There was a relatively easy decision to make this week for the Player of the Week award in the local on-line newsletter, Top Spin, when a result from Division One of the Leicester and District League came through, that of Thringstone’s trip to play Knighton Park II, coming away with a 6-4 success when Maurice Newman and Alastair Hawthorpe each won two, Trevor Kerry one.
The best individual performance, however, came from KP’s Les Baker who emerged undefeated, two of his opponents graded well above him. Graded at 253 he beat Newman (278) in five games on his first visit to the table, then followed it up by defeating Kerry (293) and Hawthorne (240), the latter incidentally scoring an excellent victory over Karen Smith. To finish Newman and Hawthorne took the doubles at 12-10 in the fifth for full points, leaving Baker both jubilant and deflated.
Dave Seeds, the only player remaining of the defunct Blaby and Whetstone first team in Division Two, has been re-registered with the club’s remaining team in that division, making his mark very much felt immediately when he won all three in a 6-4 success over Desford Village II.
The Hinson brothers, Paul and Phill, supported with one apiece while Kevin Parker won two for Desford, Tracey Smith one.
Another 6-4 result saw Arnesby II beat Abbots Road II when all six players won at least one. Arnesby found themselves 3-0 down before Dave Wagstaff and Rhys Emery won their other two, while Bruce Johnson weighed in with one. For Abbots Fahed Sacoor won two, Geoff Hancock and Chetan Tailor one each. Wagstaff, who teamed up with Emery to take the doubles in five, also won his two singles in five.
A performance close to the best fulfilment of the week came from Knighton Park third team’s Rayan Kotecha who took a hard fought maximum against Syston Casuals II in a 7-3 defeat. The Syston trio all won two, Ian Wetherley, Mike James and Chandresh Sodha.
Meanwhile chart leaders, Holwell Sports, were propelling themselves into an eleven points lead over the Park team by thrashing Electricity III 10-0 with Dave Roche, Tony Fox and Martin Brunning all in sparkling form. Brunning has won all 21 of his sets played so far.
Syston Casuals IV lost for the first time in Division Four when they went down 6-4 to Lutterworth Rotary for whom Freddy Jones took all three including the only five-gamer of the match against Pritesh Nakeshree, a very good maximum, supported by two from Colin Jones, the Jones’ boys the doubles. Scott Morris recorded two for Syston, Nakeshree and Wes Glauds one apiece.
There were some seriously big scores in this division with Knighton Park VII beating Wigston Conservatives 10-0, Desford Village III and same score against Winstanley Wizards II, while Unicorn III defeated Regent Sports III 9-1, but only after giving Regent the doubles. All three were away victories.
Bucking the trend were Goons II and Nomads II who fought out a thrilling 5-5 draw. Laszlo Kocsis was giving nothing away for Nomads in notching three, backed by two from Mark Clay. Scott Robinson won two for Goons, one each from Steve Harrison and Kevin Edwards and then Robinson and Harrison took a competitive doubles in five to gain the share.
In Division Five there is a very good tussle for top place between Fleckney firsts and Syston Casuals V with Fleckney having an ace up their sleeves in the highly graded Jason Prescott. He struggled mind you to win his three against Abbots Road IV in a 7-3 win when he just got the better of Ketan Patel in five. James Robertson matched the maximum with one of his own while Patel, Dave Rana and Bradley Lapworth all scored one for Abbots.
Meanwhile Syston Casuals were supplementing their challenge with a comfortable 9-1 victory over Winstanley Wizards V who had Eiz Eddin Al Katrib beating Tony Monteiro to avoid the full house. Tony Burns and Nick Bishop were both unbeaten for Syston.