The top flight of the Doric Insurance sponsored senior leagues remains closely contested, but there were victories for the leading trio this week.
Defending champions Lions A remain a single point clear at the top, but were tested in their clash with 4th placed side Whistlers B this week, squeezing through 6-4. Ben Foss and Ryan Bichard each defeated Ben Sharp and reserve Stuart Sarre in singles action before teaming to win the important doubles match against Lawrence Stacey and Sharp in 4 sets. Steve Ozanne secured the vital 6th rubber for the league leaders with a comfortable straight sets win over Sarre. For the defeated Whistlers side, Stacey continues to show his strong form. The recently crowned CI Open Top 12 champion has lost just 4 singles match of the 51 played all season and occupies 2nd position in the averages. He earned a hat-trick of singles wins over his Lions opposition, but was pushed very close by Foss, edging the deciding 5th set of their encounter 14-12 and saving a match point in the process. Sharp obtained the other Whistlers victory in even closer circumstances. He trailed Ozanne 2-1 before pinching the final 2 sets by matching 13-11 scorelines.
Whistlers A kept the heat on the leaders after securing a 7-3 win over 5th placed side Lions C. The Lions side have been a bit of a bogey side for the Whistlers outfit as they have taken 3 points off the title chasing side during prior fixtures. The win on this occasion was comfortable in the end, however none of the players could get past Paul Hainsworth on the night. The Lions C captain has lost just 1 singles match to the Whistlers A side all season and he continued his strong record by defeating Josh Stacey, Dawn Morgan and Ryan Gilson impressively, without dropping a set. Each of the Whistlers players earned wins over Andy Gill and Charlotte Casey to secure the points, whilst Stacey and Gilson comfortably defeated Hainsworth and Casey in straight sets in the doubles encounter.
Lions B continue to keep themselves in the title picture as the third placed side overcame bottom placed side Whistlers C 6-4. Liam Robilliard continues to improve as the season goes on and he led his team strongly with singles wins over Matt Casey, Joseph Bourgaize and Ellis Tomlin, dropping just a single set to Casey in the process. Reserve Jez Powell defeated Bourgaize and Tomlin, but lost over 5 sets to Casey. Sam Clark picked up the final win when he narrowly defeated Tomlin 12-10 in the deciding 5th end of their clash. Bourgaize beat Clark in 5 sets, whilst Casey beat him in 4 sets. The doubles was won by Casey and Bourgaize over Robilliard and Clark in 4 sets.
Whistlers D are at the present moment looking firmly in pole position to take the 2nd Division title as they have a dominant 6 point advantage at the top. This week they defeated Ravenscroft Panthers A 7-3, a result which leaves 3 sides tied on 26 points in level 2nd position. Despite the apparent comfortable nature of the win, it was in fact far from it as 4 of the 7 rubbers were won over the full 5 sets by the league leaders. Kay Chivers and Keith Opie all beat Sam Kershaw, Ben Foote and Marli Barker in singles action. Chivers needed 5 sets to beat Kershaw, whilst Opie needed 5 to overcome both Kershaw and Foote. The doubles rubber was the other match to go to the Whistlers side over the distance with Chivers and Opie beating Foote and Barker from a 2-1 deficit. Each of the Panthers players picked up consolation singles wins over Erin Vaudin, however this did include a 5 set win for the Panthers side as Kershaw came back from 2-1 down to emerge victorious.
The Panthers side are mathematically still in 2nd due to having an ever so fractional games difference ratio than their rivals. They have won 1 more match than rivals Lions D and St Pauls A and it is all to play for in the race for the runners-up spot.
The other big news from the Division was the removal of the final unbeaten singles record across all leagues. Jez Powell had won all 48 of his singles matches prior to his match with Lions F this week and he was looking good to maintain it with straight sets singles wins over Jayden and Carly Tucknott. He was however ousted in the final match of the night by former team-mate Caden Brouard, the youngster earning a magnificent 5 set win in which he motored through the final end 11-2.
Division 3
The top of the table clash between Ravenscroft Panthers B and Ravenscroft Panthers D ended as a 5-5 stalemate, leaving the gap at a hefty 5 points. Becks O'Keefe was unbeaten for the D side with wins over Richard Edwards, Shaun Mosley and Steve Martin. Juliette Yeaman played her best table tennis against Mosley and remarkably came back from 2-0 down to win the final 3 ends 11-7, 12-10, 13-11. She also claimed the 5th rubber for her side when she beat Martin in 4 sets. The leaders won all of the other matches including a doubles triumph for Edwards and Mosley over O'Keefe and Yeaman in straight sets.
