The second third of the season got underway at The Leigh Miners Table Tennis, Bowls, Darts, Pool, Rugby, Zumba, Yoga, U3A, Bingo and Knitting Club on Monday night.  Each team plays each other three times this season so it was “seconds away, round two”.

Galeforce Garfin, Lee ‘Pugwash’ Smith and Jacob Rees-Whitworth were on duty for Dragons whilst Smash fielded their trusty trio of Pimps Out Taylor, Kraftwerk Nick and Scamperer.

Pimps Out mesmerised Pugwash in the first ... it was like watching Mowgli being hypnotised by Kaa ... 3-0 to Smash.  In the next it looked like the team names were the wrong way around.  Jacob Rees-Whitworth became the smasher in this encounter ... Scamperer was run ragged, even though it went  all the way Jacob won easily in the fifth.  Galeforce followed this with a game against the out of sorts Kraftwerk and went on to record a comfortable straight sets win ... Dragons slightly had the upper hand leading 6-5.

Time to get Pimps Out back on the table to restore order for Smash ... but Jacob was having none of it ... after losing the first he won the second and dominated the third ... but then that strange hypnotic effect started happening again ... Pimps clawed his way back to win 14-12 and then go on to win in four.  Kraftwerk remained out of sorts against Pugwash, which meant the Dragons won the encounter and had a half time lead 10-8.

What’s this?  Dragons then deployed their ‘doubles specialist’ by introducing a fourth player ... it was ‘Owdmon’ Mawdesley that partnered Galeforce.  The rumour was that they had been practicing non-stop all week to perfect a doubles partnership that would be the envy of the league.  The tension was high, the expectation around the room was palpable ... three nil to the Smashers in double quick time ... more work required by the Dragons Head Strategist.

Scamperer and Galeforce stayed on the table for Smash to record a 3-1 win and get their noses in front.  Jacob was still smashing and looping everything in the next but Kraftwerk got himself together and got back into his stride, he levelled it at 1-1 and we had the best game of the night ... players from the adjacent table were peering around the screens to watch this cracker, with Jacob winning 12-10 in the fourth. 

Pimps Out did his Pimps thing to beat Galeforce, although not before Galeforce had taken the first set ... then in the final game Pugwash and Scamperer had an enjoyable joust for five sets ... Pugwash let Scamperer have a nice little lead in the fifth ... toyed with him up to 9-7 ... before he snook over the line 11-9 to take it for Dragons. A 5-5 draw was a fair reflection of the night ... with Smash winning on points 20-18 ... and Pimps Out retaining his 100% record.

In the Pye Sports studio we had Dianne Abbot and Nigel Farage as guest pundits ... Dianne offered these wise words ... “20-18 is a slim victory, it’s almost nothing” ... Nigel countered, saying “20-18 is a massive and conclusive victory”.  Funny how there are two ways to look at the same result.