Higham chasing hard as Wanderers are beaten

Pete Martin’s first treble of the season led the way for Higham, with good support from Nigel Magee and Deirdre Kiziak who claimed two wins each.

James Findlay maintained his good form for the season with two more wins and then joined Maurice Jones to take the doubles in four ends.

An emphatic 8-2 victory over Chesterwell C lifted St John B up to third place.

There were three wins for Mike Terry and two apiece from Steve Mansfield and Alan Hill for St John.

Stuart Coles put up a brave fight for the visitors and was rewarded with good wins over Mansfield and Hill.

Maxine Shears and Clare Coles put up a great fight in the doubles but finally went down 12-10 in the fifth end.

The clash between WDHA Superkings and Wanderers D finished all-square at 5-5 with the home team’s Milan Pandya the only unbeaten player with his second treble of the season.

Roger Ellingham put up the most resistance for the visitors with two wins and then teamed up with Graham Babbage to take the doubles and secure the draw. The remaining players all gained one win apiece.

Wanderers D were in action for a second time in a fixture brought forward from December as they went down 6-4 to Higham Harriers B.

Craig Hartwell and Bob Collyer both scored maximums for the away team while Ellingham, Babbage and Mike Howorth all scored single wins against the unfortunate Anthony Stevens.

Ellingham and Babbage finally took the doubles for the home team, despite having to go to a fifth-end decider.

Mark Ramsden and Mark Thomas both scored fine trebles in Westfield C’s 7-3 win over Old Grammarians B, although each player had to go to five ends in one of their matches.

Martin Rice and Colin Lord both scored single wins for they then had an excellent doubles victory over the home team’s unbeaten players in a topsy-turvy encounter.

Results: WDHA Superkings 5 (Milan Pandya 3, Rahul Jethwa, Manav Pandya) Wanderers D 5 (Roger Ellingham 2, Graham Babbage, Mike Howorth, doubles Ellingham/Babbage), Westfield C 7 (Mark Ramsden 3, Mark Thomas 3, Tim Mason) Old Grammarians B 3 (Martin Rice, Colin Lord, doubles Rice/Lord), Higham Band A 7 (Nigel Magee 2, Deirdre Kiziak 2, Pete Martin 3) Wanderers C 3 (James Findlay 2, doubles Jones/Findlay), St John B 8 (Mike Terry 3, Steve Mansfield 2, Alan Hill 2, doubles Terry/Mansfield) Chesterwell C 2 (Stuart Coles 2), Wanderers D 4 (Roger Ellingham, Graham Babbage, Mike Howorth, doubles Ellingham/Babbage) Higham Harriers B 6 (Craig Hartwell 3, Bob Collyer 3).

St John A were only able to field two players and it resulted in a 10-0 whitewash for reigning Division One champions Westfield A.

Kevin Bird gained his normal victories but surprisingly dropped a leg in a 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-9 win over Pete Boustred, who also took Stephen Woolston to five before bowing out 11-4 in the fifth.

Jon Perkins also gave his best performance to date, going down 11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 8-11 to Patryk Polanski.

With three reserves being fielded, both Old Grammarians A and Higham Harriers H did well to fulfil their fixture and OGs claimed their first win of the season by a 6-4 scoreline.

Steve Kendall gained a reasonably comfortable treble but this was negated by reserve Adrian Howes, who found it a struggle and failed to register.

However, Phil Laurence, somewhat surprisingly beaten by in the opener by Harriers reserve Phill Inman 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 5-11, duly cashed in to see off Neil Stevens and Mick Malins for a welcome brace.

With the match dependent on the doubles the Laurence/Kendall combination won out 8-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6 over Inman and Stevens.

Results: Westfield A 10 (Patryk Polanski 2, Stephen Woolston 2, Kevin Bird 2, doubles Woolston/Polanski + 3 points by default) St John A 0, Old Grammarians A 6 (Phil Laurence 2, Steve Kendall 3, doubles Laurance/Kendall) Higham Harriers A 4 (Phil Inman 2, Neil Stevens, Mick Malins).

It was a good week for Wanderers E in Division Three as they saw off Westfield E 10-0 before following it up with an 8-2 success at Higham Band B in a re-arranged match.

Against Westfield, Wanderers took all the available points with only one set going the full distance and a further set going to four but both went the way of the high-flyers.

Stuart Rae pushed David May to a fifth, losing 11-5, and Nicole King extended Derek Shears to a fourth.

May was unbeaten against Higham Band B with Shears and Steve Hoole supporting well with a brace each, as they both lost out to Higham’s Devlin Whitmore.

Making his League debut for Higham was John Yeates, who has moved to the area from Shropshire, and despite remaining scoreless, he took an end from May.

WDHA Knightriders’ Anish Patel saved a complete whitewash against 9-1 winners Westfield D.

Patel came through to secure the victory after losing the first end 11-3 to Asish Nandi to take the match 11-8, 11-5, 11-9.

The visitors’ Stuart Holroyd and Amrat Mistry won easily without losing an end and added the doubles.

Nandi was pushed to a fifth-end decider against Knightriders’ Swati Jethwa before winning out 11-8, 9-11, 2-11, 12-10, 11-7.

There was a brave effort from WDHA Challengers before they slipped to a 6-4 home defeat to Stanwick.

Geoff Neville was the match’s only unbeaten player, although Hubert Malenda came close to taking an end.

Kevin Tivey and Jon Tuplin, with a single win apiece, both lost to Malenda and Kavish Dodhia and with the Challengers requiring the doubles to equal the score, they were beaten 12-10, 11-9, 11-8 and had to settle for 4 points,

Chesterwell D took the honours with a 10-0 success in their inter-club match against Chesterwell E.

There were hat-tricks again for Johnathan Driscoll, Duncan Wright and Daniel Mann with only two ends lost throughout the evening while the doubles finished 11-1 in the third end.

Results: WDHA Knightriders D 1 (Asish Nandi) Westfield D 9 (Stuart Holroyd 3, Asish Nandi 2, Amrat Mistry 3, doubles Holroyd/Mistry), WDHA Challengers 4 (Hubert Malenda 2, Kavish Doshia 2) Stanwick VHTTC 6 (Geoff Neville 3, Kevin Tivey, Jon Tuplin, doubles Neville/Tuplin), Higham Band B 2 (Devlin Whitmore 2) Wanderers E 8 (David May 3, Derek Shears 2, Steve Hoole 2, doubles May/Shears), Chesterwell E 0 Chesterwell D 10 (Johnathan Driscoll 3, Duncan Wright 3, Daniel Mann 3, doubles Mann/Wright), Wanderers E 10 (David May 3, Derek Shears 3, Steve Hoole 3, doubles Hoole/Shears) Westfield E 0.

The draw for the first round of the Challenge Trophy, sponsored by Harish Thakrar, has been made.

The ties are due to be played in the week commencing November 14.

First-round draw: Chesterwell C (0) v Westfield D (180), Chesterwell A (0) v Wanderers A (15), WDHA Superkings B (100) v St John A (0), Wanderers B (0) v Stanwick VHTTC (180), WDHA Challengers C (70) v Westfield E (0), Higham Harriers B (180) v Thrapston (0), Westfield B (0) v Old Grammarians B (100), St John B (0) v Higham Harriers C (220), Chesterwell D (120) v Higham Harriers A (0), Old Grammarians A (0) v Chesterwell E (300), Wanderers D (45) v Westfield C (0), WDHA Knightriders D (180) v Wanderers E (0), Higham Band B (120) v Higham Band A (0), WDHA Royals A (0) v Chesterwell B (70), Westfield A (0) v Wanderers C (285).