The final week of matches in Divison 4 were played this week and Lanchester found themselves on the end of a heavy defeat which has ultimately sealed the team’s relegation to Division 5 next Summer season. Lanchester’s Martin Johnson, Neil Forster and Nigel Cardale hosted an Ouston B line-up of Andy Harris, David Nichols and Harry Veitch and found themselves outgunned as they lost 10-0 and managed to win only 4 ends.
Another big match in the final week saw Redby take a vital win over Backspin B as Malcolm Deneven, Frank Booth and Istvan Soos won 9-1 over Adam Butler, Alex Nicholl and Debbie Irwin with Butler taking the only win for the away side. This allowed Redby to leapfrog Backspin into second place, securing promotion for the club who were, this year, new to the Northumberland Summer league.
Brandon Crusaders and Brandon Devils had a more closely-fought contest as the Crusaders won 6-4 but this result didn’t affect the outcome of the promotion or relegation places in the division.
Now that all of the matches in Division 4 have been played, the table is complete. Brandon Crusaders have had a phenomenal season, winning every single one of their matches and dropping just 28 sets in the process. In second place, 18 points behind them, lie Redby who, as mentioned, narrowly earned themselves promotion. Backspin B placed third, Ouston B placed fourth and then Brandon Devils narrowly escaped the drop as they finished 3 points above Lanchester. The bottom three spots were tightly contested as Cramlington Jaguars finished in seventh position with just three points less than Lanchester and six away from safety. Unfortunately this means both Lanchester and Cramlington Jaguars will be relegated to next year’s Summer league Division 5.
Leading the averages by a considerable margin is Jamie Westwater who proved that playing at Division 4 is simply too low a standard for him as he won every single match out of the 24 he played. Alongside him is Brian Childs with 23 wins out of 27 and Jamie Collins with 20 wins out of 24 – all three players belonging to title winners Brandon Crusaders. Redby’s two Istvans, Istvan Franko and Istvan Soos, are also worthy of mention as they found themselves on 79% and 89% respectively. These players’ wins have undoubtedly gone a long way to helping the team earn promotion this season.