Undefeated Unicorn are beginning to fall behind with their fixtures in Division One of the Leicester & District League while challengers Knighton Park make hay to take a six-point lead at the top after another 10-0 victory, this time over Syston Casuals when Karen Smith, Chris Rogers and Reza Kiani all found top form.
Those awaiting any slip-ups by the top two are also maintaining pace, with Electricity without Andy LeButt at the moment but still winning with Mat Hobday and David Grundy both emerging unbeaten against Holwell Sports and the doubles supplying the other in a 7-3 result. Sam Radenhurst, in place of LeButt, just went down in five against Tony Fox with James Morley and Martin Brunning also gaining one for Holwell.
Ajax Wolvey beat Abbots Road 7-3 but it could so easily been the other way round as both Aidan Walsh and Jon Williams for the winners needed five games in all three sets to take the spoils in a very tough encounter. John Fuller, in contrast, won his three relatively easily in spearheading the success. Ross Adams and Amrish Rana notched one each for Abbots.
Right at the other end of the scale Division Five is still the most exciting of the championship tussles, with the same four involved all the way so far.
Unicorn III put out their best three against leaders, Syston Casuals IV, and just made it to the finishing post at 6-4 to leapfrog their opponents to the top. Guan Zhang won three for Unicorn, David Green two and Paul Chung one, and it was that last singles the most crucial being a 13-11 win in the fifth for Chung against Nick Bishop. Scott Morris took two for Syston and Tony Monteiro one.
Meanwhile Goons II were moving into second place with a resounding 9-1 victory over Regent Sports IV. It looked good for Regent when Stu Jones beat Steve Harrison to put them 1-0 ahead, but that was it with Kevin Edwards and Scott Robinson both unbeaten and Harrison winning his other two.
The fourth team involved is Blaby & Whetstone III who just squeezed home 6-4 against Winstanley Wizards II. Two each for Alan Willson and Tom Phipps for Blaby, the same for Chris Webster and Marcus Harvey for the Wizards with Jack Andrave’s singles’ success and then the doubles crucial for Blaby to keep in touch with the other three teams.
Performance of the Week
This is a new feature as a team or individual normally pops up with something special, and it is 16-year-old Oscar White of Knighton Park fourths in Division Two who takes the spot this week.
He is graded 142 and won all three against Blaby & Whetstone, beating Dave Seeds, Dave Daniel and Nick Rayner who are graded, respectively, 177, 192 and 201 which means his grading will improve by a remarkable 14 points for just one match. Alas for White, his team lost 6-4 with Rayan Kotecha winning the other.
This means that Electricity III are now locked in a very tight race for second spot with KP after their last opponents were coincidentally Blaby & Whetstone whom they overwhelmed 10-0. Adam Pettitt has been in supreme form having lost only one of his last 24 sets, gaining yet another Man of the Match award against Blaby, although matched this time by Russ Pettitt and Sam Radenhurst, each winning three.
Dominating this division is Unicorn’s second string and they have John Genovese in tremendous nick. He spearheaded his team to a 7-3 victory over Syston Casuals with another excellent maximum while finding ideal support from Ron Forster and Joe Kirkup with two apiece. Unicorn have a five points lead with two matches in hand.
Notable performances in other divisions include a maximum for Chris Woodward as he helped Electricity IV to a 5-5 draw against Knighton Park VI, while Bruce Johnson’s maxi did not quite do the same for Leicester Taxes who went down 6-4 to the Park’s eighth team.
In Division Four, Daniel Woolman continued his good form with a full house for Electricity V against Desford Village III in a 6-4 success, while Brajesh Patel grabbed three for Knighton Park X in their 5-5 share with Regent Sports II.