Unicorn, reigning Leicester & District League champions, finally got their Division One second half up and running with a scintillating 10-0 victory over the luckless Knighton Park second string, who had the top two teams to contend with in succession.
The students put out their best team in Lois Peake, Jared Patel – both still undefeated – and George Briskolas, who has only lost three so far, and the full house never looked in doubt.
Unicorn then beat Syston Casuals 8-2 to show their strength in depth with Briskolas being joined by Tim Sheppard and Geoff Parsons, the first two both with maximums. John Szostak and Jason Woodfield both managed to defeat Parsons but that was it.
The KP second string, meanwhile, had to deal with their own first team who retained top position by virtue of being up to date with fixtures with a 9-1 success. Chris Rogers and Reza Kiani both took three while Les Baker was beaten by Kevin Yang in five to avoid the whitewash. The Rogers’ father and son clash resulted in a three straight win for Chris over his talented son, Jack, who has plenty of time.
It was back down to earth for Arnesby after some good results when they went down 7-3 to Ajax Wolvey who had Aidan Walsh and John Fuller unbeaten. For Arnesby, Abraham Conteh and Ian Brown both beat John Williams.
Trevor Kerry won a magnificent maximum for Thringstone against Desford Village but was still on the losing side with Malcom Truman and Richard Hayes winning two apiece for Desford, Arun Jogi grabbing one, and then the doubles gave the village full points at 6-4.
Electricity and Abbots Road fought out a thrilling 5-5 draw despite the Sparks only able to field two players in Mat Hobday and Richard Hayes, who both won two and the doubles. Neither could get the better of Dave Gannon who won his two for Abbots to go with the three forfeited.
When the bottom two teams met in Division Two it was unfortunate for Nomads, who had players having to drop out at the last minute, leaving the division four husband and wife pairing of Roger and Steph Burley stepping in. Neither managed a win against Great Glen but team captain, Andy Searle, put in a sterling performance to emerge undefeated with Alex Mason, Kelvin Herbert and Kevin Trueman all winning two for Glen.
Syston Casuals II and Knighton Park IV fought out a tough draw at 5-5 with Ian Wetherley three, Mike James two for Syston while KP had Patrick Cox playing up again and winning one, Rayan Kotecha took two and Shirley Pickering one. Cox and Kotecha made no mistake in the doubles to ensure a share.
Another draw featured the other two Knighton Park teams in this division when Lucky Obi won three for the fifth against the thirds who had Mike Lapworth and Peter Wilson both notching a brace.
Best performance of the week must be the one in Division Three when Nomads second’s Trevor Hawkins, who is graded at 120, beat two Knighton Park VII players graded significantly above him and only just lost 12-10 in the fifth against the other.
Hawkins defeated Simon Aldis and Chris Parmar-Saville, just losing out to Martin Pember. Steve Andrews won three for Nomads, Chris Weston two in an excellent 7-3 result with Hawkins’ outstanding performance possibly his best yet.
Also in Division Three, it looks as though it will be Leicester Taxes last season as they will be losing their premises in a few months’ time and Bruce Johnson is going out in style, winning all three in a 6-4 defeat against the KP seventh team in the latter’s other match last week. Simon Aldis, Martin Pember and Tracey Smith all won two for the Park.
Goons had a terrific match against Electricity IV before getting home 6-4 with Kevin Edwards winning two, all three of his sets needing a fifth game. Barry Robinson also won two and John Jacques one while Chris Woodward was the Spark’s best player with two.