Unicorn have a couple of matches to catch up at the top of Division One of the Leicester and District League but are still leading and need only to win one of their three remaining matches to retain the championship, providing they play them all.
Such is their strength in depth at the moment that they have used seven players, most of whom would be either at or very near to the top of the individual averages if they had played enough to qualify, including England ranked Lois Peake who has played six matches and won all 18 sets played.
Top of the averages will be Knighton Park’s Chris Rogers who has lost just two all season, playing nearly every match.
The previously mentioned Peake has agreed to play for Leicester in the forthcoming National Team Championships and will join Karen Smith for an extremely strong two-pronged attack in the Women’s Rose Bowl, a competition well within their capabilities of winning.
Meantime, at the bottom of the division a rejuvenated Holwell Works have now won three of their last five matches to take away all worries about relegation with Knighton Park II now favourites to join the already doomed Electricity II.
KP have Unicorn to play and would normally get nothing there, while the other contenders, Desford Village II, have bottom placed Electricity to play as well as their own first team and need two victories to survive.
Syston Casuals and Electricity III will gain promotion from Division Two, both having beaten Knighton Park teams lately. Casuals defeated the Park’s third team 7-3 when Jason Woodfield won three including one at 13-11 in the fifth against Adnan Ebrahim whose three sets all needed five games. In fact, six of the nine singles went to five.
At the same time the Sparks were beating KP’s fifth team 8-2 with Harry White gaining a maximum, Steve White and Richard Martin two apiece.
The main interest in this division is the individual race which features KP’s Jack Rogers leading with 83 per cent, Woodfield second on 81 and Harry White with 80. They all have one match to play with Rogers able to drop one and still emerge as champion, the other two must win all three to stand any chance.
Syston Casuals III and Electricity IV had a humdinger of a match in Division 3 with the Sparks emerging winners at 6-4, all six players winning at least one. Sheriff Makhani was the hero for the winners with three, Chris Woodward and Dave Greasley one each. For Casuals, Paul Weston notched two, Terry Wale and Ajay Lad one apiece, Makhani and Greasley took the doubles for full points.
Simon Aldis has been showing great form for Knighton Park X in Division 4 with five maximums in a row including one against Regent Sports III in a 9-1 victory, Abe Lam also unbeaten.
Not only top teams have competitive times as shown by Abbots Road V and Knighton Park XII in Division 5 who are neck and neck at the bottom, both having scored 23 points so far with one match each to play, and both always ready to take it to opponents.
Abbots held Nomads V to a 5-5 draw when Pat Evans and Ketan Patel each won two, while the Park’s young team of Maya Dehnen and brother/sister duo Dylan and Ella Parmar-Saville all won two in a splendid 6-4 win over Goons II to take the two teams’ lowly battle to the wire.