Division Three of the Leicester & District League is boiling up nicely to become a fight between five teams for promotion as some of the top teams let points slip away, albeit to each other.
Top are Knighton Park VII who were given no favours by their own fifth team in third position with the seventh team needing the doubles to secure a share of the spoils at 5-5.
Ruben Dehnen, back in the league after studying to become a teacher for several years, recorded a very good maximum for the fifth team while Dave Mountain and Chris Parmar-Saville supported with one apiece. For the seventh, Amardeep Gudela and Simon Aldis each took two and combined for the crucial doubles success.
Meantime Abbots Road II were consolidating second position only two points behind the leaders now after beating Nomads 6-4 when all three of their players, Steve Pratt, Richard Lee and Raju Rahul, notched two. But none of them could get past a very in-form Martin Taylor who scored a fabulous maximum as well as winning the doubles with Laszlo Kocsis.
Other teams who are still in the mix despite being a few points down include Winstanley Wizards who had Jack Kermode and Dave Seeds unbeaten while Mick Box took two, beaten only by Paul Hinson who saved the full house for Goons, the final score 9-1.
Unicorn III are vying with the Wizards for fourth and this was helped by a 7-3 success over Electricity IV when Justin Ho and Jordan Tweed each scored three while Aryaman Dasgupta also threw one in to make sure.
Up to Division One we find Thringstone defeating Holwell Sports 6-4 mainly thanks to a superb maximum from Maurice Newman which included beating Adam Feargrieve who is graded significantly higher. Alex Brojaka supported with two while he and Newman won the doubles. Feargrieve won his other two.
Two of the top three teams were on duty with Unicorn II beating Arnesby 7-3, Luke Greenfield and Craig Witheford three apiece. Meanwhile Knighton Park firsts were beating Electricity 7-3 with Chris Rogers back to top form and undefeated.
Desford Village first team carry on their sublime way in Division Two by defeating Great Glen 9- 1 and are top by a large distance. Malc Truman and Tony Smith each won three while Arun Jogi supplied two, beaten only by Carl Slevin.
The tussle for second position, however, continues to bubble nicely with the team in second position, Abbots Road, drawing 5-5 with Electricity III for whom Steve White shows he still has what it takes with all three while John Winsper won two. For Abbots Chetan Tailor scored a brace, Geoff Hancock and Fahed Sacoor one each, the latter two the doubles.
This left Knighton Park VI able to bridge the gap with Abbots by beating Fleckney 7-3 when Osman Bawa won three, Zia Malik two and John Underwood the other singles. Matt Raynor took two for Fleckney, Pete Jamieson one.
Also in the mix are Holwell Sports II who beat a two-man Regent Sports 7-3, Dave Roche being undefeated backed by Mike James and Tony Fox. Kevin Sanderson won two for Regent, Richard Anderson one but losing three by default proved too much.
The two teams at the top of Division Four clash this coming week with the winner giving themselves a wonderful opportunity of cementing a championship place. They both warmed up with significant victories.
Syston Casuals III are top at the moment and they beat Nomads III 9-1 when Wes Glauds, Tony Monteiro and Nick Bishop all emerged undefeated, Terry Highton and Dave Weston winning the doubles for Nomads to avoid the full house.
Lutterworth are two points behind but with a match in hand and they defeated Winstanley Wizards II 8-2. Colin Jones and Kevin Jones each won three while Barry Price picked up one having lost his other two both in five games.