The race for the championship is hotting up! Cippenham Buccaneers stay top but, following
their 7-3 defeat by Cippenham Rascals, their lead over Cippenham Outlaws is now only
one point - and Outlaws have a match in hand. Burnham Nomads are only three more
points behind Outlaws having played the same number of matches as Buccaneers. In
fact, had Nomads been able to field a full side in their last two matches they may
well have hit the top of the table themselves.
Cippenham’s best two players are both in the Rascals team. Rafique Sarhadi, winner
of the recent Cippenham Team 2-Star Open with Cedric Brion, and Steve Dobbins remain
unbeaten and were responsible for their team’s win over Buccaneers. Paul Baker extended
Steve to five games and he and Steve Smith led Rascals 2-1 at one stage in the doubles.
However, in the end the only sets Buccaneers won were against Rascals’ captain John
Lloyd.
Buccaneers did beat Burnham Lions 9-1 after Keith Bucknell had come back from 2-0
down to defeat Muz Sabir in the opening set. After that is was fairly straight forward
for Muz, Paul Baker and Steve Smith.
Outlaws, apart from their earlier 8-2 defeat by Buccaneers, have played some of the
lower teams so far and have dropped only one additional point in the process. Two
recent 10-0 victories have been sustained by their team of Neil Bird, Anthony Gardner
and Graham Trimming although Anthony did have to save match point against Matt Ward
in last night’s win over Chalfont. Neil was also troubled by Russ Holbrook the previous
week but won in five to ensure a maximum points haul for his team.
Burnham Nomads are going well at the moment. Two each for Elroy Hull, Ian Baker and
Dave Hyder secured a 7-3 win against Burnham Leopards, for whom Derek Sudlow won
twice, including a come-back from 2-0 down against Ian, and Filippo Rotunno once.
Then, without the unavailable Ian, they beat Cippenham Scoundrels 7-3 although Dave
Hyder had to pull out all the stops to beat William Tint after losing the first two
games. Last night, in a two versus two encounter, Nomads beat Burnham Pumas 6-3 (one
void set). The only defeat for a Nomads’ player was when Russ Holbrook beat Dave
Hyder.
The closest recent match has been the 5-5 draw between Burnham Leopards and Burnham
Lions. Derek Husbands won his three for Lions, included a 11-9 fifth game success
over Filippo Rotunno, and shared in a doubles success with Keith Bucknell. Keith
was Lions’ other winner, against Mary Stafford, while Filippo and Ray Lewington won
twice and Mary once for Leopards.
