Angels tame Snipers as title race hots up in Mansfield League

The new leaders, by a single point, are Hucknall 50-Plus, who recovered from a 10-0 mauling at the hands of Snipers Of St Josephs the previous week to beat Ravenshead Angels 8-2 and then Jacksdale D 9-1.

Snipers sit second with a game in hand -- but only after they opened the week with a 6-4 defeat against Angels, who are now only three points behind them in third spot.

Angels were boosted by a rare appearance in their side by Haydn Scothern, whose only previous outing this season had also been against Snipers when he won all his matches. Backed up by Andy Brown, Scothern was again in fine form and his side held on for a vital win even though he and Brown were beaten 11-9 in the fifth end to lose a doubles leg 3-2 to Tony Swain and Erlands Skels.

Angels were hoping that such a morale-boosting success would help them against Hucknall 50-Plus, but they crashed to a heavy reverse, with Brown suffering only his second singles defeat of the season against Andy King, who triumphed 3-1 to gain revenge on his opponent for inflicting his only loss of the campaign in an earlier fixture.

The buoyed Hucknall outfit followed up by winning at Jacksdale, where captain Dick Johnson was dominant, winning all his games 3-0. With the final two or three fixtures looming large, it’s now anybody’s guess which pair of the promotion challengers will grab the honours.

In other matches in Division Two, River Maun drew 5-5 with Boothys Ravens to maintain their excellent debut season in the league, while Spin Doctors leapt off the bottom of the table with a 10-0 thrashing of fellow strugglers Ravenshead Rebels, who could field only two players, one of which was 89-year-old league president Bill Davison playing his first full match for the team!

The First Division’s champions-elect Zygabyte A stretched their 100% record to 11 matches with a 9-1 romp against one of their closest rivals, Ravenshead Riots. Jacksdale A continued their good form by beating Ravenshead Rhinos 8-2, while another maximum from player-of-the-match Dave Greaves helped Jacksdale A to a comprehensive 8-2 win over Boothys.