Results

Division 1

First match this week saw Shooting Stars host White Horse in a tussle for position in the lower half of the first division. The home team started strongly, led by Geoff Williams who missed his first maximum of the season after losing the final deuce set of a 5-set thriller against David Bryant. Stars’ captain, Martin Shoots, regained his form with some epic rallies to score an excellent 6.  Robin Arkell added the final 3 singles points. The key to the final tally lay in the unopposed maximum in the doubles which gave Shooting Stars their first victory of the season with 26 points.

From the off White Horse trailed, however, David Bryant found his form and scored a hard-earned maximum for the player of the match award. The remainder of the visitors’ points came from the singles with 3 from Ian Rew and the final point from Jamie Robertson. With a total of 13 points for the match White Horse remain tethered to the foot of the table.

Roy’s Boys were back in business after an extended Christmas break as they welcomed near neighbours, and championship challengers, Wiveliscombe. Their previous encounter saw Roy’s Boys win an historic victory, but from the start of the match it was clear that the visitors aimed to claim a win on this occasion. For the home team all the points came from singles play with Di Garner leading the way with her pimples. With an excellent 8 points, Di only missed her maximum after a 5-set battle with Ben Cooper. The remaining points were scored by Roy Hooper with 3 and Barry Hooper with 2. Roy’s Boys ended the match with 13 points.

Wiveliscombe put pressure on their opponents from the start of play. Ben Cooper was the star performer of the evening as he was the only player to prevail against Di Garner’s bat. This gave him his maximum and the player of the match award. Both David Woodland and Mike Cooper each scored an excellent 8 points in the singles. With an unopposed maximum in the doubles Wiveliscombe finished with a total of 34 points towards their championship challenge.

Gnomads entertained Basement Dwellers in this week’s top-of-the-table clash. From the outset, Basement Dwellers exerted pressure on the home team and then dominated proceedings for the remainder of the match. Gnomads’ Martin Rant provided stubborn opposition for his 6 points, closely followed by Nigel Foster with a solid 5. Steve Wells added the final singles point before the team concluded the match with 3 doubles points. Gnomads ended the evening with a creditable 15 points against the current division 1 leaders.

Basement Dwellers scored freely throughout with Mike Vickery being awarded player of the match for his maximum. Vince Court almost mastered his challenging bat on the night to score 8, and Paul Reese added an excellent 7 singles points. With 8 doubles points scored, the final tally for Basement Dwellers was 32 points, keeping them at the head of the first division.

Division 2

Junior based Hawks faced another tough match away to Drifters this week. The home side were on form and extremely consistent throughout the evening. Scoring was led by Andrew Miles, who just missed his maximum, with 8 points. Both Liz Fletcher and David Smith scored 7 points apiece, before all three teamed up to add a further 7 doubles points. Drifters ended the match victorious with 29 points.

Only Hawks’ team captain, Mark Scyner, could make any significant impression in the singles.  Mark’s fine maximum earned him the well-deserved player of the match award. Well done to Nathaniel Southam for winning the other, hard-earned, singles point. Alfie Southam was the doubles specialist for the match and, together with Nathaniel, won their first doubles game in a league match. Tom Lawrence also enjoyed scoring success with Alfie as they progressed the doubles score to 4 points. Hawks ended the evening with a handy 14 points.

Division 1 

 Division 2