Cippenham Buccaneers lead the table as the half-way stage is reached of this season’s
league championship race. They are twelve points ahead of Cippenham Outlaws but Outlaws
have two matches in hand - against Cippenham Rascals and Burnham Leopards. One point
further back are Burnham Nomads, one of three teams to have completed all eight matches,
while title contenders Rascals are nineteen points behind the leaders but have two
matches in hand - against Outlaws and Burnham Pumas.
The only clash involving two of the top four since the last report was the match
between Burnham Nomads and Cippenham Outlaws. Unfortunately, Nomads were 3-0 down
before they started with Ian Baker detained at work but, nevertheless, 8-2 was a
very good result for Outlaws. Graham Trimming was in his best form so far this season
sweeping past Elroy Hull and Dave Hyder both 3-0 but Dave found some form when notching
up two for Nomads against Neil Bird and Anthony Gardner. This result has all but
put paid to Nomads’ title aspirations but had they been able to field a full side
in all their matches they would now be occupying a useful second position.
Buccaneers had two big wins. The first was 9-1 over Burnham Leopards whose only success
was Derek Sudlow’s against Muz Sabir. Muz, though, enjoyed a good 3-0 win over Filippo
Rotunno to bag a brace with maximums for Paul Baker and Steve Smith. Just before
the Christmas break Buccaneers beat a two-man Cippenham Scoundrels team 10-0 without
much alarm.
Rascals’ challenge was maintained also by two wins, 7-3 over Burnham Leopards and
8-2 over Cippenham Scoundrels. Rafique Sarhadi, as might be expected for a player
ranked in the top 100 in England, maintained his 100% record while Peter Gajdus found
the form that was lacking at the start of the season with only one defeat against
Filippo Rotunno. John Lloyd beat Mary Stafford and Ray Burbidge both 3-2 but lost
out against Filippo, Ray Lewington, Jim Perry and Armando Borges.
Elroy Hull made a good three against Chalfont for whom Paul Savage beat both Dave
Hyder and Ian Baker as Nomads won 8-2 while Derek Husbands scored a maximum as Burnham
Lions beat Chalfont 6-4. Chris Le Ret won a couple for Chalfont while Keith Bucknell
did likewise for Lions.
