Last year’s runners-up Our Lady of Peace A got off to a winning start in their Division 1 campaign.
Tidmarsh’s Duncan Groves showed promising early-season form with victories over Steve Murgatroyd and the closest match of the week, possibly the entire season, vs Ian Cole 11-8 9-11 12-10 9-11 13-11.
Elsewhere, former England Top 50 player Michael Childs won his three for Reading FC but could not save his team from a 3-7 defeat against Kingfisher B with Phil Mead, Martin Pugh and Theo Kniep picking up two each.
New signing for Sonning Sports A, Dave Croucher, made Kingfisher D work hard for their narrow 6-4 victory by picking up man of the match including victories over Cath Venning, Julian Telford and Graham Mendick. A strong Sonning Common & Peppard A line-up of Jamie Barlow, Gary Morgan and Joe Barraclough won their opening match 7-3 at Kingfisher C despite Prayrit Ahluwalia fighting hard to win 2 singles and winningthe doubles.
The first four matches of the season in Division 2 all turned out to be very close contests.
Tilehurst Methodists A just edged out Kingfisher E with Eric Van Looy getting a maximum for Tilehurst.
The Kingfisher players all picked up at least one set with Stephen Leggett recording two good wins. Kingfisher F beat Our Lady of Peace C 6-4 in a match that featured a number of very close sets, Roger Pritchard and Hamid Mohseni both recorded two wins for Kingfisher. The highlight set was Sanket Dave beating Roger Pritchard 11-8 in the fifth.
Our Lady of Peace B and Tidmarsh B drew 5-5 with Dale Ballard getting a good maximum for Tidmarsh including beating Darek Kaminski 14-12 in the fifth. Darek also lost 14-12 in the fifth to Mike Alstrop.
Tilehurst RBL B had a hard fought 6-4 win over Sonning Common & Peppard D. Danny Dockree recorded a very good maximum for SC&P with Tilehurst players Kate Maksimenko, Pete Bradley and John Willcocks all winning twice.
The highlight set was John Willcocks just beating Mark Jones 12-10 in the fifth.
The first match of the season in Division 3 was at Tidmarsh Village Hall with the division’s new team Tidmarsh C, relegated from division 2 last season, and last year’s mid-table team Our Lady of Peace D. Even though losing doubles, Ian Wu’s three wins helped the Tidmarsh team to secure a 6-4 win.
Last year’s third placed team Pangbourne WMC started with a solid 9-1 win against the division’s new team Our Lady of Peace F.
Clive Taylor’s and John Simmond’s impressive three straight maximum led their team to a great start to the season. Alona’s one win rescued the OLOP team from a whitewash.
Kingfisher H visited Our Lady of Peace E and managed to secure a 5-5 draw despite Parvin Baishkiyar’s three wins. Highlight of the match was Muharrem Aydin’s solid performance even though failing against Parvin Baishkiyar in a five set thriller.
In the last match of the week Springfield A won 8-2 at Sonning Sports B. Captain Jason King and Rob Wilkie’s 3 wins contributed to the great win. After the first matches Pangbourne WMC and Springfield A indicated that they are strong contenders for the title with their impressive victories.
In Division 4 Tilehurst Methodists C wen to Sonning Common & Peppard E and came away with an 8-2 win thanks to a fine Lewis Oke maximum.
Giving him good support were Steve Christelow and Arek Zolkowski who both gained doubles. Next day Sonning Common & Peppard F were held to a 5-5 draw by Kingfisher I. For the Commoners Gerry Bacon was the man in form by winning all three new comers Springfield B started with an impressive 9-1win at Sonning Sports C, Rob Atack and Marcella Caramma were the hat trick men.
