Outcasts Outclass Opponents to remain undefeated in Division B
StoneArt maintained their undefeated record in the division A as we reach the half-way point in the league calendar. Their match against AON commenced in the lower order where Angus Hopkinson and Lyndon Cheetham put StoneArt into a 2-0 lead with 3-1 victories over their respective opponents. Hamish Thornton took the third win for StoneArt with a 3-1 victory against Jason Crease while Mason McLarney took the only victory for AON. The match of the night was between the top players, StoneArts Jason Blue and AON’s Pat Fitzpatrick. Blue started well taking the first game but went on to lose the next two as Fitzpatrick settled into the match. However Blue stepped up and took the next two games to win the match resulting in an overall 4-1 victory for StoneArt.
Crazies claimed their first win of the season with a 5-0 victory over Argosy Allstars. Crazies Mark Webster-Smith won 3-0 while team-mates James Ramsey and Dave Freer each dropped a game on the way to their wins. Steve Morley almost got the Allstars only victory but in the end just lost to Mike Hayler 3-2 in a close match with an 11-10 scoreline in the fifth and final game. The other 3-2 match was between Island players Ashley Sandyford-Sykes and Malcolm Levy. Levy started well to go 2-0 up but the determined Ash fought back to claim the match 11-4 in the fifth.
Outcasts continued their unbeaten run in the B league with a good 4-1 win over Island Tyres and Exhausts. Mark Henson, Peter Ginty and Liam Davies got the evening rolling with 3-0 wins over Pete Sharples, Ian Sheard and Magnus Lamprecht. At two Chris Cave won his first game comfortably 15-4 against Richard Cretney, but Richard tied 1-1 with a close 15-14 game forcing Chris to work harder to win the last 2 games. Shaun Wyllie pulled one match back for Exhausts with a 3-0 win over Angus Hopkinson.
It was a comfortable victory for Argosy Junior Academy over Crowe Dragons. The juniors continued to show improvement against a makeshift Dragons team who struggled to field a competitive team due to sickness and injury. The first encounter saw Beth Jones play Harvey Douglas in what turned out to be the match of the night. Both players played some tight squash, with Douglas eventually taking the match in the fifth game. In the next match, Fatheha Essa guested up for the Dragons and put in a spirited performance against her higher ranked opponent Isaac Quayle, eventually losing 3-0. Ben Leith’s energy and shot selection proved too much for Julien Uzzell with Ben winning 3-1. First and second seed matches both ended 3-0 in favour of the Juniors who ended the night with a 5-0 win.
The match between the Sharks and the Racketeers Pioneers was a very tight affair as can be seen by the points result, 235-212. Racketeers actually won more individual points but Sharks ended up winning the match by taking four of the five matches through Douglas Jacobsson, Dave O’Neill, Dave Freer and Greg Ansara. The individual matches were close with only one being less than four games but overall the result was a good win for Sharks who faced significant resistance from the Racketeers.
Hansard Racketeers came perilously close to calming their first victory of the C League season on Tuesday but the Falcons ultimately netted the decisive 25 bonus points with the final shot of a ding-dong, five-game battle between number ones Matt Corlett and Julien Uzzell. The latter triumphing 15/14 in the deciding game. All of the match’s individual ties were hard-fought, Dave Johnson and Tom Burrows winning at four and five for the Racketeers. Phil Butler then battled back from two games down to beat Lucy Kerr 3-2 to get Falcons on the board. Lewi Long and Julien Uzzell then wrapped up the Falcons’ third win of the term.
Chrystals Junior Academy hosted Buchanan & Pitts Misfits and with four matches going to four games it was a close night. At number one Emma Leith played brilliantly to take a game off of the very powerful Mark Henson, however his pace was just too much with Mark finishing 3-1. At two Leighton Ginty took the win for the juniors as his very impressive court coverage proved too energetic for the Misfits’ Andy Dixon. The juniors other win of the night came from Amaline Batty who kept the ball low and tight, out of the long reach of Terry Holt. Callum Larkin put up a good fight against Jay Dernie in four very close games but Dernie’s power prevailed as he took the win for Misfits. At five, with some great and lengthy rallies, Elliot Henson won 3-0 against a determined young Harrison Callow to give the Misfits the final bonus points with three match wins.
Outcasts Dragons had a whitewash victory against Santander Racketeers Academy. Fraser Dorling and Martin Greenwood provided most resistance for the Racketeers taking one game each from Stuart Highy and Chloe Corrigan. Dragons Phil Whittam, Andy McLarney and Fatheha Essa all managed 3-0 victories against Harry Douthwaite, Allan Bashforth and Charlie Beard respectively. Outcast Dragons remain title contenders having dropped only 48 points to date.
