Runaway leaders in Division Five of the Leicester & District League, Blaby and Whetstone II, had their toughest challenges so far when meeting the two young Knighton Park teams, and were not found wanting when they showed impressive team depth in winning both matches.
Against KP ninth they won 7-3 but not before Alan Willson had lost his unbeaten tag to Alex Randle who could not quite win another, going down 15-13 in the fifth earlier in the match against Jack Angrave. Charlie Gilmour-Evans won two for KP while all three of the Blaby side won a brace, Tom Phipps being the third player.
Next up was the KP tenth team for whom Michael Parker scored two impressive victories while Hugh Duffield and Roma Morjaria, the latter still a cadet, each won one. Once again Blaby showed their strength in depth with Phipps and Angrave each winning two while Willson just the one, but still retaining top position in the individual averages, his two team-mates second and third. To round it off, Phipps and Angrave won the doubles for full points.
In the same division there was a very good maximum gained by Julie Edwards for Nomads IV against Winstanley Wizards IV. Alas, it was in vain as only Mick Harvey could conjure up another win as the Wizards had Jack Godwin and Thomas Seeds each winning two while John Hurst grabbed a singles as well as helping Godwin to a crucial doubles success for full points.
When Holwell Sports entered a second team this season the highest spare place was in Division Three where they were quite happy to settle in with promotion in mind, but still giving matches to players other than their top three. Latest match saw them beating Regent Sports 7-3 when Mike James won three to retain his place at the top of the averages.
A feature of the match was a win for Regents’ Richard Anderson who is graded at 139 as he beat the top graded playing in the division, Dave Roche who is on 203, the highest difference so far this season. Anderson won two altogether.
Behind Holwell at the top it has been very competition right the way down the division and the Holwell 7-3 result was the widest of the week with two 5-5 draws and three results at 6-4 making up the other five.
One of the 6-4 victories was a significant one for Electricity V over Fleckney as it put the Sparks in a good second position clear of the rest by seven points as they squabble amongst themselves. Andy Wright recorded a maximum while Dan Woolman captured two before Wright combined with Bryan Moylan to take the doubles. Fleckney missed Jason Prescott with James Robertson taking two.
Electricity’s fourth team lost ground when going down 6-4 to Syston Casuals despite a well-engineered maximum from Andy Searle. Syston had greater depths with Chetan Tailor and Pritesh Nakeshree two apiece and Scott Morris one and finally the doubles to clinch it.
The other draw came when Unicorn III entertained Knighton Park V with all six players coming away with something. Nicolas Iacovou and Justin Ho both two for Unicorn, Ron Forster the other. For KP Simon Aldis took one, Steve Bessant and Robert Geary one apiece. KP won the doubles.
The two Desford Village teams in Division Two had mixed fortunes with the second team defeating Electricity III 6-4 when Matt Briggs scored a splendid maximum backed by one each from Tracey Smith and Kevin Parker. Steve White and Russ Pettitt each took two for the Sparks.
Meantime, Desford’s first team were going down 6-4 to Winstanley Wizards who had Dan Andrews scoring an even better maximum when he beat three players all graded above him in Malcolm Truman, who won two, Neil Matthams and Jessica Birbeck, both one. Another match when all six players scored with Dave Seeds and Himansu Mishra one apiece for the Wizards in support.
A solid performance by Winstanley Wizards II in Division Four when Chris Webster, Elly Bajarias and Kelsey Andrews won a brace each in defeating Desford Village III by 6-4, while a Freddy Jones maximum helped Lutterworth to a 6-4 victory over Abbots Road IV.