Autumn League Titles decided – Team AON, Outcasts and Island Exhaust Vets are the Victor’s
Congratulations to Team AON who claimed the Autumn A league title, beating Mid-Court-Crisis (MCC) 3-2 in their final match. MCC victories came from the two Dave’s – at the top of the playing order Dave Norman won 3-1 and at the bottom Dave Hedley won 3-0. AON’s middle order players were all victorious to make the final score 3-2 and ensure AON topped the league. Mason McLarney maintained his undefeated record for AON this season with a 3-1 win. Nathan Quilliam, who was part of the Outcasts team that secured the B league title on Monday, was guesting for AON and he enjoyed success for the second time this week with a 3-0 win. The closest match of the night was Chris Cave against Toby Woolard which saw Cave coming from 2-0 down to win.
StoneArt finished their Autumn fixtures with a 3-2 win over the Crazies in a match that really was a tale of two halves. StoneArt won at first and second string as the reliable Hamish Thornton and captain Steve Baker both earned 3-0 results. However Crazies won the two lower string matches with 3-0 wins by dependable Dave Freer and debutant Adam Corcoran. The deciding battle was between Lyndon Cheetham and Mark Webster Smith. Team sponsor Cheetham went 2-0 up but Webster-Smith won the next two to level, only for Cheetham to find a second wind and take the final game and the victory. StoneArt finished the league in second place with 1275 points, only 38 points behind AON.
Although Outcasts lost their final match against Island Tyres & Exhausts 3-2 they gained enough points to take the Autumn B League title. Outcasts wins came from Chris Cave and vice-captain Stuart Highy while Island Tyres & Exhausts won the other three matches through number one Steve Baker, Shaun Wylie and Liam Townsend who did well to come from 1-0 down against Peter Ginty to take the match 3-1.
The Racketeers Pioneers and Derivco Sharks produced a typically tight B league clash to sign off 2019. The latter side edged the win 3-2 to claim the 25 bonus points. Racketeers’ Barry Irvine continued his good recent form with a good 3-0 triumph over Mark Stratford. Fraser Dorling nearly added a second for the Racketeers as he stepped up from the C League, but he was agonisingly beaten in five by Sharks’ Greg Ansara. Alan McNair and the ever-green Dave O’Neill swung the encounter further in Sharks favour with 3-0 wins at three and two respectively. This left Daf Lewis and Sharks skipper Dave Freer to produce the match of the night at number one. Lewis raced into a two-game lead only for Freer to peg back his opponent in the next two.
Lewis, however, held his nerve to win the fifth by the narrowest of margins 15/14 and clinch a second rubber for his side.
Junior Academy had a great 4-1 result over last seasons champions Crowe Dragons. Junior Emma Leith just gets better and better and gained an impressive 3-0 win. Her teammates Isaac Quayle and Christian Webster had to work a bit harder for their 3-2 wins. Number one Ben Peach had a really good battle with James Martin with two of the games decided by a 1 point margin. The Dragons sole winner was Dave Hedley who used all his experience to best the ever improving Harvey Douglas 3-1. The overall score was 4-1 and 232-199.
Island Exhausts Veterans sealed the C League’s Autumn title in style last week with a 250/161 over their main rivals for the silverware, Hansard Racketeers. The latter side were missing three of their top four ranked players, but nevertheless put in gritty performances against players in some cases pegged 60 places above them in the rankings. Exhausts’ Ian Sheard, Richard Cretney and Peter Sharples all had 3-0 wins. Matt Corlett threatened to pull one back for the early season pacesetters, racing into a two game lead against Mark Stratford but the latter dug deep to win the next three and take the victory. Racketeers Daryl Richards performed brilliantly against Lee Loughren, ranked 56 places higher than him, taking the match to five games and just losing 15/11 in the fifth.
Outcasts Dragons secured the third place spot in the C league with a 4-1 win over Buchanan & Pitts Misfits. Dragons top two players Peter Ginty and Darren Smethurst both won 3-0. The number three’s saw the Misfits team sponsor Stephen Pitts beat Phil Whittam 3-1 in a hard fought match. Unfortunately Misfits were a player short due to illness so Fatheha Essa had a walkover. The closest match of the night between Dragon Andy McLarney and Misfit Jay Dernie went to five games with the final match score 45-41 to McLarney showing just how tight the match was.
After week seven of the fixtures the C league was split into two halves – the top four teams playing for the C league trophy and the bottom four for the D League one. The D league trophy winner was to be decided when Dandara Falcons played Santander Academy Racketeers. The Falcons made sure they got their hands on the trophy with a very convincing 5-0 win. Lewi Long and captain Vusimbe Zivave both won 3-0 while their teammates Julien Uzzell, Simon Jones and Jon Cox won 3-1 against Andrew Brown, Jas Singh and Steven Wright respectively.
Outcasts team Winners of the IOMSRA Autumn B league. Back Row left to right – Pat Russell, Peter Ginty (Captain) and Stuart Highy. Front Row left to right – Chris Cave and Nathan Quilliam