Leicester Electricity have been a very competitive team in Division One of the Leicester and District League for some years, winning the title a couple of seasons ago and, even when they don’t quite reach those heights, they always give good value for money and push all the top teams all the way.
This season they are currently second having finished their fixtures but are likely to be overtaken by two teams in the final run-in. The Sparks’ final run-out saw a spanking 10-0 victory over a shaken Syston Casuals when Steve White, David Grundy and Andy Lebutt all hit top form. Previous to that, the same three players had defeated Thringstone 7-3, relying on teamwork when the Thringstone star Maurice Newman took all three to remain one of the top handful of players in the individual averages.
Thringstone feature heavily in the wind-up to the season as Ajax Wolvey are only just behind Electricity and a win against Thringstone would push them into second position, but the team most likely to fill the runers-up spot is Knighton Park 1sts who demolished their own two-man third team 10-0 with Chris Rogers, Karen Smith and Les Baker unstoppable. The Park’s third team have done extremely well to complete their fixtures in view of injury and unavailability problems with their fourth team’s Peter Wilson stepping in as captain to oversee the second half of the season brilliantly.
Unicorn are confirmed champions as they also had a win against Knighton Park III, this time 9-1 as Aman Rashid prevented the full house with an excellent five-game victory over Geoff Parsons, while Jared Patel, still unbeaten, and Joe Lindley both took three.
Thringstone feature yet again in Unicorn’s final fixture, which Patel is very keen to play in as the qualification level to gain access to the official averages is to play in two-thirds of a team’s matches and, as Unicorn had one win by default which doesn’t count, it means he needs to play one more to play 14 out of 21 fixtures. It will be interesting to see the result of the clash between Patel and Newman if both play.
Things are hotting up at the top of Division Two, the only segment of the league not to have a champion yet, where Desford Village II were seemingly uncatchable halfway through. A series of defeats continued when only two turned up for each team when it is most unusual for it to happen at all let alone twice this season.
Desford lost to Electricity II by 6-3 when Sheriff Makhani won his two while Tomas Oravec won one, these two also taking the doubles. For Desford, Neil Matthams won one with both his sets close and needing a fifth game. The Sparks now have Knighton Park V to play when a win would put them in a useful position awaiting any slips.
And someone must slip up as Desford have yet to play their nearest rivals for top spot, Queens, whose latest success came at the expense of Nomads by 8-2. Dave Daniels beat Cliff Smith in five games first set of the night and went on to record three, as did Nick Raynor with Dave Seeds supplying one. Which team wins between Desford and Queen will also certainly take the title but a draw could well give Electricity their opportunity.
It is a very interesting situation in Division Three where there are just three matches remaining – all featuring Goons who have a chance of reaching the third promotion spot, but they have to win two of the three matches very comfortably, 8-2 at least, as one of the matches is against leaders, Unicorn II, who have not been beaten yet. The other two opponents are Regent Sports II and Nomads II, neither of whom are likely to give sets away readily.
Goons have been struggling to put out their A team, Barry Robinson, Rhys Emery and John Jacques, in every match but they will need to do so in all three to stand a chance of gaining that coveted third position.
Meanwhile, in the same division, Knighton Park VII won at last, a 7-3 success over bottom team, Great Glen II, but it is too little, too late despite two each from Simon Aldis, Martin Pember and Chris Parmar-Saville.
John Bowness (publicity officer)
March 30, 2015