In Division One, Kingfisher A all but sealed their successful defence in the leagues centenary season with a 6-4 away win against second place Sonning Common & Peppard A.
Despite Daniel Moses expectedly winning his three and Gary Morgan taking out Hari Gehlot, the other visitors Martin Adams and Ross Saxby won two each to seal the win. Tilehust RBL A maintained their bid for fourth with a convincing 9-1 win over Sonning Common & Peppard C.
The commoners sole victory saw Danny Dockree outwit Keith Winter in the opening encounter but that was as good as their evening got as regulars Jon Willis and Marc Brent did the rest of the damage.
Sonning Sports A were not at full strength as they hosted Tidmarsh A and could only muster a single point as Paul Savage defeated Dale Ballard. Duncan Groves and Lee Calcutt completed maximums for the visitors as it ended 1-9.
Elsewhere Sonning Common & Peppard B scored four useful points to improve their chances of avoiding relegation as their hitman, Tom Astle, scored a maximum and doubles. Phil Mead, Alan Cummings and Matt Isherwood all won two to ensure that Kingfisher C secured the 6-4 win.
Division Two league leaders Reading FC Community Trust had a hard fought 6-4 win at Tilehurst RBL B.
This match featured a clash between the top two players in the division with Tilehurst’s Kate Maksimenko getting her revenge for losing to Mike Childs in the first half of the season by beating him three straight.
Tidmarsh B kept up their recent good form with a 9-1 win against Kingfisher G with maximums for Rob McMillan and Francois Durand.
Springfield A had a useful 6-4 win at Kingfisher E in a match that saw five games go to a decider.
The pick of these saw Jason King recover from two down to beat Andrew Adair 13-11 in the fifth. OLOP A and Tidmarsh C drew 5-5 in a match which saw the welcome return of Tidmarsh’s best player Simon Craig.
Simon recorded a maximum including recovering from two down to beat Chris West 11-8 in the fifth.
In the battle of the bottom two Pangbourne WMC beat Kingfisher H 9-1 to just about keep their mathematical hopes of avoiding relegation alive.
After weeks break division 3 continued with a full schedule of 5 matches. Kingfisher J won 7-3 at Tilehurst Methodists C in the battle of the bottom two to finally get some reward for their perseverance.
On the other hand, Tilehurst Methodists C continued their unlucky streak. Kingfisher I won a crucial match against Sonning Common & Peppard E 6-4.
Jez Willis was the star of the match with his treble for the Commoners while all home team’s players won their other matches which was enough for the win.
However, the highlight of the match was the doubles game with the away team coming from 1-2 down to win the match by a narrow margin: 11-2, 9-11, 11-9, 10-12, 9-11. Tidmarsh D drew with OLOP D 5-5.
Gopi Ponnapalli who played up for OLOP D coming from Div 4 was the player of the match. Again the doubles was the difference between losing and draw for Tidmarsh D and they stuck with the game and won in the fifth: 9-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8.
The second half of the seasons best performing team OLOP B won against Sonning Sports B 7-3. Jacek Piechicki won this fifth consecutive treble and is still unbeaten in the league.
Mark Carless also joined Jacek with his treble and helped his team to win the match. Tilehurst Methodists A faced OLOP C and OLOP won 9-1.
Last week in a rescheduled match Tilehurst beat OLOP 6-4 but this game was completely different. With this high margin of victory OLOP C regained top spot and gained a great advantage in the title race as the season nears its close.
By Nigel Maltby
