26/01/2020
Division 2
Albany B dented the promotion ambitions of Project 12 with a hard fought home win. However Project's bonus point means they are still favourites to finish second. Albany won 4 ladies 4 mens and 8 mixed in their 16-8 win. Albany's Karen Pye won 7 to be POTM and Project's Sarah Coultas and Mark Pickles won 4. Albany's 3 points means they are now 4 points behind Project but with a game in hand. Realistically though they are fighting for 3rd spot.
Fleetwood B kept in the chasing pack with a 16-8 defeat of Kirkham Charter A. The ladies and mens levels were both close affairs ending 3-3 and 4-2 respectively to give Fleetwood a narrow 7-5 lead. In the mixed though, Fleetwood won 9 with only Kirkham's Emma Gilfoyle and Dave Mackay providing any resistance by winning 3. Diane Atkinson and Ant Cross both won 7 and Emma played well to win 6 games overall. Kirkham's bonus point takes them off the bottom.
Top v bottom and it showed as Pilling B showed no mercy in their 24-0 thrashing of Hesketh B. Only the very first game, which went to setting, was close. Mike Aspden was statistically the best player as Pilling need only 2 more points from their remaining 2 games to become champions.
Division 3
The only team with a 100% record, Stanley A, cruised to another impressive win, this time 21-3 over Ribby Hall B. Stanley won 5 ladies, 6 mens and 10 mixed. Angela Longstaff and Steve Canavan both won 8 games and Julie Lalouette was involved in all 3 of Ribby's wins. Hesketh probably needing just 1 more win from their final 3 games to be champions and make a speedy return to division 2. Ribby B in a 3 way fight to avoid finishing with the wooden spoon but at least have a game in hand over their rivals.
A very close match saw 3rd place Lids B win away at Ribby Hall A by 13-11. Ribby trailed 8-4 after the levels,as Lids took all the men's, but a fight back in the mixed took the match to 10 all. The penultimate set was split for 11 all score followed by a dramatic last set which was comfortably won 2-0 by Lids pairing of Helena Lemper and James Norman to win the match. James and Mark Green won 6 for the victors and Emma Nickson was again top scorer for Ribby with 6. Lids now only 3 points behind but with a much easier run in than Ribby whose last 3 matches include league leaders Stanley A !
Levels
2 mid table teams,separated by a point, had an expected tough match. Stanley managed to win 11-5 against Warton B but the scores included several close games. At 3-3 the match was in the balance but Stanley managed to power ahead by winning 8 of the last 10 games. This included the final set where Stanley won both games on setting!
Jenish Prajapati had a great match for Warton winning 4 and narrowly missing the win in his 4 other games ! It was Lee Meakin though who stole the show by winning all his 8 games to be POTM.
