Unicorn march resolutely towards three out of three championship titles in the Leicester & District League with their three teams, in Divisions One, Two and Five either already there or very near to being so.
Division One is the closest as Unicorn are still two points adrift of Knighton Park but have that match in hand worth four points, the added scenario being that they should be playing KP during the final week of the season to decide, when a draw would possibly be sufficient for the Park to get home.
Unicorn’s latest win, however, was incredibly impressive against the full might of Electricity who are vying for third spot. The team, Lois Peake, No 3 in England for Under-21 players, Jared Patel and George Briskolas, the first two still to be defeated, overwhelmed the opposition to win 10-0 against David Grundy, Andy LeButt and Mat Hobday, who have been performing really well of late.
Knighton Park are not going away, knowing anything might still happen and they also won 10-0, this time against Holwell Works when all but one set were taken in three games, Reza Kiani, Karen Smith and Chris Rogers all in tip top form.
Unicorn’s second team in Division Two is the one which has won their championship, and are already no less than 16 points ahead of the next, and they also had a 10-0 success, in their case over Knighton Park IV with John Genovese, Jianglong Guo and Joe Kirkup showing why they are so far ahead with such a result against a team vying for the runners-up spot. Adnan Ebrahim and Oscar White both went to five twice but could not quite get over the line.
The major battle now in this division is the tussle for the individual honours between Genovese (84.6%) and Electricity’s Adam Pettitt (85.4%), although the Park’s fifth team’s Lucky Obi is coming up on the blind side at 81.6% and is still in with a shout having had excellent maximums recently.
In Division Five Unicorn III has just had their crucial fixture against the second placed team, Goons II, winning 6-4 in a most exciting match played in the best of spirits.
Guan Zhang took all three for Unicorn but was made to work all the way by Kev Edwards and Scott Robinson who both took him to three, the latter squeezed out at 11-9 in the fifth. David Green lost 11-9 in the fifth to Robinson early in the match but went on to win his other two with Zhang and Green getting home in the doubles for full points. Robinson won two supported by one each from Edwards and Steve Harrison.
With their main rival for second position losing out to Unicorn in a big way back in Division Two, Electricity III stepped up to beat Knighton Park III 6-4 to take a distinct advantage when Adam Pettitt won three supported well by a Sam Radenhurst couple and Russ Pettitt one. For KP, Peter Wilson won a valiant brace.
Blaby & Whetstone II were hoping to challenge long term leaders in Division Three, Arnesby II, who were without Rhys Emery who is top of the averages. Dave Small led the way for Arnesby with a fine maximum to continue his excellent form and second in the averages, while Dave Wagstaff took two and Nile Lovett an all-important singles just in case the doubles went astray – in this case they did not. For Blaby, Eileen Shaler won two.
With Goons II losing ground in Division Five in the fight for leadership it enabled Syston Casuals IV to make up ground for second spot by overwhelming Nomads V 10-0 when Scott Morris, Tony Monteiro and Nick Bishop showed no mercy having just missed out on promotion last season. Now they are just two points adrift of Goons with a match in hand while Morris stays top of the individual averages.