Possibly the most significant match so far in Division One of the Leicester League was played during the first week set aside for cup ties when last season’s champions, Unicorn, met Knighton Park’s first team in match that should have been played during the first week of the season. Both teams had a perfect win score thus far.
Park started well when Karen Smith beat Trevor Kerry 3-2 (11-8, 8-11, 1-11, 11-5, 13-11) before Les Baker lost to Jared Patel to make it 1-1, and then Chris Rogers defeated Mark Scutts to restore Park’s lead. Patel, still undefeated this season, maintained that tag with a win over Smith but Rogers, also unbeaten, gave his team the lead yet again by defeating Kerry in four. Baker lost to Scutts, which made it 3-3 with all to play for.
Then came the crunch match with Patel taking the first 13-11 against Rogers. The latter fought back to win 11-4 but lost the third by a similar score. The fourth game was a humdinger, finally taken 13-11 by Patel to put Unicorn into the lead for the first time. They never looked back, with Smith losing in five to Scutts before Baker went down against Kerry. Park won the doubles but Unicorn had placed themselves at the head of the table with a fine 6-4 victory.
Division Four is the one providing the most interest so far, with every team now having lost and drawn at least one and virtually 10 out of the 12 teams still vying for top spot when two successive victories could well put any of them there. There has been an abundance of draws and 6-4 results.
Bucking the trend were Nomads III, who have Laszlo Kocsis back after taking a year off to replenish the enthusiasm. He won all three in an 8-2 success over Desford Village III, with Tony Burns and Mark Clay providing ample support with two apiece.
Team Dave, otherwise known as Electricity V, beat Nomads IV 7-3 with the three Davidteers all playing well, not least of all Dave Greasley who won three, while the other two Daves, Bray and Cox both won two, neither of them able to get the better of Nick Fear who took two for Nomads.
Lucky Obi has been showing the way for Leicestershire Police and he continued that trend with an arresting performance against Syston Casuals III when he gained a maximum in a 5-5 draw. Syston were a little stronger in depth, with Terry Wale and John Henshaw both winning two and Mal Woodfield one. Chetan Tailor won the other Police singles as well as helping towards a vital doubles success.
Another draw came when the two Abbots Road teams, III and IV, clashed. With good all-round performances from both sides, no-one won or lost them all. Aftab Gaffar and Tosh Singh took two each for the fourth team and Bhulesh Rathod the same for the thirds.
The County Association staged a play-off tournament to decide the Cadet rankings, with success for Jack Rogers (Boys) and Sufyaana Dhanji (Girls).
Rankings, in order, are:
Boys: Jack Rogers, Richard Martin, Adnan Ebrahim, Rayan Kotecha, Asher Abraham, Oscar White, Will Baggott and Alex Jefferis.
Girls: Sufyaana Dhanji, Maya Dehnen and Ella Parmar-Saville.
The second round of the Leicester Development League (Junior League) has been staged, which was a success for Rhys Emery and Ross Campbell, both undefeated for Division One winners, Harborough A and both recording an excellent victory over Aman Rashid. Will Baggott was the Division Two star by winning all his singles in helping Hastings to top position, and promotion.
Click here for the full results and statistics
John Bowness (publicity officer)
October 27, 2014