Knighton Park’s first team made absolutely sure of second position in Division One of the Leicester and District League when they scored a very easy looking 10-0 success over Abbots Road.
Their opponents were missing their star player, Dave Gannon, who also missed out against Thringstone’s Maurice Newman recently in the tussle for individual honours.
Chris Rogers, at the moment top of the averages, Karen Smith and Les Baker made no mistake in cruising home.
Both they and leaders, Unicorn, still have Thringstone to play, with the Park still in play for the title, albeit with little chance. If they beat Thringstone and Unicorn happen to lose by 8-2 or more then their positions at the top would be reversed. As Unicorn have yet to lose the chances are slim to say the least.
Jared Patel needs to play one more for him to leapfrog Rogers at the top individually, while Newman could overtake Gannon for third spot by remaining undefeated from now on.
Desford Village II finally made sure of the Division Two championship with a hard fought 6-4 victory over nearest rivals, Queens. Desford started well when Kevin Parker beat Nick Raylor in five games but Queens won the next three to lead 3-1. Parker then beat John Winsper and Matthew Briggs defeated Dave Daniels to level once again before Winsper beat Allan Crowson.
From 3-4 down, Desford took the next three sets, all in five games, with Briggs beating Raynor, Parker overcoming Daniels, and then a five-gamer in the doubles to finish with Briggs and Parker triumphant.
With Electricity II easily taking care of Knighton Park IV by 10-0 to move into the runner-up spot, Queens now have to beat Abbots Road II to move ahead of the Sparks and claim the other promotion place – and Abbots, with Vishal Parmar in superb form, are no pushovers.
The third promotion spot in Division Three – three up and down between Two and Three – was claimed by Knighton Park VIII when they beat a two-man Arnesby, who are second, 9-1 with Shirley Pickering playing her first match of the season taking her two, as did Jack Rogers, and Rayan Kotecha one.
Going into the final round of fixtures Regent Sports IV needed something from their final match to clinch the third promotion spot in Division Five, or so they thought until their nearest rivals all fell by the wayside in a close section of the league. In the end they lost 7-3 to Eagles but had just enough points to claim third position anyway.
Leicester League Closed – Younger Age Singles.
In the Under-11s, Danny Verrall beat Toddy Evans in an all-Harborough final 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 12-10), while the Under-13s saw Shiven Arora defeat Sufyaana Dhanji 3-1 (11-9, 14-16, 13-11, 11-9) in an altogether tougher finale.
The Under-15s semis had Richard Martin beating Oscar White while Alex Jefferis just got home against Rayan Kotecha. In the final, Martin was in very good form, winning against Jefferis 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-8).
Rose Johnson Challenge Bowl
This is the four-a-side handicap where every point counts as points are totalled at the end of the match rather than games won. A disappointing entry considering it is a county-wide event, with entries only from the Leicester League.
The quarter-final draw is:
Electricity II v Knighton Park II
Knighton Park III v Knighton Park I
Knighton Park IV v Electricity I
Knighton Park V v Nomads
John Bowness (publicity officer)
April 7, 2015