The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A busy night for the Spalding and District League (sponsored by Vital Recruitment) saw 42 games played across five individual competitions and four titles decided.
Some 27 members entered the Division One, Division Two, veterans’, ladies’ and junior events – with many playing in two of them.
The junior title was the first to be decided while the main draws were taking place. James Coote, Casey Nurse and Dylan Taylor played a round robin competition which Coote took from Taylor with two wins in a repeat of last year’s result.
Then 12 entered the Division Two battle, which saw the two seeds make it through to the final as top seed Garry Wilkinson won against Jeremy Hitcham (11-8, 9-11, 11-2, 16-14) and Guntars Briedes defeated Andrew Hay (11-6, 11-4, 11-7). The final went with the seedings, as Wilkinson went on to take the title 11-8, 12-10, 11-9.
With just two of the league’s ladies available for their competition, Jean White retained the title with an 11-5, 11-4, 11-1 win over Hannah Gilbert.
Next up, 13 took part in the Division One event where Tomascz Dobrzyn lived up to his top seeding to retain another title.
He had defeated Richard Hammond 11-1, 11-4, 11-1 in the semi to meet number two seed John Gilbert, who had won through with an 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6 victory over Phil Coote. Dobrzyn was too strong in the final, coming through 11-7, 11-5, 11-6.
Meanwhile, 18 took part in the veterans – so four seeds were named and duly reached the semi-finals. Gilbert (1) faces White (4) but the match was held over due to the lateness of the hour. The winner will face Hammond (2) who defeated Phil Chandler (3) 11-7, 11-4, 11-5.
The evening had started with Division One side Defenders and Division Two’s Casey’s Pingers fighting out their delayed Guardian Cup semi. Defenders’ White and Martyn Green knew they were likely to be facing a high handicap when it came to the end, as did their opponents, and won all four games on the table for 132 points. However, Mick Nurse put up such a stout defence that he contributed 45 to Pingers’ 65 tally and the add-on of 77 carried them through. They meet JAG in the final.
The last semi was also played in the Roy Gibson, where Stuart Duffill (starting on 21) beat James Gibson (7) 26-31, 31-26, 31-29 to book a meeting with Sasha Martin (0).
