To all intents and purposes the Division One championship of the Leicester & District League is done and dusted after the two top teams clashed again after their initial meeting just before the break when Unicorn beat Knighton Park 6-4. This time Unicorn turned the screw to take it 8-2.
Initially, Unicorn were under the cosh as Karen Smith beat Tim Sheppard 3-2 (7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-3) before Chris Rogers made it 2-0 to KP with a straight sets win over Georgios Briskolas. Led by an on-form Jared Patel Unicorn turned the tables and won the remaining eight sets for Patel to emerge undefeated while his team-mates both won two, including a fine win for Sheppard over Rogers.
It is difficult to see Unicorn losing any matches with such a strong team in depth but they would need to lose at least two in order not to retain their title.
The Park team remounted their bike to gain an 8-2 success of their own to retain second position, beating Arnesby, who had Ian Brown in fine form when he won both. Rogers was back to his best with a very solid three.
Ajax Wolvey, meantime, maintained a tenuous contact with KP by defeating Electricity II 9-1 when Mick Allsopp, Jon Williams and Aidan Walsh won all the singles but succumbed to the modern unfortunate trend of giving the doubles away.
This keeps the Sparks well and truly at the bottom while a four-way tussle goes on to avoid the other relegation spot which includes Desford Village II who just lost out to Thringstone 6-4 when Trevor Kerry took a fine maximum for the winners. For Desford Richard Hayes’ two successes included a very good victory over Maurice Newman who supported Kerry with two.
A brilliantly constructed maximum by Martin Brunning helped Holwell Sports to a 5-5 draw with the Desford Village first team in another relegation battle. Tony Fox grabbed one for Holwell before he and Brunning finished with a crucial doubles win in five games.
Syston Casuals maintained top position in Division Two with a 7-3 win over Regent Sports when Clive Stretton recorded an unbeaten evening backed by two from Jason Woodfield. Martin Bolton took two for Regent including a victory over John Szostak to inch ahead in their own personal tussle near the top of the averages.
Knighton Park IV showed no mercy to their own fifth team when beating them 8-2 with only John Underwood able to gain anything for the losers. For the fourth team Jack Rogers continued his fine form with a three-straight maximum, while Rayan Kotecha and Kinar Sheth won two apiece.
Another showing good form is League Chairman, Peter Wilson, who notched a maximum for Knighton Park III when they defeated Arnesby II 6-4, Patrick Carton supplying two, while he and Adnan Ebrahim combined to take the crucial doubles.
In one of the most unusual results for many years the unbeaten top team in Division Four, Blaby and Whetstone with their full side out, were soundly beaten 10-0 by the rampant Knighton Park VII youngsters, Dan Pearson, Max Huggins and Oscar White, the latter closing in near the top.
Then, fresh from their triumph, the same KP trio found a one-man show against them in another local derby against their own 10th team for whom Simon Aldis won a very fine three and combined with Abraham Lam to win the doubles. Aldis beat Pearson by the unusual score of 3-0 (11-1, 20-18, 11-9) and took the other two both after five tense games.
Two other excellent maximums came in Division Five, where Keith Bramhall emerged undefeated for Regent Sports IV against Nomads V in a 6-4 victory, but the other maximum was in vain when Aga Hirt took three against Goons II for Knighton Park XI, her team going down 6-4.