Island Exhaust Vets closing gap to Hansard Racketeers in the C league
StoneArts’s hopes of catching the A league leaders look very slim after losing 4-1 to Mid-Court-Crisis (MCC). StoneArt captain Steve Baker won 3-0 as did MCC number one Dave Norman. The other three matches were all tight 3-2 affairs but MCC got the money points in each. Dave Hedley operated perfectly to win 33-32, Dave O’Neill just kept on running all the way to victory 33-31 and the third triumphant was Malcolm Levy who just beat an in-form Hamish Thornton 33-32. The overall score was 166-149 and leaves StoneArt second by 39 points, a huge gap to close.
Cannell Print finished the pre-Christmas fixtures with a 4-1 win against the Crazies. Cannell’s Joshua Green and Oliver Wait continued to impress with 3-0 wins, both these players really are on an upward trajectory in terms of playing level. Their teammates Ben Peach and Rob Colquitt had to work a bit harder for their 3-1 wins. The number one match saw the two captains Thom Whiteway and Ashley Sandyford-Sykes do battle. Sandyford-Sykes prevented the whitewash by taking the match 3-1, the first three games were very close but Ash manged to ‘bagel’ Thom in the fourth game. Cannell Print finish the Autumn League with 1199 points, an average of 150 points a game, that is a good average and a great achievement for such a young team.
The B league brought together Crowe Dragons and Island Tyres & Exhausts. Steve Baker made up for his defeat earlier in the season by beating James Martin with a 3-0 win for Exhausts. Dave Hedley took a comfortable 3-0 win to even the tie against the lower ranked but improving Liam Townsend. The power of Shaun Wylie resulted in another strong win for Exhausts at three against Rich Cretney while Darren Smethurst achieved a relatively routine 3-1 win for Dragons over Les Callow. The game of the night and the match winner was at fourth string between Julien Uzzell and Peter Sharples with Uzzell taking the spoils for Dragons 3-2 and 45-44.
Derivco Sharks continued their run of victories when they met Junior Academy. The game of the night was between Emma Leith and Greg Ansara with both these players bringing the best of out of each other, Ansara just managing to sneak it 15-14 in the fifth. Ben Leith and Harvey Douglas did well to take games off higher ranked opponents, Alan McNair and Dave O’Neill but both went down to 3-1 losses. Christian Webster lost 3-0 to Baillie Watterson who had a bit to much accuracy for the younger player. The Juniors only winner of the night was Ben Peach. Sharks won 4-1 and 234-192.
League leaders Outcasts had a hard fought 3-2 win against the second placed team Racketeers Pioneers. Racketeer James Leith came back from match point against him to earn a 3-2 win. Fellow Racketeer number one had the other win for his side 3-0. The Outcasts winners were Toby Woolard who won 3-0 and their dependable captain Peter Ginty who came out on top with a 3-1 win against a vocal Barry Irvine. The match of the night was Chris Cave coming back from 0-2 down to win 3-2 against Dafydd Lewis and make the Outcasts favourites for the league title.
In the C league leaders Hansard Racketeers played Outcasts Dragons. All but one match ended in 3-0 victories. Baillie Watterson and Matt Corlett got the victories for Racketeers while Dragons Andy McLarney and Stuart Highy both won for their team. The only contest to go to four games was Fatheha Essa against Dave Johnson. Johnson won the first and then Essa but Dave seemed to get stronger and took the third and fourth convincingly. This 3-2 win for the Racketeers leaves them 50 points clear of the second placed team Island Exhausts Vets who they play in the final round of matches to determine the C League winner for this half.
Second placed Island Exhausts Vets kept their hopes of catching the league leaders alive with a 4-1 victory over Buchanan & Pitts Misfits. All the matches ended with 3-0 scores. The very experienced trio of Mark Stratford, Peter Sharples and Les Callow had some close games but came through in the end. Richard Cretney, the youngster of the team, was most ruthless as he limited his opponent to just 19 points. The only winner for Misfits was Toby Woolard who beat Ian Sheard 45-13 in points. With every point counting in the final score the game scores really do matter. Overall the score was 218-153.
An outstanding win for Harry Douthwaite was the only real bright spot in a rather disappointing night for Dohle Stars as Dandara Falcons avenged the last head-to-head match. Douthwaite beat Jon Cox in a five game battle taking the final game 15-14. The Falcons won 4-1 with 3-0 wins by Julien Uzzell, Lewi Long and Sarah Simpson. Falcons captain had to work a bit harder to get a 3-1 win against Stars player Brett Dean. Dohle are very grateful for guest players stepping in to make up the team numbers. Falcons are now clear favourites to win the D league trophy.
The Team Photo is ‘Island Tyres & Exhausts’ . Back Row (from left to right) – Shaun Wyllie, Shaun Callow and Lewi Long. Front Row (from left to right) – Peter Sharples and Steve Baker