the A league leaders.
B League
A predicted tight fixture between MES Mavericks and Derivco Sharks proved to be so. The Sharks took the overall fixture 4:1 but the scoreline hardly reflects the closeness of some of the matches. At 5th string, Sharks’ Mark Stratford had to be acrobatic to beat Dasa Brynjolffssen – ultimately winning the match point by playing a drop shot whilst diving for the front wall. At 3rd, Mavericks’ Richard Cretney gave it everything but just could not pip Dave Freer in the fifth game, with Dave winning 3-2. At second string, another fantastically close and well fought out match saw Magnus Lamprecht edging ahead of Dave O’Neill at the final hurdle to take it for the Mavericks. At fourth string, Douglas Jacobsson and Dave Hedley had some close games, with Douglas winning 3-0 for the Sharks.Finally, at no.1, a match of extremely high quality saw George Weston win 3-0 against the Maverick’s Chris Walton.
It was a closely fought fixture between the Outcasts and Atla Group Arrows on Monday. Despite Sarah Simpson giving it her all at number 5 against Outcasts’ Mark Henson, Mark’s power hitting was too much, winning the match 3-0. At 4th string, Atla’s captain Phil Butler managed a 3-0 win over Peter Ginty in a back and forth affair. At 3rd string, Mike Fernandes had a close match with Richard Haley but won 3-1. At no. 2, Lance Wyllie struggled to find his top gear against Liam Davies who won 3-1. No. 1 seed saw Harvey Douglas cause an upset against the highly ranked Angus Hopkins. Both players played well and the match was narrowly taken 3-2. Overall, Atla Group Arrows won 3-2.
Atla Group Arrows are the current leaders in the B league narrowly followed by Derivco Sharks.
C League
Crazy Jack’s took on the Global Monetary Solutions Juniors Team this week. Crazy Jack’s were plagued with injury so could only field a team of 3. Firstly at no.3 there were some great rallies and impressively placed shots between Christina Cruz and Tom Barker but Tom was overall winner 3-1. Next, Juniors’ Callum Larkin proved to be too strong for Mark Goodall leading to a 3-0 win. Lastly, Crazy Jacks’ Matthew Ripley played Max Birchall. It was Max’s first match in the league this year but he had not forgotten how to play, winning the first two games. Despite a tight third game 14-14, Max took the final point bringing it to an overall match score 3-0 to Max. Crazy Jacks lost 4-1 to Global Monetary Solutions Juniors.
The Falcons fielded a depleted side for their fixture against Hansard Racketeers. At no.1, Falcons’ Captain Vusimbe Zivave took on Andy Brown. Despite Vusimbe’s forceful hitting pushing Andy around the court, Andy’s guile edged all three games due to deft shot selection. Next came the match of the night with Falcons’ Jon Cox playing higher ranked Racketeer Harry Douthwaite. A titanic struggle ensued with Jon taking the first game by a single point. Harry hit back confidently earning a 2-1 lead, but an inspired performance by Cox resulted in a 3-2 victory for him. In the last match played at no.3, improving Falcons’ Joe Butler met an in-form David Johnson. Joe worked hard, but the Racketeer controlled the T to score a 3-0 win. With the 2 walkovers Hansard finished the night 4-1 victors.
The top of the C league match between Island Exhaust Vets and Buchanan & Pitts had more twists and turns than a soap opera. In the run up, there was much discussion regarding rankings and which became moot when Island Exhausts number 1 was unable to play. The first game for Phil Shaw was a walkover as the opposition was unavailable. Exhausts’ Peter Sharples at no. 4 had a comfortable 3-0 victory over Andy Dixon. At no.3, Peter Ferguson raced to a 2-0 lead against Pitts’ Pat Russell but then a lack of fitness showed and Pat won 3-2. At no.2, Mark Grace was set to play Ian Barnes but half way through the warm up Ian pulled out of the match, awarding Exhausts’ Mark a walkover. The final game between Mark Stratford and Pitts’ Dasa Byrnjolffssen was a repeat of the match between them the previous evening in the B league which Mark won. Dasa was keen to reverse the result and won a tight second game 15-14, but Mark won the match 3-1.
The final fixture was between the Dragons and Strix Squash Squad. At no.5, the more experienced Jamie Biddulph of the Dragons won in 3 games. At 4th string, Dragon’s Andy McLarney beat Andrew Igoea 3-0 despite some great rallies. At no.3, Phil Whittam played Stix’s Sam Elliott for the second time this season. Despite an improvement in play from Sam, Phil managed to win 3-0. At 2nd string, Dragon’s Beth Jones played Aaron Rumney. After many close rallies, a few too many unforced errors from Aaron led to a 3-0 Dragons victory. At no.1, Stuart Highy played newcomer to the league Richard Simpson. It was a very close start with Stuart just managing to win the first game 15-14. Richard then won the next two games and after another exciting 14-15 game, won for Strix.
Buchanan and Pitts are the current C league leaders but with Island Exhaust Vets just 2 points behind, it will be interesting to see who will top the league before Christmas.
Crazy Billions and Phil Shaw Vehicles (Left to right): Ashley Sandyford-Sykes, Mark Webster-Smith, James Ramsey, Mike Hayler, David Freer