Team AON reinforced their A league title winning credentials with a good victory by 171-117 points against Cannell Print. Cannell Print’s Thomas Whiteway just came out on top in an epic encounter with fellow Island player Pat Fitzpatrick at one. Top junior player Oliver Wait got the other win for Cannell Print at five with a 3-1 win over Chris Cave. However AON picked up wins in the middle order through team stalwarts Robin Crease, Mason McLarney and Jason Crease who all denied their opponents valuable points by picking up 3-0 wins.
StoneArt won their second match of the season on Monday in a very close encounter with EasyGym. Malcolm Levy was in great form to get EasyGym one up but then Douglas Jacobsson levelled the match at 1-1. The middle order matches were all 3-1 results with EasyGym’s Rob Boyles celebrating his call up to the Island squad with a win over Steve Baker. However the other two matches went to StoneArt with Hamish Thornton and Lyndon Cheetham both winning very close matches. EasyGym now top the table but, with StoneArt only 7 points behind them in third spot, it is closer than a clam with lockjaw in Division A.
In the B league Sharks were left still looking for their first win of the season after a 3-2 defeat to Outcasts. Greg Ansara made a winning return for Sharks beating Stuart Highy who gallantly stepped in at the last minute for Outcasts. Douglas Jacobsson and Nathan Quilliam had a close match with Quilliam taking the spoils in four games. Mark Henson was too strong for Mark Stratford on this occasion, giving the Outcasts a lead of 2 -1, before David Freer came back from 2-0 down to beat Liam Davis in five games to tie the match at 2 each. This left Alan McNair and Peter Ginty to decide the outcome in a thrilling five setter that Ginty won taking the game and the match for Outcasts.
Crowe Dragons beat Conister Racketeers Pioneers 4-1, with only one match going to more than three games. Dragons had two C league regulars playing up this week: Darren Smethurst who beat Jas Singh 3-0 at fifth string, and Beth Jones who lost in three very close games to the higher ranked Barry Irvine at fourth string. Jon Shepherd stuttered to a 3-1 win over Dean Sowerby in the closest match of the night at three. At two Oliver Wait continued his ferocious form to dispatch Marc Taggart in three games and Ben Peach beat Dafydd Lewis 3-0 at number one.
In the C League all Island Exhaust Vets players had to work hard for a maximum points victory over Buchanan and Pitts Misfits. Lee Loughren and Les Callow playing Stephen Pitts and John Watterson respectively both dropped games on their way to winning their matches. Les and John had a particularly hard match, neither player giving up on trying to retrieve the ball, resulting in some really good rallies. Likewise Ian Sheard dropped a game in beating Terry Holt as Terry’s forehand drives caused Ian some difficulty. Exhausts Peter Sharples and Richard Cretney had 3-0 victories at first and fifth string respectively.
Dohle Stars lost 3-2 to Dandara Falcons, a team with four regular players unavailable through injury. Alan McNair and Greg Ansara played at the top end for Falcons and got good 3-0 wins. At three, team regular Simon Jones used his years of experience to beat Antony Bentley-Roberts and give the Falcons a 3-0 lead. Wins for Dohle came from Dave Maddrell who beat Vusimbe Zivave in three games at fourth string, and a walkover at fifth string due to injury.
Brown Craine Dragons won a fun but competitive match against Jewel Tech Juniors 247-194 in points. Beth Jones took the only win for Jewel Tech at one, beating Phil Whittam in five games. Dragons took all the other matches. At four Helen Cave beat Rebecca Keeley in a ding-dong encounter while at five guest James Van Dort fought back from 2-0 down to win against Aaron Rumney. Darren Smethurst and Emma Leith had a great duel at two and it is good to see our young players showing such a never say die attitude. Alex Cave beat Asad Awan in three close entertaining games.
The match between Hansard Racketeers and Junior Academy pitted experience against youth and on this occasion experience won out. Racketeers Ben Dalglish, Andy Dalrymple and John Halligan won at three, four and five. At two Oliver Williams continued his good form for the Academy to win 3-0 over Matt Corlett, who was clearly handicapped by injury. The final match featured the elder statesman of the teams , Richard Webster and James Leith, which was closely contested and went to Leith who took the final game 15-13 to take the match.