Well, tomorrow night marks the halfway point in our league, yes it’s already week 9 so we are halfway there and it is worth looking at who is currently leading the pack in each of the section’s as we approach the second half of the season.
In the Premier section Steventon Sports have established a 6 point gap over Abingdon United and last week in defeating The Hart 4-2 they hit their highest leg score so far this season, more of that later.
In all of the other sections after 8 weeks things are all a little tighter in the A, B, C and E sections only 12 points separate the top 2 in each section and in F section the gap is only 1 point whilst in D section the margin is 3 points. League leaders in the A section are Red Lion A, in the B section College Oak A head the table and in sections C and D it is The Grapes on top at this stage of the season. In the E section Harwellian A are clear of The Midget although there is an outstanding online score correction from week 4 to make which will reduce the gap between the 2 to just 2 points and in the F section it is very tight with Abingdon Arms B taking over at the top by 1 point from The Fox, Boars Hill.
So all to play for in the second half of the season!
Back to last week’s matches and a quick resume of some of the highlights both in terms of individual scores and team scores.
It’s worth starting by some very good team and individual scores in the game between Plum Pudding and Abingdon Utd/Con Club in the Premier section. Abingdon United put together their best performance of the season winning 4-2 at Milton winning the first two legs with scores of 28 and 29 to which Plum Pudding could only reply with 20 and 21 dolls. Plum did however recover to and take the 3rd leg 24-22. The legend that is Barrington Parker hit a second leg 6 (the only one of the night!), but leading the honours for Utd/Con Club was Leigh Clapton with 14 dolls ably assisted by Dave Dix with 12 and both Barry and Tom Lach both hit 10 apiece. For Plum Phil Adams led the way with 12 dolls supported by skipper Terry Downes and Barry Townsend who both hit 10 dolls .
Elsewhere in the Premier/A section Steventon Sports recorded 30 dolls in the third leg of their 4-2 win against The Hart with leg scores of 23-15, 16-25, and 30-24 and I think Hart’s score in that third leg might have been their highest leg score of the season so far. Croft Nomads and The Vine shared the spoils in a 3-3 result leaving Croft still adrift at the bottom of the Premier, but, by virtue of the draw now level with Plum Pudding on 21 points.
Other results in the Premier/A Section saw wins for Red Lion 6-0 against Berinsfield A who had a disappointing week as the following night they went out in the quarter final of the 8’s Competition. For the Red Lion Dean Bowler and Scott Tabor both hit 10 dolls (Scott your first double figures?) Stanford in the Vale FC also had a win when they hosted Bystander A and won 4-2.
That’s a round up from the Premier and A section matches last week, next week we will have a more detailed review at the results from some of the other sections where there were also some good and not so good individual and team outcomes last week. I will start by highlighting the leading double figure scorers. Moffy for Abingdon United C, Geoff Organ, College Oak A, Dave Sapey, Abingdon RBL, and John Curry (didn’t he used to be a skater?) for Harwellian A in Section E all contributed with 10 dolls each for their teams last week.
Elsewhere many, I am sure many had “funny” old nights, but none more so than Steve Bartholomew and Jack Wrigglesworth. Steve plays for the Black Horse Hanney and his night started with a “blob”, then he hit a 5 with his second throw and then his third blow was, yes you guessed it was another blob! How does that happen? Jack Wrigglesworth playing for Abingdon Arms B at the Fox, Boars Hill followed his first leg “blob” with 1 doll in his second leg and then he turned his what looked like being a bad night into a much better one with a third leg 5. As they say it’s a”funny old game”!!
Finally the 2 outstanding quarter finals in the Team 8’s competition were completed last week and C section sides Abingdon Con Club defeated their Premier Division opponents Croft Nomads 2 legs to 1 and their Section C colleagues The Bell Grove also advanced into the semi finals with a 2-0 victory against their Premier Division opponents Berinsfield A. These results would suggest that the handicap system does really provide teams from outside the Premier and A sections with the opportunity to progress through to the later stages of this Competition and Abingdon Conservative Club, semi finalists now, remember reached the final of this Competition last season! So maybe these results will encourage more sides , outside of the top sections, to enter in 2024!!
So the 4 semi finalists are The Bell Grove, Abingdon Conservative Club, Plum Pudding A and Abingdon Utd/Con Club. The draw for the semi finals will take place next week and the ties will be played by mutual arrangement by the end of August, with the final scheduled to take place as the opening game on Finals Night on the 13th September.
Hopefully the weather will improve and it will be warmer tomorrowevening , it’s p’ing down with rain right now which is why I am doing last week’s update a little bit earlier than usual!!
Enjoy!!
No comments yet.