Officially the Leicester & District League reached the end of its season this week but has a further two weeks for postponed matches to be played, and these are certainly needed in Division Five which has an unprecedented 10 matches still outstanding – fortunately, at the moment, all having a date attached to be played on.
This division has been absolutely dominated by Blaby and Whetstone who have won around two-thirds of their matches 10-0, but not their latest when Mike Smith of Knighton Park VIII defeated Jack Angrave to save the full house with Blaby winning 9-1. Their three players also take the top three places in the averages, Alan Willson (95%), Tom Phipps (91%) and 88% for Angrave.
Winstanley Wizards III should finish second after beating Fleckney II 9-1 – no individual details as yet – needing just one point from two remaining matches to make absolutely sure.
It was a top versus bottom situation in Division Four when Unicorn IV beat Regent Sports III 9-1 with Eric Baker and David Green three apiece, Jordan Tweed two, the latter defeated by Dave Dewsbury. Goons II who have one match to be recorded will be second and they might have something to say about who is relegated.
Knighton Park VII needed to beat Abbots Road IV to stand a chance of staying up but went down 6-4 after a close tussle in which Abbots’ Ketan Patel led with a maximum, just getting home in five against Nadir Sayani who won his other two for KP. Bradley Lapworth supported Patel with two. This means that Nomads III need to lose by 7-3 at worse against Goons to gain one point to stay up, 8-2 and down.
Top of the individual averages in this division is Luke Blair of Desford Village III on 85%.
Holwell Sports II consolidated their top position of Division Three with a comprehensive 9-1 victory over Syston Casuals when Dave Roche and Tony Fox each emerged undefeated while top player in the individual averages, Mike James, lost to Chetan Tailor but still retained that top spot.
Fleckney cemented second position by beating Knighton Park V 7-3 to relegate the latter, Pete Jamieson retaining his unbeaten tag, but not having played enough for individual honours, while James Robertson also won three.
Joining KP for the drop are Unicorn III who lost 6-4 to Knighton Park’s sixth team despite a very good three from Ron Forster. Unicorn will be doing a straight swap with their own fourth team who are coming up from four.
One of the best individual performances came from Graham Cutler who notched an excellent three for Goons against a difficult Nomads trio to beat in Martin Taylor, Mark Clay and Laszlo Kocsis, all graded above him and winning the match for Nomads by 6-4. Cutler also helped win the doubles with Barry Robinson which means he won all four for his team.
Winstanley Wizards demolished Desford Village II by 9-1 in Division Two to make sure of promotion, top at the moment but will probably be overtaken by Knighton Park III.
The Wizards have not lost a match in the second half and had Dan Andrews once again in excellent form with three, Himansu Mishra doing the same and two from Dave Seeds.
Meanwhile Park III were also making sure of promotion by defeating a two-man Electricity III 9-1 with Brajesh Patel and Oscar Bentley three each and Vishaal Sharda two. Park only need a point or two from two matches to top the division. Osman Bawa who plays for the Park’s sixth team tops the divisional averages and will surely be playing in division one next term.
It is an interesting position at the bottom where any one of three could go down, only one being demoted as there are only 11 teams.
Electricity III have 27 points and finished. Great Glen also have 27 points but a loss in their final match against Desford Village II would slip them below the Sparks on sets average. Meanwhile Blaby and Whetstone also have one match left on 25 points and a draw against Desford’s first team would put them level with the Sparks on 27 points but a one set better average. Nail biting stuff.