Well certainly the highlight of last week was a cracking 14 dolls including a 6, one of only 3 last week, for Derrick Brown who plays for the WADS bar in the F section. His doll hall, the highest individual score of the week also took Derrick past 100 dolls for the season so far, the first player outside of the Premier/A sections to become a centurian this season. Congratulations Derrick!
The Premier league continues to be a tightly fought contest with the Bystander A side recording their sixth successive victory with a comprehensive 6-0 win over Berinsfield SCA. Jason Bowler with 11 dolls and Roy Taylor on one of his rare appearances weighed in with 10 of his own.
Elsewhere within the Premier there were 4-2 wins for both Abingdon Utd and Croft Nomads against Steventon Sports and Red Lion so it continues to be a 3 horse race in the Premier with Ab Utd and Berinsfield both having a game in hand over the Croft. Dave Dix and Phil Adams jointly top scored with 13 dolls apiece for Utd and Alan Bell with 11 dolls was ably assisted by Dave Butler with his first double figures of the season for the Croft. For the Red Lion Dean Bowler continued his good run of form with 11 dolls.
Elsewhere within the Premier/A Section College Oak made it 4 successive wins with a 4-2 victory over the Plum Pudding for whom Dave (Foxy) Worrall hit an opening leg 6 only to follow that with a second leg blob! For Plum Pudding missing the holidaying Terry Downes, Mick Samways and Simon Reeve both hit 10 dolls.
The B section highlight was Abingdon United making it 6 games unbeaten when they drew 3 each with The Bell A.
Stanford in the Vale FC maybe viewing the prospect of a return to the A section in 2025 had Darren Kitchen top scoring with 10 dolls in a 5-1 win over The Plough. Harwellian B with 2 legs featuring both 5 dolls and blob legs from Ryan Cload and Neil Campbell beat the Grapes, for whom Lee Brown top scored with another 10 doll haul, 4-2.
Brian Hudson top scored for the Croft Bar when they returned from the Fox, Denchworth with a 4-2 win.
The C section saw Abingdon Con Club victorious 5-1 over the Boundary House. Like one of the other “sixers” on the night Con Club’s skipper Mickey Neal promptly followed his magnificent first leg with a third leg “blob” which probably led to the “chicken” being brought out by his team mates!
I promised a look at the league tables and the race towards the individual top doll counts for each of the sections as we approach the last month of the league season.
As already mentioned it’s a 3 horse race in the premier with Bystander’s recent run of 6 straight wins probably making them slight favourites at the moment, but the top 3 all still have to play each other so it could go right to the last game of the season, the match postponed from week 10 between them and Ab Utd/Con Club on the 14th September.
The A section sees Red Lion A 10 points clear with just 3 to play and it could still be tight as their last week of the season is a bye so they will be hoping to remain at least 6 points clear by then!
The B section seems to be a fight between Stanford in the Vale FC and the Bell A who are separated by just 2 points and the Croft Bar are 5 points behind but these top 3 all still have to play each other.
The C section is Abingdon Con Club’s to lose as they have a very healthy 15 point lead with only 3 games to play and the D section looks to be between the Midget and Harwellian A who are 5 points adrift.
The E section is led by North Star A with a 6 point lead, but that could be narrowed when second placed The Wheatsheaf play their game in hand this week.
The F section looks to be a straight contest between two newcomers – WADS Bar and the Fleur de Leys and they meet next week so that game may prove to be decisive come mid September!
Looking at the top dolls for each of the sections there’s still lots to play for! In the Premier teammates Dave Dix with 135 and Phil Adams with 132 are well clear of the rest, in the A section Dean Bowler, Paul Leach and Danny Hamilton are all within 3 dolls of each other, the B section is equally as close with just 7 dolls between the top 4 who are Paul Ealey and Dave Sapey from Abingdon RBL, Lee Brown of the Grapes and Andy Shipman of Harwellian B and they are all likely to reach their 2024 centuries when they next play as is Tom Lach of Abingdon Con Club who just needs 6 dolls to reach his “ton”.
In the D section the race to top doll scorer is led by Roly Bunce from the Chequers followed by Ian Cooksley of the Harwellian and in the E section Darren Bennett from the Wheatsheaf leads the way just ahead of Jim Lister from the North Star. In the F section Derrick Browns’ magnificent 14 dolls last week took him to 102 dolls for the season which not only puts him well in the lead to become the F section’s top “doller” it puts him into the top 10 doll scorers for all of the combined sections including the Premier probably time Derrick to appoint an agent!!
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