Chesterwell closing in on the leaders

Mike Pond, playing now as well as ever, edged out Pete Boustred 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 13-15, 11-7 but won his other two with ease with the highlight being a three-set victory over Grant Timms.

It was Timms who secured the two points for the visitors with wins over Stan Galkowski and Valdy Papiernik.

Chesterwell were able to close the gap at the summit after Westfield edged a 6-4 success at WDHA Royals.

The hosts, arguably the most inconsistent players in the league, all failed to trouble the all-conquering Kevin Bird.

However, Ethan Ali scored an excellent 11-7, 11-13, 12-10, 11-9 win over Patryk Polanski and then went down 11-7 in the fifth to the struggling Travis Holly, who had earlier lost out to Virat Patel and Abin Islam.

A fourth point was gained by Ali and Islam who won out 5-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 in an excellent doubles contest against Bird and Polanski.

Chesterwell B have upped their game since their cup exit and were 8-2 winners at Old Grammarians A.

Graham Ellson and Carlton Ellwood both had their best wins of the season, beating the highly-rated Steve Kendall, Ellson in a superb 12-10, 11-8, 11-3 victory and Ellwood in five 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10.

Luke Hughes, having his worst season for some time, went down to both Mick Ball and Kendall but saw off Phil Laurence 12-10, 11-6, 11-6.

Wanderers B’s tough season continued as they were well beaten 9-1 by their own A side.

Tony Wharton and Andy Law both gained reasonably easy trebles but Jon Taylor-Burt found it much harder, edging out reserve Maurice Jones and Paul Goodman in five but went down, again in five, to Bob Hickson 11-9, 6-11, 6-11, 12-1, 11-3.

This result leaves the hosts at the bottom of the table.

Results: Old Grammarians A 2 (Steve Kendall, Mick Ball) Chesterwell B 8 (Graham Ellson 3, Lukes Hughes, Carlton Ellwood 3, doubles Ellson/Ellwood), WDHA Royals A 4 (Ethan Ali, Abin Islam, Virat Patel, doubles Ali/Islam) Westfield A 6 (Kevin Bird 3, Travis Holly, Patryk Polanski 2), Wanderers B 1 (Bob Hickson) Wanderers A 9 (Tony Wharton 3, Andy Law 3, Jon Taylor-Burt 2, doubles Wharton/Law), Chesterwell A 8 (Valdy Papiernik 2, Stan Galkowski 2, Mike Pond 3, doubles Galkowski/Pond) St John A 2 (Grant Timms 2).

Chesterwell C maintained their fine run in Division Two with a third successive 9-1 victory, this time over Higham Harriers B.

Maxine Shears scored her fourth treble in a row and had great support from Stuart Coles (three wins) and Clare Coles (two wins) and the victory moves them up a further two places into fifth.

Bob Collyer scored his side’s consolation point to prevent the whitewash.

The match between top and bottom resulted in a comfortable win for hosts Westfield B as they beat Old Grammarians B 8-2.

Martin Rice scored an excellent double for the visitors to give the scoreline some respectability but another fine treble from Charlie Clements, his fifth of the season along with two wins apiece for Leigh Clements and Mark Ramsden saw Westfield extend their lead at the top to eight points.

Wanderers D could only field two players and paid the price in a 9-1 defeat at St John B.

Mike Terry and Alan Hill both scored their third maximums of the season and a double from David Hatherall made up the home team’s points.

Mike Howorth scored Wanderers’ lone point while Terry and Hatherall took the doubles in straight sets to keep St John in the upper reaches.

After last week’s heavy defeat, the WDHA Superkings returned to winning ways with a good 7-3 home victory over Higham Band A

Milan Pandya and Jack Bain both scored fine maximums, their third each for the season and then teamed up to take the doubles in five close ends.

For the away team, Nigel Magee, Pete Martin and Keith Stockley all managed to beat Manav Pandya but that was as good as it got.

A re-arranged match from week seven saw Westfield C edge out Wanderers C 6-4.

Three wins apiece for Tim Mason and Steve Fuller accounted for Westfield’s points while Mark Holly was unfortunate to remain pointless after taking two of the Wanderers players to five ends but lost each set 11-9.

James Findlay and Carl Singh finally scored a good, if surprising, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 doubles win over Westfield’s two unbeaten players.

Results: Chesterwell C 9 (Maxine Shears 3, Stuart Coles 3, Clare Coles 2, doubles Coles/Shears) Higham Harriers B 1 (Bob Collyer), Westfield B 8 (Charlie Clements 3, Leigh Clements 2, Mark Ramsden 2, doubles) Old Grammarians B 2 (Martin Rice 2), St John B 9 (Mike Terry 2, David Hatherall, Alan Hill 2, doubles Terry/Hatherall + 3 points by default) Wanderers D 1 (Mike Howorth), WDHA Superkings 7 (Milan Pandya 3, Jack Bain 3, doubles Bain/Pandya) Higham Band A 3 (Nigel Magee, Pete Martin, Keith Stockley), Westfield C 6 (Tim Mason 3, Steve Fuller 3) Wanderers C 4 (Tony Wallis, Carl Singh, James Findlay, doubles Findlay/Singh).

The top-of-the-table clash in Division Three proved to be one-sided as Chesterwell D showed their supremacy with a 9-1 win at Wanderers E to move 20 points clear of their rivals.

Johnathan Driscoll and Daniel Mann claimed their customary hat-tricks but team-mate Duncan Wright lost out to David May in three ends. Chesterwell added insult to injury taking the doubles 11-8 in the fifth.

Westfield D moved into second place with a 7-3 success at Higham Band B as Amrat Mistry claimed his fifth hat-trick.

Surprisingly, it was Raylee Burton who came away scoreless on the evening as Stuart Futrill gained two wins, one against highly-ranked Stuart Holroyd and Asish Nandi with Neil Thompson also defeating Nandi while the final doubles point going to Westfield.

There was a close battle between the bottom two teams as WDHA Knightriders just got the better of Chesterwell E with a 6-4 win.

Kavish Dodhia came away with the only hat-trick but had a close call against Gavin Birmingham (11-9, 11-9, 13-15, 9-11, 12-10).

Bipasha Ganatra had her best score to date, taking Katie Coles 11-2 in the fifth, defeating Birmingham after losing the first end 12-10 and then coming back to win in four before just conceding to Peter Atkins (11-7) in the fifth.

Jay Mandalia won out 15-13, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10 against Coles but lost 11-4 in fifth to Birmingham.

With the score at 6-3, the doubles was another close call and finally went to Atkins and Birmingham 11-5, 8-11, 11-13, 16-14, 8-11 to finish off an exciting night.

Carl Eaves and Geoff Neville both secured hat-tricks as Stanwick were 8-2 victors at Westfield E.

But Neville had a fright when Stuart Rae took him to 17-15 in the second leg but, undeterred, Neville completed his hat-trick for no loss of end.

Jon Tuplin only managed a single point against Nicole King as he lost out to Rae and Wendy Bradford in the fifth end, 11-9 and 11-8 respectively.

The doubles was another close call with Rae and King losing out to Neville and Eaves.

Results: WDHA Knightriders 6 (Kavish Dodhia 3, Bipasha Ganatra 2, Jay Mandalia 2) Chesterwell E 4 (Peter Atkins 2, Gavin Birmingham, doubles Atkins/Birmingham), Westfield E 2 (Stuart Rae, Wendy Brandford) Stanwick VHTTC 8 (Geoff Neville 3, Carl Eaves 3, Jon Tuplin, doubles Neville/Eaves), Wanderers E 1 (David May), Chesterwell D 9 (Johnathan Driscoll 3, Duncan Wright 2, Daniel Mann 3, doubles Driscoll/Mann), Higham Band B 3 (Neil Thompson, Stuart Futrill 2) Westfield D 7 (Stuart Holroyd 2, Asish Nandi, Amrat Mistry 3, doubles Holroyd/Mistry).