Salopian began their seventh fixture in the L-Style Division One of the UKDA National League, seventh in the table with 119 points and their hosts and opponents Leicestershire fourth with 140 points.
In Saturday’s ladies ‘B’ match, the home team stormed into an unbeatable 3-0 lead with straight 3-0 wins from Paula Swain, Janine Gough and Shannon Reeve who in turn defeated Emma O’Callaghan, Danni Pritchard and Emma Tapp. Game number four produced another 3-0 result but on this occasion it went to Salopian’s Anna Peatroy who beat Sophie Lilley and in the process earned herself the lady of the match award for her 14.88 average and the fact that she turned out to be the visitor’s sole winner. Rounding off the 5-1 win for Leicestershire were Caroline Newberry, who won 3-1 against Stacey Price, and Liz Brunt who beat Hayley McGuinness 3-0.
The home team’s men’s ‘B’ began by winning the opening four games as Derek Allsopp won 4-2 against Glyn Thomas, Jaikob Selby-Rivas beat Scott Towers 4-3, Tom Mills had straight 4-0 success over Jake Elsey and Dave Gunn accounted for Ben Ellis Dean with a 4-1 result. To make the score a little more respectable, Salopian won the last two games of the half, Carl Wear beating Paul Hutchins 4-3 and Jack Darby winning 4-2 against Billy Jackson to put the score at the midway point to 4-2 in Leicestershire’s favour..
As the second session got underway, the home side extended their lead to 5-2 when Mark Thompson beat Paul Andrew 4-0 and although Ian Evans (Salopian) got the 4-3 edge on Michael Hibbert, the hosts were guaranteed at least a share of the points when Mark Faulkner won 4-2 against James Mansell. However, the win for Leicestershire was confirmed in game nine when Paul Ablett added his 4-1 win against Tony Burton to their tally. The last two games of the day produced Salopian’s best run of the match as Eddie Price won 4-3 against Ryan Carter and Danny Humphries had a 4-2 win over Janek Hill, Humphries collecting the match award for his 26.07 average. The final score 7-5 to the home side.
Going into Sunday’s games, Leicestershire were holding a 12-6 lead, requiring seven more winners from the ‘A’ games to seal a victory for the weekend. Three of those wins came in the opening three games of the ladies ‘A’ match, Ella Coburn, Lauren Hall and Liz Brunt in turn winning against Kate Titley (3-2), Rachael Williams (3-0) and Sue Lane (3-2). From 3-0 down, Salopian then reduced the arrears to 3-2 as their lady of the match Steph Clarke beat Mem Martin-Jones 3-0 with a 20.31 average and Tracey Dean won 3-1 against Kirsty McIlvenny. The result was a 4-2 win for the hosts as Melanie Bell won the final game against Emma Hayward 3-2.
With Leicestershire now in a commanding 16-8 lead, they went 18-8 up when Sam Whittaker and Matthew Dickinson in turn won against Jamie Chaplin (4-3) and Ash Hilditch (4-2) as the men’s ‘A’ match got underway. A 4-3 win for Jake B. Smith over Darren Taylor only delayed the overall win for Leicestershire as in the fourth encounter Ricky Sudale chalked up the hosts nineteenth win for the weekend when he beat Dave Bayton 4-0. Andrew Hibbert took the home team’s men’s ‘A’ lead to 4-1 when he won 4-2 against Paul Rowley but at the halfway stage the score was 4-2 as Salopian’s man of the match Kacey Jones won 4-2 against Mark Faulkner with a 26.55 average.
The second half, in the main belonged to Salopian, Dean Rogers and Gary Crowther winning 4-3 against their respective opponents David Barker and Derek Allsopp and although Scott Hope (Leicestershire) had a 4-2 win against Jon Mansell, the remaining three games all went to the away side as Terry Nash beat Jason Lole 4-3, Oscar Saxton won 4-3 against Martin Giddings and Jamie Kynaston beat Ian Turner 4-2 to give Salopian’s men’s ‘A’ a 7-5 victory.
The overall result for the weekend was a 21-15 win for Leicestershire which saw them move up one place to third on 164 points, thirteen short of leaders Worcestershire and six behind second placed Somerset, however they do have a game in hand on both of the two teams above them. Meanwhile, Salopian held on to their sixth place with 134 points
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