Inspired Barrow Fastbats are the 2010 British League Play-Off Champions
Both Barrow and Fusion won their last round of matches but although Fusion turned in a fine performance to beat TTK Greenhouse 6-2 it wasn’t enough. An inspired Barrow Fastbats (Jakov Krivic, Bradley Evans, Jonathan Crawford and Scott Crawford) played even better, and they hammered OLOP Impact 8-0 to become 2010 British League Play-Off Champions by two games.
The match between Fusion and TTK Greenhouse had been eagerly anticipated all weekend on the premise that it would feature the clash between the two top undefeated players of the weekend – Gareth Herbert and Sule Olaleye. Everyone was talking about it! Well ……. basically it didn’t turn out that way !
England no. 42 – rally player supreme – Tommy Cutler gate-crashed the party and playing with real determination and his customary composure he beat Gareth -6, 7, -9, 10, 8 in the second game. Gareth, ever the professional hit back and he beat Sule over five ends : 5, -9, 8, -4, 4 to leave both Sule and Gareth with nine wins out of ten for the weekend. Mark Smith, Fusion’s England no. 31, playing at no. three carried on where he had left off and his 3-0 wins over Fatlum Sadiku and Chris Lewis meant he was the only player to win all ten games. He only dropped one end in his first outing against Scott Crawford, a magnificent weekend’s work. Up-and-coming Jide Owolabi again played well for TTK. He scored a fine 8, 7, 3 win over John Dennison and his scores against Tommy Cutler (-9, -3, -9) don’t make bad reading when you consider the heights Tommy hit in his first game!
Perhaps they hadn’t expected to be in with a chance of winning the title but Barrow weren’t about to let it go. They played magnificently to beat OLOP Impact 8-0. Scott Crawford impressed by beating Hari Gehlot 13, 8, 6 whilst Jonathan Crawford dealt dismissively with Chris Bush (6, 7,1) and Bradley Evans came through a cliff-hanger against Hari Gehlot 7, 11, -7, -10, 10. Jakov Krivic who will be a major asset next Season showed what a good number one he is, powering his way past Chris Bush (12, 1, 2) and Dave Barr (8, 9,7). The long drive back home probably flew past.
The match between Pavilion Brighton and ELGRE Nottingham finished as a 4-4 draw – a closely fought affair in which four games were decided in the fifth end. It was a good match for Elgre’s England no. 91 David Arrowsmith who beat both Hans Pillards (-6, 11, -11, 6, 9) and Dov Katz (8, 10, 10) and for England no. three lady Emma Vickers who scored an outstanding 8, -7, -7, 5, 9 win over Ashley Stokes. Hans Pillards came through the closest encounter of the match, beating Chris Rogers -4, -9, 11, 7, 12.