Division Two
Nally Rallies
Only 5 points now separate the top three teams (Lakeside B, Winchcombe Legends and Cleeve Saracens A) and, although there are games in hand to be taken into account (see tables), there is no room for slip-ups.
 
As the season nears its end, Lakeside B look to be consolidating their top position with another comprehensive win, this week against Cheltenham D, although Chris James managed to salvage Cheltenham’s honour with a 4-set win over Paul Singh.  Matt Mulcahy for Cheltenham nearly managed the same feat but was finally squeezed out by Paul 11-9 in the fifth in a classic hard-fought encounter which saw the players having a sporting hug at the end.

CCS A managed to improve considerably on their first-half 8-2 loss against Lakeside C, by gaining a 5-5 draw thanks to yet another max from Phil King.  Phil was well supported by two from Steve Murton but, despite two 15-13’s in their 4-set doubles, they couldn’t quite overcome Trevor Oliver and Barry Pope for the win.  Julie Taylor had three hard-fought matches – two-5-setters and one 4-setter – but could only manage one win against CCS’s Jonathan Nixon by 12-10 in the fifth.
 
Both Cleeve Saracens A and Winchcombe Legends kept up the pressure on Lakeside B with 8-2 wins, against Tewkesbury A and Tirley Tigers respectively.  Tigers’ two wins were down to Rob Deeley, and he nearly made it a clean sweep, just losing out to Darrell Wiltshire 11-9 in the fifth after a see-saw encounter which gave Darrell his max. Elaine Evans was unlucky not to come away with another win for Tigers after leading Jacqui Carver 2-1 but finally went down 12-10 in the fifth.

Both Dennis Wadley and Mike Dodwell of Saracens A came away with maximum points against Tewkesbury A, and combined to win the doubles, while Terry Sims excelled in adding the finishing touch with a fine 5-set win over Rob Amphlett, who somewhat enigmatically failed to get on the scoresheet for the night.  Mike Tyrrell and Alan Cook were winners for Tewkesbury, but could not stop the 8-2 defeat.

Judy Morley, recovered from injury incurred in the CCS match last week, gained a straight-sets max in Old Saracens 6-4 win against much higher-placed Winchcombe Warriors, while Martin Kirby weighed in with a further two against Luke Gresty and Graham Fisher, and combined with Judy to take the doubles, also against Luke and Graham.  Sheila Matthews had a great chance to improve her average after powering into a 2-0 lead against Luke but then things went pear-shaped and she lost the remaining three sets 11-6, 11-8, 11-8.
 
Mark Nally was on excellent form for Saracens B, winning all three singles against the strong Cheltenham C combination of Mel Garlick, Martin Smith and Chris Williams and pairing with Tony Iles (a very successful combination this season) to take the doubles as well in a hard-fought 5-setter, after being 2-0 down.  CTTC 6 – Mark Nally “the rest”.
 
I don’t know if this will prove to be any sort of record, or maybe just worthy of note, but we may end this season with the top team 100% unbeaten and the bottom team 100% beaten.  Let’s hope that Tigers can pull something out of the bag at the last gasp to avoid this particular “distinction” – or even that my CCS team might overturn Lakeside B next week (ha ha!) to spoil the fun..