Horrocks stars as Westfield see off Smash

Horrocks found himself 9-3 down in the fifth to Tony West, before reeling off seven points on the bounce on his way to a deciding game win.

West lost in four to Bogdan Capusa and it looked like Smash were facing a whitewash when he trailed Nicole Bird 2-0, but fought back superbly to claim a single win.

Horrocks and Capusa completed their trebles with wins over Adam Wilson and Abin Islam.

Kettering Town beat old rivals Higham 8-2 in an entertaining clash at Weavers.

John Fuller and Shandor Czuczor both bagged maximums, although Czuczor had to fight off a spirited Mark Nannery in a deciding game.

Nannery could count himself unfortunate to come away winless after he also lost in five to Nigel Metcalfe after letting a 2-1 lead slip.

Higham’s wins both came against Metcalfe, Pete Bannister fighting back from 2-0 down in the opening game with Richard Elliott winning in game nine.

Westfield A continued their march towards another title with a 10-0 drubbing of Burton Baptist A.

Burton were unlucky not to take any points after Dariusz Gulbicki lost 11-9 at the last to Kevin Bird.

Gulbicki also led 2-1 and 9-2 against Roumen Stefanov, but fell by the same scoreline against his eastern European rival.

Jacek Koltuniuk let a 2-1 lead slip against Brian Wooding, with Burton edging closer to being dragged into a relegation scrap.

Westfield C are also battling relegation after losing 8-2 at Corby Lyveden Fields.

In a match that was played out of order they went 7-0 down, with Sam Wildman and Steve Hobbs both losing matches in deciding games.

Matt Rushton stopped the rot by beating Henry Arthur before Hobbs doubled their tally against Kyle Murie.

Rushton and Hobbs couldn’t quite make it 7-3 as they lost the doubles in a game void of much quality.

Corby Rothbury beat bottom-markers Thrapston Eagles 8-2.

Aiden Smith and Lee O’Boyle were both largely untroubled for their trebles.

Ken Knott, playing up from Division Two, picked up a fine win against Steve West but lost out to Chris Warliker and Ian Donaldson.

Results: Westfield B 9 (Horrocks 3, Capusa 3, Bird 2, Horrocks/Bird) Corby Smash A 1 (West), Kettering Town 8 (Fuller 3, Czuczor 3, Metcalfe, Fuller/Metcalfe) Higham 2 (Elliott, Bannister), Westfield A 10 (Bird 3, Wooding 3, Stefanov 3, Bird/Wooding) Burton Baptist A 0, Corby Lyveden Fields 8 (Haynes 3, Arthur 2, Murie 2, Haynes/Murie) Westfield C 2 (Rushton, Hobbs), Corby Rothbury 8 (Smith 3, O’Boyle 3, Knott, Smith/O’Boyle) Thrapston Eagles 2 (Warliker, Donaldson).

Team of the week: Kettering Town.

Player of the week: Matt Horrocks.

Usually teams are expected to be weakened when playing up lower-ranked players but the opposite was true for the two Burton Baptist teams in Division One.

The improving youngsters Harry Lade and Jacob Tattersall gave the two relegation-threatened teams a boost, putting pressure on the two Thrapston teams just above them.

They played three matches between them and got seven singles wins out of nine.

Leaders Harborough A were expected to be too good for second to bottom Burton Baptist B but Lade, armed with new rubbers on his bat, was up to the task.

He did well to take a game off Nathan Thompson considering he has only been beaten twice this season but better was to come.

Only last season Barry Thompson and Lade were playing in the top and bottom divisions respectively so Lade’s 11-2, 15-13, 11-4 win was a surprising scoreline.

He also beat Mike Brocklebank in four games to give Burton B two vital points.

The other eight sets went according to the rankings although Gerry Crasto did manage to take a game off all three players and Steve Smith won the first game of the evening against Barry but no more.

Lade was in action the next day for Burton Baptist C against Thrapston Kites and continued his good form with a treble.

He got a comfortable 3-1 win over Peter Briggs followed by a lucky 3-0 victory over Stewart Williams 11-9, 16-14, 11-9 and a lot of nets and edges.

His third win was by a walkover as Geoff Judd had to retire with an arm injury.

Lade was joined by his Team Jim team-mate Tattersall who got two comfortable wins, 3-1 over Williams and 3-0 over Judd but Peter Briggs was a step too far and he went down 3-0.

Kelvin Marshall got a narrow victory over Judd 11-9 in the fifth but in the doubles, experience triumphed over youth as Briggs and Williams finally got one over the youngsters Lade and Tattersall 3-0 to make the overall score 6-4 to Burton C.

The match between Thrapston Falcons and Rothborough Arrows has to go down as one of the most competitive matches ever to finish 10-0.

Out of 40 games played the most one sided was 11-6 and Falcons got at least nine points in 21 games, won 10 of them but didn’t win any sets.

Julian Marlow, Helen Watts and Martin Watts all got trebles over the battling but unfortunate Anthony Marray, Alan Tyler and Nigel Payne.

Despite being only one place below Paul Malpass and 13 above Chris Alder on the latest ranking list, Steve Crook had not beaten either of them previously.

That he did this time tipped the scales for second-placed Harborough B against fourth-placed Westfield D in a hard fought 6-4 win.

Nitin Patel proved to be too awkward for Crook who also got a brace by virtue of a 12-10 win the fifth over Liam Burnham and going down in four to Mike Brocklebank.

The other two wins for Westfield were Paul Malpass beating Brocklebank and Malpass and Alder in a close doubles.

Results: Burton Baptist B 2 (Lade 2) Harborough A 8 (N Thompson 3, B Thompson 2, Brocklebank 2, Thompson/Thompson, Thrapston Kites 4 (Briggs 2, Williams, Briggs/Williams) Burton Baptist C (Lade 3, Tattersall 2, Marshall), Thrapston Falcons 0 Rothborough Arrows 10 (Marlow 3, H Watts 3, M Watts 3, H Watts/Marlow), Westfield D 4 (Patel 2, Malpass, Alder/Malpass) Harborough B 6 (Crook 2, Burnham 2, Brocklebank 2).

Player of the week: Harry Lade.

Team of the week: Rothborough Arrows.

In the previous week in Division Two, Corby Smash B’s Adam Wilson was imperious against Corby Halesowen and was only taken beyond six points in one end.

Pete Hillery only lost to Neil Stone and it took five to do that, and Stone also accounted for Michalski in Smash’s 7-3 victory, which kept them tied at the top of the table with Corby Lakeview.

It’s not surprising as, after 12 weeks, Smash B have three of the top five players and Lakeview four in the top nine in the second division.

It was brother Sam Wilson’s turn this week as he maintained his 100 per cent unbeaten record in Smash’s 7-3 win against Rothborough Buccaneers without losing an end.

He was matched on this occasion by Peter Hillery’s hat-trick, also not losing an end, but they were taken the full distance in the doubles, having to come from behind to beat veterans Lee Mordecai and Gareth Lewis.

The Rothborough pair previously beat Alex Cochrane, playing up for Smash B, as did the returning Pete Sturges, although Cochrane was close to victory over Lewis in his debut at this level.

Results: Corby Halesowen 3 (Stone 2, McLaren) Corby Smash B 7 (A Wilson 3, P Hillery 2, Michalski, P Hillery/A Wilson), Corby Smash B 7 (P Hillery 3, S Wilson 3, P Hillery/S Wilson) Rothborough Buccaneers 3 (Lewis, Mordecai, Sturges).

Player of the week: Peter Hillery.

Team of the week: Corby Smash B.

Second and third-placed Harborough E and Old Village battled it out in Division Three as both teams try to keep up with high flying Corby Smash C.

Mike Burrows got a very important hat-trick, beating John McGowan in five long games to clinch the match.

Beth Tyler got two points for Old Village, beating Mick Radford and Ron Palfrey in four.

Both Palfrey and Radford got a single point on the night when they defeated Charlie Poppy convincingly.

Burton Baptist E pulled off a brilliant win against a full-strength Dakotas side.

Jim Chatburn is a man in form and claimed another hat-trick.

Jonathan Sanders got a double, losing out to an impressive Sally Taylor who got two points out of four for Dakotas.

Corby Smash C won again with a dominant display over Corby Woodlands.

Peter Hillery was unavailable and Jenny Hillery filled in for the in-form player but was unfortunate, losing all three games.

Lewis and Tyler Hillery both continued their impressive form with hat-tricks and then saw the doubles out in a quick victory.

Westfield E eased past Corby Smash D with a 8-2 victory.

Evie Elliott and Sidney Wright both got hat-tricks but were both taken to five ends by Gareth Clarke and Alex Cochrane.

Bronwen Grigg got another impressive point with a win over James Locke.

Clarke and Cochrane both managed wins over Grigg to gain two points for Smash D.

Results: Corby Smash D 2 (Cochrane, Clarke) Westfield E 8 (Wright 3, Elliott 3, Grigg, Elliott/Wright), Harborough E 4 (McGowan 2, Palfrey, Radford) Old Village 6 (Burrows 3, Tyler 2, Burrows/Tyler), Corby Smash C 7 (L Hillery 3, T Hillery 3, T Hillery/L Hillery) Corby Woodlands 3 (N Dixon, C Dixon, C Donaldson), Rothborough Dakotas 4 (Taylor 2, Rowbotham, Yeomans) Burton Baptist E 6 (Chatburn 3, Sanders 2, Chatburn/Sanders).

Player of the week: Jim Chatburn.

Team of the week: Burton Baptist E.