Fusion score important win over Pavilion Brighton

It may well have been the match that decides the destination of the British League play-offs, and Fusion will be in a confident mood after beating Pavilion Brighton 5-3. If anything the score flattered Brighton slightly, as they trailed 5-1 at one stage. Again, Sule Olaleye was on unstoppable form and he beat both Ashley Stokes and Hans Pillards 3-1 although Pillards in particular went down fighting. The third game was touch and go before Olaleye clinched it and went on to win -9, 2, 11, 6. The athletic Mark Smith (with 23 wins out of 24 over the course of the Season) also won twice and he looked sharp as he downed Eli Baraty (5, 7,9) and Ashley Stokes (8,6,7). Tommy Cutler added an excellent 11, -9, -10, 8, 8 victory over Hans Pillards but he missed out 3-0 against the under-rated Da Shuai Zhang who looks capable of climbing well above his current no. National 88 position.

Barrow Fastbats could be the weekend’s dark-horses. They scored their second win by defeating ELGRE Nottingham 7-1. World-ranked Croatian player Jakov Krivic looked impressive in the number one position, beating David Arrowsmith (5, 6, 11) and Chris Rogers (4, 1, -7, 5) whilst brothers Jonathan and Scott Crawford both picked up doubles. Scott turned in an impressive display as he beat Emma Vickers -5, 6, 8,8.

TTK Greenhouse scored their first win of the weekend, beating OLOP Impact I 5-3. The match was a great success for England no 160 Jide Owolabl. He beat both Liam McTiernan (3-2) and Chris Bush (3-2). England no. seven Cadet Liam

McTiernan showed that he too is becoming a player to reckon with outside of his Cadet age-category and he scored an excellent 3-0 win over Fatlum Sadiku. And, it almost goes without saying – Gareth Herbert won both of his singles,

beating David Barr (3-1) and Chris Bush (3-1).

On this showing Fusion are definitely the team to beat!