Duffield suffer their
first defeat as
St George's seal a semi-final spot ...
With just two rounds of league action left, at the start of
tonight’s matches only one team was already guaranteed a
place in the semi-finals, and with most fielding close to
their strongest lineups there were looked to be some close
matches in store, and so it proved.
Division A leaders Duffield had already booked a home match
in the semis, but were rocked by the late withdrawal of Nick
Matthew through injury. That gave visitors Coolhurst London,
who started the evening in third place by a solitary point,
a chance to end Duffield’s unbeaten record. ~
It didn’t start well for the visitors, who had to concede
the ladies’ match as they only had one English player in
their lineup - at least two are required. James Earles and
Declan James both won 3-1 to make it 2-1 to Duffield, but
Cameron Pilley beat Joel Hinds 3-1 to set up a decider, in
which Coolhurst’s Simon Rosner beat Chris Simpson in
straight games to keep the division very much alive.
Nottingham started the evening in second place, just, but
knew they had a tough task against visiting neighbours
Leicester, who had their strongest side out. Emma Beddoes
gave Nottingham the lead, but Leicester took all four of the
men’s matches to put a serious dent in Nottingham’s playoff
prospects.
Birmingham Lions also had hopes of making the semi-finals
but needed to win away to a strong Pontefract side to
maintain those hopes. That they duly did as Deon Saffery,
Bradley Hindle and Peter Creed gave them a winning lead,
Pontefract winning the two matches at the top of the order
through Laurens Jan Anjema and James Willstrop.
That leaves Duffield still top, but with Coolhurst,
Birmingham and Nottingham only separated by six points, it’s
still any one from three for the second spot.
In Division B leaders St George’s tightened their grip with
a solid 5-0 home win over Chichester, although Tom Richards
and Yathreb Adel were both takes to five games.
Meanwhile champions Surrey H&R came away with a 4-1 win
against a strong-looking Exeter side. Peter Barker won the
final match for Surrey with a 3-1 win over world number one
Mohamed Elshorbagy, while debutant Michael Craig made sure
Surrey only dropped one point as he lost in five to James
Snell.
Bristol kept alive their slender hopes of qualification with
a 4-1 win away to Winchester to make it six wins out of
nine, although realistically they needed one or both of the
top two to drop more points.
The resulting tables show that St George’s are now
guaranteed a semi-finals place, but they are just seven
points ahead of Surrey - who need just six more to guarantee
a top two finish - and finishing top will be a priority as
they aim to avoid a trip to Duffield in the semi-finals.
Division A
Benz Bavarian Duffield 2-3 Coolhurst London (7-15)
Chris Simpson 0-3 Simon Rosner
Joel Hinds 0-3 Cameron Pilley
Declan James 3-1 Greg Lobban
Ashley Davies 1-3 James Earles
Millie Tomlinson w/o Madeline Perry
Pontefract 2-3 Birmingham Lions (10-14)
James Willstrop 3-0 Jaymie Haycocks
Laurens Jan Anjema 3-0 Chris Ryder
Ben Grindrod 2-3 Peter Creed
Lee Beachill 1-3 Bradley Hindle
Katie Smith 1-3 Deon Saffery
Air-IT Nottingham 1-4 Everards Leicester (8-17)
Alan Clyne 1-3 Daryl Selby
Eddie Charlton 2-3 Shaun Le Roux
Lewis Walters 1-3 Ben Coleman
Mark Fuller 1-3 George Parker
Emma Beddoes 3-0 Mari Taylor
Division B
Exeter Diamonds 2-3 Virgin Active Surrey HRC (6-19)
Mohamed Elshorbagy 1-3 Peter Barker
Olli Tuominen 2-3 Mazen Hesham
Tim Vail 0-3 Piedro Schweertman
James Snell 3-2 Michael Craig
Rhianne O'Donnell 0-3 Alison Waters
Winchester R&F 1-4 UWE/Elite Bristol (6-18)
Karim Abdel Gawad
3-1 Marwan Elshorbagy
Scott Handley 1-3 Mathieu Castagnet
Robbie Downer 1-3 Tom Ford
Scott Fitzgerald 0-3 Mike Harris
Georgina Kennedy 1-3 Tesni Evans
Luxford/9Group St George's 5-0 Team Chichester (20-6)
Borja Golan 3-0 Adrian Waller
Joe Lee 3-1 Rex Hedrick
Tom Richards 3-2 Robbie Temple
Charles Sharpes 3-1 Nathan Lake
Yathreb Adel 3-2 Lauren Briggs
Round TEN, 31-Mar:
Birmingham v Duffield, Coolhurst v Leicester, Nottingham v
Pontefract
Bristol v Exeter, Surrey v Chichester, St George's v
Winchester
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