Week 14 High and low lights

Well, we had another fine July Wednesday last week, but the weather unusually didn’t encourage too much in the way of high scoring although there were many players in most sections recording double figures, many of whom, were reaching that goal for the first time this season. For example in the match between Croft Nomads and Plum Pudding in the Premier both Paul Stone for the Croftand John Ellaway for Plum Pudding  hit 10 dolls each to top their teams individual scores. Croft managed a 6-0 victory, but it has to be said that Plum Pudding were missing both Barry Townsend and Paul Longford on the night.

Top scorers on the night were Pete Beacham for Steventon Sports in their 6-0 win over Berinsfield with 11 dolls and both skipper Mick Jarvis and the reliable Colin Brind both contributed 10 dolls apiece.

For Berinsfield Geoff Lee also hit 11 dolls. This win for Steventon Sports narrowed the gap between the top 2 sides in the Premier to just 2 points.

The Hart Harwell’s away fixture against the Red Lion in section A was played at the Wheatsheaf due to the temporary closure of their home up the High Street and The Hart managed a 4-2 win with Simon Winterbourne and Roger Lee both topping the  scoring with 11 dolls and Paul Leach also hitting 10 dolls. For the Lion the ever reliable Dean Bowler hit 10. For at least one visiting  player the most remarkable part of the evening was not his double digit score, but the food provided by the Wheatsheaf! No Names mentioned Leachy!!

Elsewhere in the Premier/A section there were wins for Premier section leaders Abingdon Utd/Con Club 4-2 at Stanford in the Vale FC Vine. Barry Parker top scored with 11 dolls for the league leaders who were without Dave Dix on the night.

In the A section Bystander recent form saw them overcome The Vine 4-2 with Danny Hamilton leading individual scorer on the night with 10 dolls.

Other notable individual scores on the night included 11’s from Andy Shipman for Harwellian B who defeated Abingdon Arms A 6-0 in the B section, Dave Sapey with 10 dolls for Abingdon RBL, Brian Hudson with 11 dolls for Croft Bar B helping them to a 6-0 victory away to RAL which took Croft to the top of Section D. Also in the D section Dennis Ruffels hit 10 dolls for The Grapes as they beat the Bystander B 4-2 and in the E section Mark Newman hit a cracking 10 dolls as they also recorded a 4-2 win over North Star A.

The league table in most sections shows there is still a lot to play for. In the Premier as I said earlier, only 2 points separate league leaders Abingdon Utd/Con Club from second placed Steventon Sports A and they  meet this week at the Con Club, in the A section Stanford IN the Vale FC and Bystander share 40 points apiece and still have to play each other in the penultimate game of the season, College Oak A are clear favourites to win the B section, but who knows?, Grapes B look as it’s theirs to lose in Section C with a healthy points lead, but there’s still games to play.

In the D section, there is  some real  local rivalry in Peachcroft with leaders Croft B and second placed College Oak B separated by only 2 points the, both have a week with a bye in their last fixtures and will meet next week when College Oak may be the new leaders as the Croft’s bye is this week.

Finally, the E section is wide open with 3 teams in close contention. The Midget despite being in second place, may be slight favourites as they still have 3 games to play whilst current league leaders Harwellian A only have 2 to play! F section is possibly sorted with Abingdon Arms B favourites although they only have 2 games remaining.

That’s about it for a summary of last week’s games etc. next week we will update top scorers and averages and give a few details of the programme for Finals Night which is now only 4 weeks away and which will bring the curtain down on our outdoor Summer season 2023!

So soon and Tosh has already given us evidence of that by issuing his fixture list and timetable for the 2023/4 Winter league!!!