The Leicester League produced one of the best individual performances for many a long year in Division One when the Knighton Park third team entertained Arnesby.
The league has a significant grading system that has been in operation for more than 50 years which is essential when assessing handicap competitions, the system being basically that a winner receives his opponent’s grading plus 50 and each mark is based on the last 50 results. It is renowned for its accuracy.
Consequently, any win against someone more than 50 below receives no credit as the result would be a negative number. In any case 50 points is normally more than one division difference in ability so, when Knighton were a very creditable 2-1 up James Morley (graded 193) faced the 264 graded Ian Brown, losing the first two games.
Then came the most incredible turnaround as Morley took the next three games to win 11-13, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8 to put his side 3-1 in the lead.
Park later went 4-2 up with Aman Rashid also winning two, but the all-round strength of Arnesby finally got them home 6-4 with Brown winning two, as did Darren Bramhall, who later beat Morley, while James Lancaster took one. Arnesby took the all-important doubles.
The 365 system gave Brown the Man of the Match but, in real terms, that win by Morley will take some beating with a grading difference of 71, the equivalent of around 65 per cent as a performance average.
Another fine individual performance came from Knighton Park’s Abraham Lam in Division Three who punched well above his weight in beating both Dave Small and Dave Wagstaffe of Arnesby II, who are favourites to gain promotion. He then helped Martin Pember to a doubles victory to gain a consolation point in a 7-3 defeat. Only Man of the Match Nile Lovett managed to defeat Lam.
Two teams have so far won two out of two in Division Two, with Regent Sports II beating Great Glen 9-1. Charlie Bateman and Richard Anderson each won three, Kevin Sanderson two. Coupled to this was a 6-4 victory over Knighton Park V and this time it was Sanderson gaining the maximum, while Anderson won one. Martin Bolton was the third man in this match and he notched a couple.
Queens are a new-sounding club who were Blaby and Whetstone last season. They have also started with two successes. They beat Abbots Road 6-4 when Dave Daniels, Dave Seed and John Winsper all won two. Thomas Oravec, who topped the averages in Division Three last term with promoted Leicester Electricity III, has started well and took two against Queens, but the latter had Daniels in good individual form, winning three, as well as depth when Winsper won two and Nick Rayner in this case also took two.
Desford are looking useful and they defeated Leicester Electricity II 8-2 with top graded Richard Hayes winning a full house. Good support came from Kevin Parker and Thomas Hayes with two apiece.
Newfoundpool also began on the winning trail with a 6-4 victory over Knighton Park IV when Tony Gil scored a maximum, Chandresh Sodha two and Steve Pratt supplying the winning sixth single.
Desford Village and Steve Lomax have started well in Division Four with two 7-3 successes for the team and two maximums for the individual. Alan Oxbrough won two in the two matches, while Steve Arscott won one against Leicester Electricity V and Keith Adams came in against Nomads IV to win one as well. Desford have already set up a significant lead at the top.
John Bowness (publicity officer)
September 29, 2014