Derivco Sharks take chunk out of Outcasts Title Hopes
Team AON gained maximum points against Cannell Print to remain favourites for the A league title. AON players looked very determined with Robin Crease and Chris Cave gaining convincing 3-0 victories. Pat Fitzpatrick also won in three against Thomas Whiteway but it was tight with every game ending 11-10. Oliver Wait took a game against the higher ranked Mason McLarney, who remains undefeated for AON this season. Cannell Print’s Rob Colquitt put up most resistance only losing his game against Nathan Quilliam by a points score of 33-32.
Mid-Court-Crisis (MCC) claimed their first win of the season with a 3-2 win against Crazies. They are a quality team when their full squad is available and island players Dave Norman and Malcolm Levy were at the top of the order, both winning 3-0. However their lower order players did not perform so well with the Crazies Allister Crossley winning 3-0 and Dave Freer beating MCC debutant Toby Woolard by just one point in a five game thriller. The deciding match between MCC’s Rob Boyles and Crazy Mike Hayler went all the way with Boyles just clinching the win for MCC.
Racketeers Pioneers scored a rare full-house in the B League last week to keep the pressure up on second-tier pacesetters Outcasts. Rob Boyles, the in-form Daf Lewis, Marc Taggart, Barry Irvine and James Leith all scored victories in the 250/149 triumph over Dragons. Julian Uzzell nearly grabbed a consolation for the latter side, but was pipped in five by Racketeers’ skipper Taggart at third string. Racketeers only trail leaders Outcasts by 48 points now and the table toppers meet in the next round of fixtures, the match could determine who will win the Autumn B league title.
Derivco Sharks had a good victory over current league leaders Outcasts as they were able to take advantage of a weakened Outcasts team. Both the third and fifth string matches went to five games with Alan McNair and Wouter Schoeman coming through tough matches against Mark Henson and Phil Whittam respectively. Dave Freer and Baillie Waterson had more straightforward victories for Sharks. At first string Outcast Nathan Quilliam beat Dave O’Neill to deprive Sharks of a 5-0 victory.
Junior Academy gained their second win of the season in a hard fought 3-2 result against Island Tyres & Exhausts. Ben Peach and Emma Leith were particularly ruthless, winning 3-0 and restricting their opponents to just 6 and 17 points respectively. The middle order matches were a lot closer with Exhaust’s Liam Townsend winning 3-2 and Shaun Wyllie 3-1. The decider was a generational battle between Les Callow the Merseyside over 60s player and Ben Leith the IOM Under 15s champ. This match went all the way with Callow taking the first two games, however Ben just kept on running to pick up the next three and the 25 bonus points for Juniors who punctured the Island Tyres & Exhausts title hopes with a very damaging 237-155 points win.
The Hansard Racketeers bounced back from a maiden defeat of the C League season with a 232/178 win over Buchanan & Pitts Misfits. The Racketeers big hitters, Baillie Watterson and Joe Burrows both continued their fine form at one and two, however, Stephen Pitts and Jay Dernie levelled the match for Misfits with wins at four and five. The result of the third-string encounter between Racketeers skipper Matt Corlett and John Watterson would decide the destination of the 25 bonus points, the former battling back from 1-2 down to win 3-2.
Island Exhausts Vets met Outcasts Dragons in a tight fixture as expected at this stage of the season. Les Callow and Peter Sharples, playing at the bottom of the order, both had straight set wins for Vets. Dragon’s Pat Russell and Vet’s Mark Stratford both had off-nights losing in straight games to Ian Sheard and Peter Ginty respectively. The match of the night was undoubtedly Darren Smethurst coming back from 2-0 down against Richard Cretney to win in five for Dragons in a real battling performance. Overall the result was a 3-2 win to the Vets.
Dandara Falcons won their match against Junior Academy C team by a score of 4-1. Falcons Lewi Long, Simon Jones and Sarah Simpson all had 3-1 wins against their younger opponents. Falcons number one Julien Uzzell had a five game battle with young Ben Leith only just coming out on top in the end 45-44. The Juniors only success came through Isaac Quayle who played an error free match to beat the experienced Jon Cox fairly convincingly.
Santander Racketeers Academy hosted Dohle Stars and lost the encounter 3-2 but won on points by 191-176. Dohle Stars brought in two players new to the league Brett Dean and Adrian Aguero, who both entered into the spirit of IOM squash. Brett who used to play league squash had a winning debut for Dohle but Adrian despite enjoying a good start, lost in 3. Dohle’s Chris Nash won in 3 and teammate Harry Douthwaite had the only five game match of the night eventually overcoming Allan Bashforth 15-12 in the fifth game. Sadly Dohle Stars number one Antony Bentley Roberts had to concede his match against Fraser Dorling because of an injury.
The Derivco Sharks team is shown in the picture above, from left to right – Alan McNair, Dave Freer (Captain), Greg Ansara and Dave O’Neill. The fifth member of the team is Baillie Watterson (shown bottom right) who had to ‘whizz’ of to a Badminton match so wasn’t there for the Team photo.