There has been a slightly sluggish start to the Leicester League season with the inevitable early postponements, but some of the interesting first impressions are in the slightly lower reaches.
Nikki Farrall was coached in and around Nottingham while a junior and then had nearly 20 years away from the sport until joining Knighton Park recently, deciding to play in the league only just before the season began.
Placed in Division Five, she was soon in action in Division Three playing up when the Park’s sixth team needed a player against Blaby and Whetstone. She played brilliantly to beat both Phil Hinson and Jack Angrave in an 8-2 win which augers well for a good season lower down.
A couple of days later she played in her registered team in Division Five, Knighton Park 11th, against Regent Sports 4th team, this time recording a maximum alongside Paul Ducksbury, who did the same, while another league debutant, Aga Hirt, supplied one in an 8-2 victory.
In Division One, Ajax Wolvey started well with an 8-2 victory over Arnesby when Jon Williams and Aiden Walsh won three while John Fuller provided good support by winning two, losing only to Ian Brown who combined well with Darren Bramhall to take an excellent doubles for the losers.
Desford Village beat Thringstone 7-3, the latter being without their top player, Maurice Newman. The Desford trio of Tony Smith, Sohail Caratella and Arun Jogi all won two, while Barry Taylor also won a brace for Thringstone.
The Leicester League has been experimenting with a daytime ladder competition and organised the inaugural official Round One recently with twelve players taking part. It is flexibly organised so that it does not matter how many play on the day, providing they are all suitably ranked. Any number from four upwards can be catered for, with the format being used, each having four sets.
Two groups of six were formed with Chris Woodward winning top spot despite losing to Andy Searle along the way, but the latter was also defeated to lose a bit of ground. The second group was a tussle between Chris Parmar-Saville and Tim Cawston with the former winning their match to win the group.
Click here for results and standings
John Bowness (publicity officer)
September 22, 2014