Watts' fine treble helps secure a draw

It was only the second time this season that Arrows avoided defeat and they did it the hard way, coming back from 4-2 and 5-3 down.

Watts opened her night with a narrow 11-8 deciding-game victory over Henry Arthur before making light work of Aaron Moore and Chris Robertson.

Martin Watts picked up Rothborough’s fourth point with a fantastic win over an out of sorts Arthur before Helen Watts and Tom Ravenscroft secured the draw in the doubles.

Westfield A regained control at the top of the table with a crushing 9-1 win over Westfield B.

Richie Bailey picked up the lower-ranked side’s solitary point with a tense deciding-game win over Bogdan Capusa, his second against the same player this season.

Steve Silk and Nicole Bird were relatively untroubled as they picked up three wins apiece before claiming the doubles.

Shandor Czuczor’s maximum proved decisive as Kettering Town A won 6-4 at Burton Baptist A.

He was taken the distance by both Chris Ross and Darisuz Gulbicki before pulling through, with Ross pulling off a fantastic result over John Fuller for the hosts as he bagged a brace.

Gulbicki and Alex Aston both claimed single wins over a luckless Nigel Metcalfe, Gulbicki saving match points to beat his higher-ranked opponent.

Higham moved into third place as they beat Burton Baptist B 8-2.

Jacek Koltuniuk scored both of Baptist’s points with upsets over Pete Bannister and Richard Bashford, with Richard Elliott the only player to win all three matches.

Results: Rothborough Arrows 5 (H Watts 3, M Watts, H Watts/Ravenscroft) Corby B 5 (Moore 2, Robertson 2, Arthur), Westfield A 9 (N Bird 3, Silk 3, Capusa 2, Bird/Silk) Westfield B 1 (Bailey), Burton Baptist B 4 (Ross 2, Aston, Gulbicki) Kettering Town A 6 (Czuczor 3, Fuller 2, Fuller/Metcalfe), Higham 8 (Elliott 3, Bannister 2, Bashford 2, Elliott/Bannister) Burton Baptist B 2 (Koltuniuk).

Player of the week: Helen Watts.

Team of the week: Rothborough Arrows.

Thrapston Eagles have slightly increased their lead at the top of Division One from three to four points following an 8-2 victory over fourth-placed Thrapston Falcons, who were without leading player Ian Baldock.

Stewart Williams, playing in his second match of the night, scored Falcons’ two points with an easy 3-0 win over Ian Donaldson and a shock victory in five games against Mark Stockley but he couldn’t beat Chris Warliker who scored the only treble.

Westfield C stayed in contention with a 7-3 win over Burton Baptist C.

This week it was Ben Freeman’s turn to play up in his first-ever match in Division One and he found the trio of Bhavika Mistry, Nitin Patel and Paul Malpass too hot to handle but will have benefited from the experience.

Paul Goodman scored a brace for Burton, beating both Malpass and Mistry in five games but lost the battle of the pimples convincingly to treble-winner Patel.

Kelvin Marshall was unlucky not to win a singles, narrowly losing 13-11 in the fifth to Malpass but at least got some revenge in the doubles with Goodman.

Third-placed Harborough B narrowed the gap to two points below Westfield C although their 10-0 victory of bottom side Rothborough Comets was expected as the trio of Liam Burnham, Mike Brocklebank and Steve Crook won 30 games and lost two against Pete Sturges, Kelvin Linnett and Lauren Ainsworth.

Fifth-placed Thrapston Kites justified their superior position in the table against Burton Baptist D and their star player, Peter Briggs, was on form.

In his treble the only game he lost was to Harry Lade with Stewart Williams and Bob Hickson both scoring a brace.

Registered in Burton Baptist Team Jim in Division Two, Lade has now represented four out of the five Burton Baptist teams this season and the only one he is yet to win any sets in is for the A team in the Premier Division.

His 3-0 win over Hickson was relatively comfortable.

Steve Smith picked up a win over Williams before teaming up with Muggleton whose usual two five-game defeats were compensated by a doubles success.

The match between ninth-placed Corby C and eighth-placed Harborough C was the only one to go against the positions in the table as Corby won 7-3.

It was a good team performance as Stephen Woolston, Keith McLaren and Dan Bottrill all achieved a brace and it was also a good comeback as Harborough were leading 3-1.

The unpredictable Bottrill beat both Burgess brothers with Sam Burgess being the highest-ranked player in the match but he also lost to the lowest-ranked player in the match, Mark Pearson.

Woolston was unlucky not to get the only treble when losing 11-9 in the fifth to Sam Burgess after leading 2-0 in games.

In a potential relegation battle, Rothborough Buccaneers beat Harborough D 6-4.

Crucial to this victory was Ivor Jones with his first treble of the season, ably assisted by Sean Smith with a brace but he lost out to Phil Dixon who also got a brace.

Vaughan Allington got a single win against Gareth Lewis before winning a close doubles with Dixon 11-9 in the fifth.

Results: Thrapston Falcons 2 (Williams 2) Thrapston Eagles 8 (Warliker 3, Donaldson 2, Stockley 2, Donaldson/Warliker), Westfield C 7 (Patel 3, Malpass 2, Mistry 2) Burton Baptist C 3 (Goodman 2, Goodman/Marshall), Harborough B 10 (Burnham 3, Brocklebank 3, Crook 3, Woolston/Bottril) Rothborough Comets 0, Burton Baptist D 3 (Smith, Lade, Smith/Muggleton) Thrapston Kites 7 (Briggs 3, Williams 2, Hickson 2), Corby C 7 (Woolston 2, McLaren 2, Bottrill 2, Woolston/Bottrill) Harborough C 3 (Burgess 2, Pearson), Rothborough Buccaneers 6 (Jones 3, Smith 2, Lewis) Harborough D 4 (Dixon 2, Allington, Allington/Dixon).

Team of the week: Corby C.

Player of the week: Ivor Jones.

The first two matches between Corby D and Old Village in Division Two finished 7-3 to the Kingswood team, but that was completely overturned with Old comfortably beating their rivals 8-2.

The defeat was compounded by the longest match of the night when Mike Burrows and Beth Tyler came from two down to add gloss to their hat-tricks.

It was always going to be a long night for Corby when Old won the first four games.

A strong finish in winning the last three ensured the impressive result and left the door ajar for Burton Baptist Team Jim and Rothborough Dakotas to move away at the top.

Team Jim were able to make the most of that result with a good win against fourth-placed Harborough E, in the process inflicting John McGowan’s least successful week as both Harry Lade and Jacob Tattersall beat him on their way to their maximums.

Team Jim also won the battle of the two most successful doubles teams with McGowan and Ben Baker losing for only the third time as a pair in 11 games to Tattersall and Harry Lade, who improved Team Jim’s doubles wins to 80 per cent.

Dakotas also won but with a reduced margin over Kettering Town B.

Both teams were the same as the last meeting but Barry Davis and Jim Chatburn improved their personal tallies, Chatburn particularly impressive in beating David Steele.

Town won three of the first four games, all in the last end, and the only games to go the distance, but then Steele and maximum man Pete Rowbotham asserted themselves in winning five of the last six between them.

Westfield D improved their result against Rothborough Exocets with the same players on show, with Sidney Wright and Evie Elliott gaining three points compared to one previously.

Lee Mordecai was the immovable object in winning all of his games the short way and Sally Taylor got a brace, losing out to Wright who gained revenge for her earlier defeat.

Pete Ainsworth also got on the scoresheet for the first time in his fourth match.

Results: Burton Baptist Team Jim 8 (H Lade 3, Tattersall 3, B Lade, H Lade/Tattersall) Harborough E 2 (Baker, McGowan), Corby D 2 (Hunt, Murie) Old Village 8 (Burrows 3, Tyler 3, Bryant, Burrows/Tyler), Rothborough Dakotas 6 (Rowbotham 3, Steele 2, Rowbotham/Steele) Kettering Town B 4 (Chatburn 2, Davis, Woolston), Westfield D 3 (Wright 2, Elliott) Rothborough Exocets 7 (Mordecai 3, Taylor 2, Ainsworth, Mordecai/Taylor).

Player of the week: Jim Chatburn.

Team of the week: Old Village.