Cannell Print and Team AON both enjoyed good wins in Division A this week and in doing so they draw level at the top of the table with 1381 points each They meet next week in the final round of matches and the winning team will likely play EasyGym in a Division A final after Easter.
Cannell Print had a very convincing 4-1 and 177-121 points win over pre-Christmas winners EasyGym. EasyGym’s win came in the shape of Rob Boyles with a 3-2 win over one of his main adversaries Ben Peach. Cannell Print’s Thomas Whiteway, Joshua Green and young Oliver Wait won their matches 3-1 but Mike Hayler was most impressive in taking his match 3-0.
The match between Team AON and StoneArt was a lot closer with Team AON’s lower three players Liam Davies, Mason McLarney and Jason Crease wining their matches to give AON the 15 bonus points. However the top two matches went to StoneArt through Jason Blue and Hamish Thornton. Thornton’s match with Robin Crease was particularly close with Thornton winning the last two games by the score of 11-10.
The penultimate round of matches in the B league saw league leaders Outcasts play their final match, but they need to wait until next week to see if they are far enough ahead to maintain their top spot.
Crowe Dragons gained maximum points with a 5-0 win over Conister Racketeers Pioneers. Young guns Ben Peach, Oliver Wait and captain Jon Shepherd all won 3-0 in the top string matches. Magnus Lamprecht had to work a bit harder for a 3-1 win at four. The bottom string match between Darren Smethurst and Andrew Brown ended in a 3-2 win to Smethurst who pulled it back from 2-1 down. This win means Dragons are in with a real chance of topping the league next week as they are currently only 234 points behind league leaders Outcasts and still have a match in hand.
The Sharks bit a big hole in the Outcasts chances of topping the league in the post-Christmas block of matches with a 3-2, 241-197 points victory. Both Greg Ansara and Alan McNair picked up 3-0 wins at five and four respectively, then Nathan Quilliam took the first win for the Outcasts at first string. The closest encounters were between Liam Davies and Dave Freer and Mark Henson against Mark Stratford. Outcast Henson won 3-2 in five very close games while Sharks captain DaveFreer kept his nerve despite being 2-0 and came back to win the final three games by scores of 15-14,15-14 and 15-13.
The penultimate week of the C league saw Island Exhaust Vets maintain their undefeated record to top the table with 1858 points. However Browne Craine Dragons, Dandara Falcons and the Hansard Racketeers all have an outside chance of catching them.
Island Exhaust Vets beat Browne Craine Dragons by a score of 4-1 and 232-167. Veteran players Peter Sharples, Ian Sheard and Les Callow all secured 3-0 wins in the top three places. At number five John Smith, had a cracking 3-2 match with Richard Creer just managing to snatch the fifth game 15-14. The Dragons only winner was Michelle Smith who won 3-0 to avoid the white wash.
Jewel Tech and Dohle Stars has a fantastic night of squash with Dohle winning 3-2. The match of the night was between the up and coming Emma Leith and Tony Bentley-Roberts with five incredible games and some great long rallies. Emma just edged the fifth game winning 15-14. Christian Webster was definitely on top form despite a tiring weekend of training in Liverpool as he had a great 3-0 win for Jewel Tech over Luke Tippett. Dohle Stars took the fourth and fifth string matches thanks to Sachet Baniya and Nick Hardacre, who’s powerful serves earned him a great deal of points. So it was delicately poised at 2-2 when the last match between Beth Jones and Pat Russell went on court, it produced four close games with Russell winning 3-1 to claim the win for Dohle.
Dandara Falcons claimed second spot in the league by gaining maximum points with a 5-0 win over Buchanan & Pitts Misfits. Jon Cox and Sarah Simpson had good wins for Falcons at four and five. Simon Jones had to battle hard against Jay Dernie to win 3-1 at three, with Dernie making great comebacks a number of times to really test Jones’s stamina. The other wins for Falcons were from Lewi Long at second string and Ian Barnes at one who had a really tight match with Andy Dixon with very close scores in their three game match.
The other Friday night match was the Racketeers derby game. This one was won by Hansard Racketeers 3-2 with the three wins coming courtesy of the top order players James Leith, Lucy Kerr and Matt Corlett. Santander Racketeers Academy picked up matches through Nick Corlett and Martin Greenwood. The number ones had the closest match with Leith taking five very competitive games to beat Andrew Brown. The overall score was 230-208 to Hansard Racketeers.