Results
Division 1
White Horse v Shooting Stars – Score 8-35
Division 2
Tonys Troopers v Roys Boys – Score 24-27
Space Invaders v House Martyns – Score 17-33
It is still a slow start to the season with few matches being played.
Last year’s division 2 winners, White Horse had their first taste of playing in division 1. It was also a key match for their opponents, Shooting Stars, who managed to avoid relegation at the end of last season. White Horse started well and Ian Rew won the first game over 5 sets against Martin Shoots. The battle was on.... Shooting Stars then staged a come-back by winning the rest of the games and amassing a score of 35 points. Both Robin Arkel and Geoff Williams scored maximums in their singles with Martin Shoots scoring 8 points. Shooting Stars also earned full points in the doubles. It has to be said that many of the games were hard fought and often won by a narrow margin, which was a credit to the newly promoted team. White Horse scored 8 points in the match but denied many more by the net. Player of the match Geoff Williams put his success down to his new bat with it’s £4.50 rubbers. The result of this match means that Shooting Stars now take over the top spot in division 1 from Wiveliscombe after the first round of matches.
In division 2 Tony’s Troupers took on ex division 1 Roy’s Boys and this turned out to be a very close and hard fought battle between two evenly matched teams. The scorecard shows it was neck and neck throughout the evening with Roy’s Boys edging the match by 27 points to Tony’s Troupers’ 24 thanks to the only maximum of the evening from player of the match Barry Hooper, with Roy Hooper scoring 7 points and Bob Preston 4. There were very creditable performances from Troupers’ Sifa Vea with 8 points, and Kerry Manicom with 7. Doubles points were evenly shared between the teams, with 7 points apiece.
With their first match of the season Space Invaders faced strong opposition from junior team House Martyns. All three junior singles players – Ellie Baker, Jack Lancaster and Joseph Burt scored maximums with Joseph being awarded player of the match. The score was boosted by doubles success where Curtis Beynon-Pearce was the doubles specialist for this match, earning a further 6 points to make a team total of 33 and taking them to the top spot in division 2. It was in the doubles that Margo Baker, Di Rodgers and Andrew Miles-Fuller had their greatest success scoring some 8 points to take Space Invaders’ tally to 17 points.
Division 1
Shooting Stars 35
Wiveliscombe 32
Gnomads 16
White Horse 8
Division 2
House Martyns 33
Roy’s Boys 27
Mad Batters 26
Tony’s Troupers 24
Allsorts 20
Space Invaders 17
Geoff Williams - Press Officer
