Vultures swoop to win showdown with promotion rivals

Worksop Welfare Snipers had the Vultures firmly in their sites as they eyed up a victory that would enable them to leapfrog their title rivals and propel them to the top of the division.

However, the night didn’t start well for the Snipers as they soon found themselves 3-0 down after Jim Westwood lost to James Wormwell, Pete Hodgson lost to Rob Vaughan with Russ Webster then losing to Steve Elkin.

Hodgson pulled one back for the Snipers when he defeated Wormwell, but they then found themselves 4-1 behind after Elkin beat Westwood in straight sets.

In the next game Vaughan managed to come back from 2-0 down to beat Webster 3-2 to leave the Vultures 5-1 up and on the verge of victory.

However, the Snipers wouldn’t lie down and fought back heroically by firstly winning the doubles to make it 5-2 and when Hodgson beat Elkin and Webster defeated Wormwell to make the match score 5-4 to the Vultures it looked like the comeback was on.

The last game of the night was between Westwood and Vaughan with Vaughan winning the first set before Westwood played some terrific table tennis to level at 1-1.

But the comeback was not to be as Vaughan took the next two sets to complete his hat trick and more importantly to secure a vital 6-4 win for the Vultures.
With the Snipers losing out to the Vultures it gave third placed team Stanley Street B the chance to move into second place if they could get all three points against Worksop Welfare Harriers A.

Stanley Street’s Mark Sansom proved to be the pivotal player in the match as he remained unbeaten all night by beating Mitchell Radford, George Makrakis and Kay Wilson before teaming up with Andy Kirkland to defeat Radford and Makrakis in the doubles.

But a match cannot be won by one player alone and both Kirkland and Chris Tilstone chipped in with a vital win each as they both beat Kay Wilson to give their side victory by the narrowest of margins with 6-4 victory.

Both Makrakis and Radford played well and went away with two wins each, but it wasn’t quite enough to avoid losing the match.
In the battle of the basement in Division Two DTH Redlands Rookies came away with a 7-3 win at Sparken Hill Blue Jays despite Connor Bettley registering a fine hat trick of wins over Lewis Linacre, Chris Clemson and Elliott Jordan.

But, despite his heroics, it couldn’t stop his side slipping to defeat and it now leaves the Blue Jays needing to win their remaining four games to stand any chance of staying up.

In contrast to the Blue Jays, the Rookies did themselves a power of good with claiming all three points and are now find themselves just two points behind the team above them after Clemson, Linacre and Jordan all beat Dave Lee and Dave Rix, with Clemson and Linacre adding the doubles to complete the win.
The team now looking over their shoulder are Sparken Hill Eagles after they narrowly lost away at Manton Tigers, who had Ron Firth in top form for them.

He beat John Hallgarth, Keith Swift and Luke Barraclough, who was playing up from Division Three.

Firth was well supported by Bill Bateman as he added two wins over Swift and Barraclough with Steve Beeston contributing a solo effort with a win against Barraclough.

Swift and Hallgarth won the doubles against Bateman and Beeston but it couldn’t prevent them slipping to a 6-4 defeat.
The race for the Division One title looks like it could just be opening up for DTH Redlands Monsters as one of their closest rivals surprisingly lost this week to leave the Monsters one point ahead of them with a game in hand.

Sparken Hill Buzzards inflicted defeat on the Fluffy Toys and in doing so did the double over them after beating them earlier in the season.

Chris Cattell was again the man in form for the Buzzards as he had three great wins over Sarah Short, Farrell Anthony and Steve Walker.

And he wasn’t alone in enjoying great wins as Terry Emmerson beat both Anthony and Walker before losing out to Short.

Steve Lyon added a single win over Anthony to give the Buzzards a 6-4 victory after Walker and Anthony had won the doubles.


Other Division One results: Sparken Hill Osprey 4 Stanley Street A 6, DTH Redlands Roosters 6 Worksop Miners Welfare 4.


Division Three: Sparken Hill Hawk 7 DTH Redlands Red Devils 3, The Real Deal 1 Worksop Welfare Harriers B 9, DTH Redlands Tarr Babies 1 Sparken Hill Falcons 9.


Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield Quarter-Final: Sparken Hill Falcons 341 Worksop Welfare Harriers B 372.