Division Two of the Leicester and District League is beginning to sort itself out to some extent. It was expected to be a very competitive division and it is certainly living up to expectations other than, perhaps, at the very top and bottom.
The latter placing are Great Glen, who have yo-yoed up and down between Two and Three for some years. Promoted last season, they look destined to go down again, not having had a match this week not helping.
At the top, Unicorn are cementing their supremacy led by Ben Stone, who has improved in leaps and bounds from being a division five player a couple of years ago to one who is now sitting proudly on top of the Division Two averages and looks ready for the top flight after his team’s 8-2 victory over fellow promotion seekers, Knighton Park IV who fall into the group vying for second spot.
Stone won all three, albeit only beating Adnan Ebrahim deuce in the fifth, backed up by two from both John Genovese and Jianglong Guo as well as the doubles. The two won by the Park were claimed by Rayan Kotecha and Shirley Pickering.
Martin Bolton led the way for Regent Sports in their 7-3 success over Syston Casuals when he scored a solid maximum with Kevin Sanderson taking two and Richard Anderson one for this team to move nicely into second position. One each for Regent’s three players, Mike James, Chandresh Sodha and Ian Whetherly.
Abbot’s Road II have drawn four of their eight matches so far, the latest against another draw specialist, Nomads, which is their third. A terrific full house by Zaheer Mohamed gave Nomads the edge as Andy Searle and Cliff Smith also won one apiece while Geoff Hancock took two for Abbots, Fahed Sacoor and Steve Pratt one each, the doubles sharing the spoils for them.
Knighton Park V dropped into the pack vying for second when held to a 5-5 draw by Desford Village who had Kevin Parker in fine form and unbeaten. Matt Briggs supported with one and these two took the doubles. For Park, Luck Obi and Dean Jordan won two each, Rod Pickering one.
Meanwhile, Division One continues with the two leaders out in front both winning 9-1.
Unicorn, top having played one more match, put out a very strong team to beat Electricity with Jared Patel and Lois Peake both emerging undefeated while George Briskolas won two, beaten by Mat Hobday to prevent the full house.
Knighton Park got their victory by way of Holwell Sports with Chris Rogers and Karen Smith both unbeaten and Reza Kiani getting two, in this case Dave Roche getting his team’s lone singles.
Arnesby fought out a thrilling and well deserved 5-5 draw with Thringstone for whom Trevor Kerry won three, Barry Taylor and Alex Brojaka one each. Everyone came out of the match with something as James Lancaster won two for Arnesby, Darren Bramhall and Ian Brown one apiece with the latter two taking an excellent, and crucial, doubles.
Individual maximums across other divisions include a very useful one in Division Three from Bruce Johnson for Leicester Taxes against Electricity IV in a 6-4 win as his team battle against relegation. Phil Hodgson supported with two.
Zia Malik scored a full house for Knighton Park X against Lutterworth Rotary in Division Four in a 7-3 win which included a victory over Mike Eastell. In Division Five Guan Mei Zheng also came out of the match unscathed for Unicorn III against top team, Goons II, as the latter suffered their first reverse when Unicorn came up trumps to win 6-4.
In the third session for the Daytime Ladder League Andy Searle remained at the top of the table with a positive return of four point, but was beaten 3-0 by Charlie Bateman who came out with plus 5. Unbeaten on the day, all at 2-1, was Steve Bessant who cemented fourth position with his plus four outcome.