Cranford A rocket to top of Division 1
01 November, 2014 Andy Rowe
In Division 1 Cranford A have made a perfect start to the new season. Vernon Smeed, back from representing St Helena in the recent Commonwealth games, along with teammates Jamie Roberton, Zach Phillips, Joe Davies, Mark Trebble and Mark Anderson, showed no mercy on newly promoted Ringswell A, with a 9-0 winning scoreline.
The defending champions Exeter A started the defence of their title with a comfortable 8-1 win over teammates Exeter B. The A pairs of Sam Lees/Gary Bourner and Gareth Pearse/Jamie Samuels led the way with 3 wins each, with Sam Owens and Tom Phillips bagging a brace of wins. Luke Oxley and Peter Ford salvaged a point for the B team.
Queens A then inflicted a 7-2 reverse on Exeter B, with Nick Masson and Darren Frisby unbeaten. They were well supported by Tim Goode/Dave Spencer (2) and Nathan Scase/Ed Moffatt (2).
In Division 2, the St Leonards A team of Adrian Midmer, Mark Newson, Guy Sweetman, Charles Wardale, Tim Wardale and Adrian Wijay started their campaign with a fine 9-0 win over Cranford B.
Queens B welcomed Darren Ware into their team and he helped them beat a new look University team by an 8-1 margin. Sam O’Connell and Sam Allen rescued a point for the students.
In Division 3A, St Leonards C top the table after winning 2 of their first 3 matches. They started poorly losing 8-1 in an in-house derby to St Leonards B, with the B team pairs of Phil Matthews/Isaac Chung and Andy Rowe/Anthony Towl unbeaten.
The St Leonards C team of Allister Brimble, Andy Mann, Ali Rehemi, Martin Matthews, Lee Clatworthy and John Gubbin bounced back to beat 2 pair Ringswell B 9-0, and followed up with a battling 7-2 win over Otter Vale.
Otter Vale picked up their first win beating Ringswell B 8-1. Again Ringswell could only muster 2 pairs whilst Otter Vale’s points came courtesy of Brian Deem/Mark Brown (3), Dan Clark/Ray Puttick (3) and Charles Smith/Tim Hall (2).
Only 1 match has been played in Division 3B - a 5-4 thriller between Honiton and Clyst Vale. Honiton edged the win thanks to an unbeaten performance by Roger Tucker and Ethan Leach. The match was tied at 4-4 until Shane Bowring and Simon Walker beat Clyst Vales Phil Mawdesley and Gary Lacey Mills 21-15, 21-18 to seal the win for Honiton.