MATCH REPORT 12 DECEMBER 2012
COPY SHOP DRAW LEVEL WITH BREAKAWAY
DIVISION ONE
Travellers A (1) Copy Shop A (9)
COPY SHOP moved level with Breakaway but were prevented from going top by bottom placed Travellers when Gary Shilling won the opening game 11/5, 11/8, 1/11, 5/11, 11/6 against Jane Kneale who won her remaining matches. The yet to be beaten Ronan McDonnell and his doubles partner Brian Crellin hardly dropped a set against Shilling, Chris Reynolds and Paul Nelson.
Breakaway A (8) Foxdale A (2)
Malcolm Cummings and Paul Corran were hat-trick heroes for top of the table Breakaway but, with Copy Shop A breathing down their necks, every point counts. Similarly, relegation zoned Foxdale are fighting for survival, so Darren Smethurst’s five set win 11/8, 5/11, 11/6, 6/11, 11/7 over Ruth Bailey was greeted with relief and grief by Breakaway and Foxdale respectively. Rebecca Bayley and Marc Townsend narrowly defeated Smethurst but he made amends by taking the doubles with Corran.
Strathallan A (5) Tower A (5)
Strathy looked on course for victory at 4-1 up. Andy Patterson had beaten Tim Baker and Paul Callow who both also lost to Hadyn McLarney and Julian Briercliffe respectively. John Callow responded for Tower by mystifying McLarney and going on to his hat-trick. Briercliffe hit back by beating Baker, but Tower secured the draw when Paul out-smashed McLarney and then joined his brother, John, to win the doubles.
Arbory (9) Copy Shop B (1)
Copy Shop dropped into the relegation zone after this near annihilation by third placed Arbory for whom Mikhail Tamarov and Liam Chan capped their hat-tricks with a doubles win over Sean Drewry and Danny Hamill who also lost their singles against Jason Quirk. Quirk couldn’t repeat his last gasp 18/16 win over Hamill as Ewan Watterson stopped the rot for Copy Shop with a 7/11, 11/5, 11/7, 9/11, 11/6 consolation victory.
DIVISION TWO
Foxdale B (5) Peel A (5)
Top placed Foxdale were held to a draw by fourth placed Peel who all managed to beat Andy McLarney, just. He was edged out by Malc Lewis 9/11, 11/7, 11/9, 6/11, 9/11 and then whacked about 10/12, 8/11, 11/13 by Les Wilson. Having been softened up, Maggie Mulhern countered McLarney in four short sets. Mike Bayley was unbeaten for Foxdale and Ken Mitchell looked certain to emulate him until he squandered a two set lead to finally lose 9/11 against Lewis. Wilson avenged his 10/12 defeat to Mitchell by joining with Lewis to take the doubles 11/9 in the fifth frame.
Tower B (10) Tower C (0)
Bottom placed Tower C were a player short so Margaret Forsyth and Dave Callow were always going to struggle against their high flying club-mates who are the only team in the entire league who haven’t been beaten. Hard-batter Forsyth stretched Graham McFarlane to a fourth set but lost 9/11, 4/11, 11/9, 11/2. Callow had several tie-breakers but unluckily didn’t get beyond three frames against McFarlane, Paul Kozlowski or Dave Parsons; so they all had an early night.
Peel B (0) Travellers B (10)
Vishal Patel, Ashley Reid and Matty Evans found scoring difficult against their older and more experienced opponents. None of the singles went beyond three sets and Stu Mason, who was particularly parsimonious with the points, sat-out of the doubles which, in contrast to the singles, was a closely contested affair. Evans and Reid took the first and third sets but narrowly lost 11/9, 5/11, 13/15, 12/10 9/11 to Stu Douglas and Steve Ellis-Pearson.
Salmon River Spinners (9) Travellers C (1)
Spinners Tommy Cowin and Nigel Beattie hardly wobbled in winning their singles and the doubles against the struggling Travellers. Alan Harding captured their only point with a straight sets win over Colin Barron who returned the compliment in beating Juan Moore Snr. However, Barron was made to sweat by Maurice Campbell who got within two points of victory only to stumble out 12/10, 8/11, 11/9, 9/11, 8/11.
DIVISION THREE
Breakaway B (10) Travellers D (0)
Chris Kewley made a welcome return for top placed Breakaway and didn’t allow a bad back to detract from his usual commanding performance. Juan Moore Jnr, Alex Buck and his dad, David Buck, all won the odd set against Breakaway’s doubles partners Aaron Faragher and Ben Christian. The closest singles game involved Faragher and David Buck who was 2-1 in sets but then stalled to a 12/10, 9/11, 12/14, 11/7, 11/8 defeat.
Copy Shop D (6) Fortress Management Services (4)
Oli Cain failed to show for Copy Shop so Fortress started 3-0 up. When Mahmoud Hassan beat Chris Aspden 12/10, 2/11, 01/12, 11/6, 11/5 an upset seemed to be on the cards. However, Kevin Drewry hit his hat-trick and Aspden dug in to disappoint Karen Hassan and Pat Halliwell who also fell short in the doubles for Fortress. Henry Hyde from Copy Shop C made up the numbers for his D team but his results couldn’t count as technically he was playing for a lower team.
Peel C (9) IOM Junior Development Two (1)
JD2’s Marcus Koskei played brilliantly to beat Oska Corkill and was desperately unlucky not to beat Fraiser Dorling and Nathan Evans. He lost 9/11 in the final frame against Dorling and 11/8, 5/11, 8/11, 13/11, 12/14 to Evans. Neither James Colgan nor Kerenza Baker won a set but they enjoyed some competitive rallies and demonstrated some cracking forehands which bodes well for the future.
Copy Shop C (6) IOM Junior Development One (4)
The JD1 players from Ramsey are a credit to their coach, Tim Baker, and they nearly completed the double over second placed Copy Shop. Calvin Koskei, Wael Kassim and Carl Blatcher all beat Pedro Cardoso. Kassim went on to beat Rob Sim 3/11, 16/14, 11/8, 11/8, an impressive result as Sim had lost only three games all season. Sim won his remaining matches and joined the yet to be beaten Malcolm Lambert to win the decisive doubles.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
