Firstly, apologies for the delayed post. Blame my pre-occupation with the Euro’s and, together with the rest of the Committee, trying to determine how to manage the week 10 programme after England’s progress to the semi final stage which, in the games before last Saturday’s quarter final, seemed pretty unlikely. Last night’s semi final and our progress to Sunday’s final did, I think, justify our decision to postpone all of our scheduled week 10 fixtures which will now all be played on September 11th.
It does mean we will need to re-arrange the team competitions (3’s,4’s and 5’s) which we had scheduled provisionally for that day assuming that in the next few days (closing date next Thursday July 18th) so we do still need more entries to get the minimum numbers for these Competitions. At the moment we are still short of the 8 team entries per competition required.
Well, time to look back at week 9 results and some of the highlights across the sections. In the Premier section Abingdon Utd/Con Club’s 5-1 victory over the Plum Pudding enabled them to go 6 points clear at the top of the table. They were well served by Dave Dix and Leigh Clapton both top scoring with 12 dolls apiece and Phil Adams weighed in with his customary double figures this time with just 11!
Also in the Premier Bystander closed the gap to second placed Croft Nomads to just 1 point when 12 dolls from Jumbo Mott and 10 from Jason Bowler saw them get a maximum 6 points against College Oak. Also Steventon Sports enjoyed a 6-0 return against Berinsfield despite another 12 doll haul from Alec Chamberlain for the home side. For the Sports it was Father and Son Derek and Ricky Fletcher both hitting 11 dolls and Doug Bolton with 10 of his own who helped Steventon to their bets result of the season to date.
The B section saw a game of 2 halves, 2 legions and 2 competitions take place on the same night at Abingdon RBL when the home side entertained the Harwellian side who play at the former Harwell RBL club. The 2 sides played a double header firstly playing their 8′ s quarter final which Abingdon won 2 legs to 1 Then they followed that with their scheduled league fixture, and perhaps the Harwellian side’s concentration and stamina was superior to their hosts because they turned that 8’s defeat into a 6-0 league win with 9 the dolls apiece from Rick Vincent and Andy Shipman leading the way.
There were 2 other 6-o victories in the B section that night when Lee Brown’s 11 dolls helped the Grapes B to a 6-0 win against The Bell and also Karl Ford hit 10 dolls when the Boundary House saw off the Bear & Ragged Staff by the same score line
In the C section Royal Oak beat he Bell Grove A 4-2 despite Liam Brooks 10 doll return for the Bell
Some other notable individual scores on the night were in the E section where Jim Lister’s 11 dolls for North Star A enabled the Star to win their encounter 6-0 against The Bystander B side and again in the E section Nick Moore hit a magnificent last leg 6 for visitors RAL SC who turned over Steventon Sports B on the Green 6-0 to record probably their best result of the season to date.
So, how do the league tables look at the halfway stage of the season. As mentioned earlier Ab Con Club/United lead the Premier by 6 points and the battle for second place is looking tight with only the one point now separating Croft Nomads and The Bystander A. Remarkably in the Premier/A section when you look at the total dolls (including handicaps) 8 of the 9 teams are separated by only 34 dolls! Who says the handicap system doesn’t work!
The B section sees Stanford in the Vale FC still leading after their 4-2 win over the previously unbeaten Croft Bar who in turn drop to 3rd place behind the Grapes who have a superior doll count.
Abingdon Con Club who had their bye in week 9 still lead the way in the C section and in the D section Harwellian are heading the table, one point above The Midget. Newcomers Horse & Jockey A are at the foot of the table and are still looking to register their first points!
The E section is also tight with The Wheatsheaf heading the table by 2 points from second placed North Star A and in the F section it looks like a battle between 2 new entrants with the Fleur de Leys just the one point head from the Fleur de Leys B.
Looking at the top dolls at the midpoint of the season it looks as if Phil Adams will be first to the 100 dolls mark needing just 4 dolls next Wednesday to pip team mate Dave Dix who has played a game less than Phil so has a higher doll average. The Premier top 10 includes 5 of the Ab. Utd/Con Club, 4 from Croft Nomads and skipper Steve Martin of the Bystander. In the A section Paul Leach of the Plum Pudding leads the doll count by just 1 doll from Danny Hamilton from the Vine followed by Terry Downes who is just 1 doll further back.
Tight at the moment in the B section with Andy Shipman of the Harwellian just a couple of dolls ahead of Dave Sapey and in the C section Liam Brooks is being chased by Steve Soden in the doll race, Roly Burns heads Rick Selby having played a game more than Rick at the halfway stage in the D section. The Wheatsheaf’s Darren Bennett comfortably leads the E section’s highest dolls, but in the F section the WAD’s Derrick Brown is shading North Star’s Rob Baker by just the one doll.
So in summary the Competition for both league honour’s and top dolls in each of the sections is, after 9 weeks of competition, being fiercely contested and if the second half of our Summer season stays that way we are in for some tight finishes come September!
My final reminder this week about Competition entries all of which will close next week. The 8’s are approaching the semi final stage, the singles and pairs will take place at Abingdon United on Sunday August 11th with entries still open, but all of the remaining Competitions are still in doubt unless we get more entries this week, that’s the team 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s and the individual Captain’s and Secretaries. We, on the Committee, want all of these Competitions to take, they are a big part of our heritage, but if we don’t get th entries it won’t happen this year! So get those entries in now!
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