There were no shocks in the additional Leicester Closed Championship events for younger participants with Corey Lancaster winning the Under-11s by beating Alec Wyness 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-4), while Jack Rogers had a similar result in the Under-15s against Abdul Rahman Shaikh, also 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-3).
In the Under-13s, Edward Brown had a tougher time beating Oscar Bentley before getting home 3-1 (11-9, 11-6, 10-12, 11-6).
In the Leicester & District League the Division One title has been all but taken by defending champions, Unicorn, after their decisive 9-1 victory over nearest rivals, Knighton Park, when Lois Peake won a majestic maximum coupled with three also from Jared Patel, these two still being unbeaten this season. Tim Sheppard won two and lost the only set to Chris Rogers who came close against Patel before losing in five.
Both teams still have two matches to pull in but the leaders would have to lose both of them heavily and the chances of that are somewhat remote. With two of their players undefeated Unicorn also have George Briskolas at 89% as well as Sheppard on 80% for excellent depth. Twenty matches played so far and their players have captured all 20 Player of the Match awards.
Meanwhile, Ajax Wolvey cemented third position by overwhelming Desford Village 10-0 with Aidan Walsh, Mick Allsopp and Jon Williams all in tip-top form.
At the other end of the chart Holwell Sports, already relegated, lost 8-2 to Thringstone who had Maurice Newman and Trevor Kerry unbeaten. Alex Brojako won two, losing to James Morley with Thringstone giving the doubles.
Yet another doubles conceded when Arnesby beat the other team going down, Electricity II, 6-4 mainly thanks to an Abraham Conteh maximum. Harry White won two for the Sparks who actually rely on Syston Casuals not getting one point from their remaining two fixtures in order not to drop, and that is not about to happen.
As one Electricity team come down from the first division the club’s third team in Division Two made absolutely sure of promotion to swap places by beating Nomads 9-1 to make second spot their own. Cliff Smith beat Sam Radenhurst to record the one for Nomads but the Pettitt’s, Adam and Russ, were in uncompromising form.
The Spark’s nearest rivals for runners-up spot, Knighton Park IV, will be disappointed that their challenge faded, losing 7-3 to Regent Sports who had Martin Bolton winning three and Kevin Sanderson two. Rayan Kotecha won two for the Park.
Meanwhile there was a thrilling 5-5 draw between the Park’s third team and Desford Village II with four players winning two. Peter Wilson and Patrick Carton for KP, Matthew Briggs and Kevin Parker for Desford with the crucial singles coming from Mike Lapworth before Desford took the doubles.
Two cracking, but both in vain, maximums came in Division Three including one from Nomads’ Steve Andrews against Electricity IV in a match taken 6-4 by the Sparks who had Sheriff Makhani, Chris Woodward and Dave Greasley, all winning two.
The other came from Patrick Cox for Knighton Park VIII who were not helped by only having two players against Blaby and Whetstone who helped themselves to a 6-4 victory.