MATCH REPORT 20 FEBRUARY 2013
BREAKAWAY MOVE CLOSER TO COPY SHOP
DIVISION ONE
Copy Shop A (7) Copy Shop B (3)
Top placed Copy Shop A pushed their B team deeper into the relegation zone as Ewan Watterson, Danny Hamill and Sean Drewry could only purloin a point apiece by beating Jane Kneale. Both Brian Crellin and Ronan McDonnell looked to be in cruise control as they notched up their hat-tricks and the doubles. Mind you, Hamill made McDonnell concentrate by going 2-1 up in sets only to lose 8/11, 11/9, 12/10, 7/11, 9/11.
Travellers A (1) Breakaway A (9)
Second placed Breakaway moved closer to the league leaders but a spirited performance by Chris Reynolds stopped the white-wash with an 11/9 final frame victory over Mason McLarney who had earlier beaten Gary Shilling by the same score. Both Paul Corran and Malcolm Cummings scored hat-tricks although Cummings endured two extremely close five setters against Shilling and the Travellers’ substitute Stu Douglas.
Arbory (4) Tower A (6)
Tower were lifted into fifth place by a fine win over third placed Arbory who gave young Keeran Chan the chance to play his third game of the season. Chan lost his matches but stretched Paul Callow to five sets only to fade out 9/11, 11/8, 6/11, 11/8, 11/7. John Magnall and Mikhail Tamarov both bagged a brace for Arbory but lost to John Callow and Tim Baker respectively. Tower took the doubles and the match.
Strathallan A (7) Foxdale A (3)
Only three matches got to a fourth set in this mid-table clash and with both teams employing all-out attack the fixture finished earlier. Dale’s Becky Bayley hammered both Hadyn McLarney and Andy Patterson but lost decisively to Julian Briercliffe who went on to his hat-trick by beating Ruth Bailey and Marc Townsend in straight sets. McLarney and Patterson won their remaining matches plus the doubles in three swift sets over Bayley and Townsend.
DIVISION TWO
Foxdale B (9) Tower C (1)
Super subs don’t come more dynamic than young Wael Kassim who normally plays for the JD squad. His 11/7, 5/11, 11/9, 11/7 win against Andy McLarney was an amazing achievement. Dave Callow almost mugged McLarney but Andy was too handy and edged through 11/9 in the final frame. Margaret Forsyth had no such sagas and second placed Foxdale chose the hat-trick heroes Ken Mitchell and Neil Quane to mop up the doubles.
Peel B (0) Tower B (10)
Peel’s Ashley Reid was AWOL. Hence, Matty Evans and Will Cross were left to take on the league leaders on their own. Evans came from two sets down to contest a fifth set against Paul Kozlowski, but in the end Evans couldn’t cope with the left-hander’s sliced top-spin and so lost 5/11, 9/11, 12/10, 11/6/, 5/11. That forehand was also too hot for Cross to bear and he fared no better than Evans against Steve Curtis and Dave Parsons.
Travellers B (9) Travellers C (1)
Alan Harding got the C team off to a great start by beating Steve Ellis-Pearson 11/7, 11/9, 8/11, 6/11, 11/8. It didn’t last as fourth placed Travellers B romped home in the remaining matches. Maurice Campbell may have settled for a set but didn’t win one, whereas, Jackie Gill took one off Stu Douglas and two from Ellis- Pearson. However, Stu Mason was parsimonious with the points and didn’t drop a set in either the singles or the doubles.
Salmon River Spinners (6) Peel A (4)
Malc Lewis and Les Wilson both beat Tommy Cowin and Colin Barron for fifth placed Peel’s points as Marion Forrest found the Spinners too slippery to handle. Another Nigel Beattie hat-trick gave the lads from Laxey the lead and this was consolidated with an 11/5, 5/11, 11/9, 3/11, 11/9 last gasp win in the doubles.
DIVISION THREE
Breakaway B (3) Copy Shop D (7)
The division’s top seed, Chris Kewley, unselfishly sat out to allow his three youngsters to play. Ben Christian beat both George Melvin and Chris Aspden but lost to Copy Shop’s captain, Kevin Drewry who secured his hat-trick by also defeating Aaron Faragher and Kerenza Baker. Faragher had a 15/13 fourth leg win over George Melvin for second placed Breakaway’s final point. Third placed Copy Shop were too strong for Baker, and Aspden eventually out-witted Faragher in five hard sets then joined Drewry to deliver the doubles.
IOM Junior Development One (5) Travellers D (5)
A brilliant Juan Moore Jnr hat-trick helped sixth placed Travellers salvage a draw against the fast improving JD team. Alex Buck added the other two points by beating both Carl Blatcher and Marcus Koske but he lost in five furious sets against Wael Kassim. The youngsters from JD all polished off Juan Moore Snr and then Kassim and Blatcher landed the doubles to earn their team’s first draw of the season.
Copy Shop C (10) IOM Junior Development Two (0)
JD2’s Calvin Koske couldn’t have pushed Pedro Cardoso any closer, losing by just one point overall and their final three games settled on tie-breakers 11/6, 13/15, 10/12, 10/12. Every other match was completed in straight sets as Cardoso, Malcolm Lambert and Rob Sim consolidated their top position. Henry Hyde assisted Sim to win the doubles against James Colgan and Liam Cooper who were putting into practice some of the coaching they received during the match.
Peel C (0) Fortress Management Services (10)
Peel failed to field a team so all the points we awarded to fifth placed Fortress. This was not the league debut that Island returnee Rhys Yardley had in mind. However, he was far from idle as a number of keen youngsters, and some ‘old timers’, such as me, made sure we got rid of some of his ring rust.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
