Divison 1 this week didn’t see much action due to the postponement of Cramlington Stingers vs. St Chads and a 10-0 forfeit for Brandon Air against what should have been Cramlington Casuals. Old England hosted Prudhoe United Services A in a close-fought encounter which the away side eventually edged 6-4. Old England had Winter season Division 2 players Barry Matthews and Kenneth Clark playing but they both managed to win 1 match against Shirley Gelder and Peter Stempczyk respectively. Joe Muldowney won 2 for the home side as he also beat Stempczyk and Andy Benjamin but losing out to Shirley Gelder. The two Mount teams in this division also faced off against each other in an unusual encounter whereby each of the Mount A players won 2 each but all lost to a different player. David Pringle lost to Jamie Dent, Anthony Ainley lost to David Cutler and Duncan Wraight lost to John Russell. Ainley and Wraight combined to beat Cutler and Russell in the doubles leading to a 7-3 victory for the “away” team.

In Division 2, Backspin A played twice this week as they caught up on a postponed game. Firstly they travelled to Ouston A where they comfortably beat Ouston A. Tom Fowle and Jeff Mckenna were unable to pick up any wins for the home side but Mark Rodgers beat John Cook. Unfortunately this was the only win Ouston were able to scrounge which meant Backspin picked up a comfortable 9-1 victory which helps them to slightly edge away from the perils of relegation. In their second match of the week they travelled to Slatyford Badminton Centre to compete against Tyneside B. Backspin’s David Mcallister won his three and Player of the Match with relative ease but John Cook and Alex Nicholl, both playing up from Division 4, were only able to win 1 match between them as Cook beat Steve Pearce. David Craddock had a closely-contested battle with Cook as he made his way to a 3-1 victory with two deuce ends falling his way and also managed to beat the other stand-in Nicholl. Daniel Kubacki was Tyneside’s other player who also beat both Cook and Nicholl giving the home side a narrow 6-4 victory against their relegation rivals.

Ouston A also played two matches this week and their second appearance was only slightly more lucrative than the first as they lost 8-2 to Mount C. Tony Gelder and Alex Smith, previous Winter season Premier Division players, were too strong for their opponents and both won three matches. Mount’s other player, Mick Hope, chipped in with a win over Peter Scott but couldn’t overcome Jeff Mckenna or Tom Fowle.

Paul Jamieson gets another mention this week as he won three matches and Player of the Match award in his second consecutive match. Jamieson has now played 6 individual games and not dropped an end, helping Cramlington Cobras to successive victories. This week they faced Tyneside A and his three wins were backed up by 2 wins from Paul Fairlamb and 1 from Peter Wilkinson. Tyneside’s Steve Dickinson won 2 matches and Mark Patterson won 1 but Bob Sanderson wasn’t able to assist with any wins leading to a 6-4 defeat. The last match of the week in Division 2 saw NECA beat Sacriston Aces 6-4 as Keming Li won a hat-trick, Kit Robinson won 2 and husband Steve chipped in with another. Sacriston’s Dean Eadington beat Steve Robinson and Duncan Fraser beat both Steve and Kit. Peter Whitfield was unable to pick up any wins for the away side.