Secretary / Competitions Secretary Report Season 2010

Ladies & Gentlemen

This year Swadlincote Catholics A joined the league and Alvaston & Crewton and Stretton B returned after an absence of one year so we had four divisions of fourteen teams, one of twelve and two of ten. Belmont Services lost their green but they moved to Woodville and had the added difficulty of coping with life in the premier division with learning a new green.

Individual Merit

The first event of the season was the merit and we had four qualifying greens with two from each going to the final day which was be held this year at King's Newton. The holder, Neil Gibson of Littleover fell at the first hurdle at Alvaston & Boulton but the runner-up last year, Eddie Furniss of Rowditch and John Dewey of Belvedere Park came through at this green. Nick Jellyman of Rolls Royce and Mick.Bacon of Rowditch won through at Chellaston. David May of Stretton Anglesey and Mark Fearn of Littleover qualified at Rykneld and Richard Gill of Alvaston & Boulton and James Dennis of Rowditch progressed at Spondon. On the finals day at King's Newton there were quarter final wins for John, David, Eddie and Nick. The semi finals were quite a contrast as David May easily beat John Dewey but Nick Jellyman had a battle on his hands to beat Eddie Furniss 21-19. David took the title with a 21-14 win over Nick in the final. We had nine places at the Derbyshire Merit on Sunday 27th June at Woodley Sports Club so these eight were joined there by David Chambers of Littleover who won the play-off between the losing round three players. At the County Merit finals Richard Gill was the best of our contenders losing in the final to six times winner Andy Spragg of Chesterfield. David May qualified for the British Crown Green Merit Finals by winning his play-off match after a quarter final defeat in the main event. Richard and David were joined at the national finals by David Redfern (Alvaston & Boulton) and Dan Petcher (Eureka Park) both of whom play in our league but qualified for the County event through the Burton League merit.

Charity Cup

The winner of the 2010 Charity Cup in which players are handicapped according to the division in which they play was Norman Lymer of Foreman's Club. He beat Ian Woodward of Netherseal 21-20 in the final with a fine winning run from 12-20 down. As a previous winner he also had to lose his 'league handicap' of 3 and play off scratch. In the semi finals Norman beat Kevin Holmes of Rowditch whilst Ian defeated Norman's club mate Steve Harcula. The event was held at Alvaston & Boulton B.C. on June 20th and attracted an entry of 16 players.

Ray Hanson Doubles

Twenty-three pairs contested the Ray Hanson doubles at Chaddesden Park B.C. James Dennis & Eddie Furniss from Rowditch won the event beating Norman Lymer & Steve Harcula (Foreman' s Club). Dave Merry & Fred Lowe (Littleover) and Ian Woodward & Darren Staley (Netherseal) were the losing semi finalists..

Main Leagues

The top two in the Dean Burton premier league were the same as last year but Swadlincote Catholics halted Stretton Anglesey's five year winning run by beating them this time round. Alvaston.& Boulton and Belvedere Park were third and fourth. At the foot of the table Woodville made an immediate return to division one accompanied by Washlands who finished just below Henhurst. Brackens and Rowditch were promoted from Ashbourne B.C. sponsored Division 1 with Mayfield and Ashbourne Park relegated. Three clubs finished with just four more points than Stretton A in an extensive relegation battle. Netherseal and Eureka Park finished well ahead in Vice Presidents Division 2 to make an immediate return to division one. Belvedere Park B finished well adrift at the bottom and they were accompanied down by Spondon A. Rolleston and Stretton A went up from the Alv.& Boulton B.C. sponsored Division 3 with Chester Green and Littleover A going down to Division 4. Henhurst A achieved a second successive promotion and Chellaston A went up from division four with them just ahead of King's Newton A. In a very close relegation battle Belper Pottery A escaped the drop at the expense of Spondon B who had an inferior aggregate and Rolls Royce 3 were two points worse off than these two. The newcomers, Swadlincote Catholics A easily won division 5 with Rowditch A finishing as runners up.

Dickie Cup

The holders, Stretton Anglesey, came safely through the first round in which Henhurst and Littleover were the only premier sides to go out. Henhurst lost to Foreman's Club and Littleover went down to Lamb Inn. There were no big surprises in round two. The conquerors of premier sides in round one met and Lamb Inn won by just one shot. Both Swadlincote Catholics teams progressed as did both Alvaston & Boulton teams at the expense of Rolls Royce 1 and Rolls Royce 3. Stretton Anglesey A joined their first team in the next round by winning the all premier clash with Derby Co-op. There were two big ties in round three as the top two in the premier division met and Alvaston & Boulton drew Marehay. Stretton Anglesey kept their hands on the trophy by beating Swadlincote Catholics by twelve shots and A & B triumphed by four shots. Stretton Anglesey A beat division one leaders, Brackens and Alvaston & Boulton A also joined their first team by beating Lamb Inn. Rolls Royce 2 accounted for Horsley and Netherseal were another division two team to progress as they beat Mayfield. Littleover A and Swadlioncote Catholics A completed the last eight putting out Sitwell Arms and Holbrook respectively. On quarter finals day Alvaston & Boulton won the closest game by 14 shots over Stretton Anglesey A. Netherseal and Alvaston & Boulton A had comfortable wins over Swadlincote Catholics A and Littleover A and Stretton Anglesey had a clean sweep over Rolls Royce 2. Stretton Anglesey beat Alvaston & Boulton by twenty-three shots in one semi final whilst Alvaston & Boulton A fared much better with a twelve shot win over Netherseal in the other. The 2010 Dickie Cup Final was a fine match. Stretton Anglesey won all of the games but all of the Alvaston & Boulton players got reasonable scores and the handicap start kept them in the game right up to the end. So Stretton Anglesey retained the trophy with a thirteen shot win.

Champion Of Champions

Brackens and Swadlincote Catholics A beat Rolleston and Netherseal in the games on the Thursday to join Swadlincote Catholics and Henhurst A on the final Sunday at Spondon B.C.. Swadlincote Catholics won the Champion of Champions trophy which is for the winners of each of the main leagues. They beat division one winners, Brackens, in the semi final by four shots and went on to win all of the games in the final against Henhurst A of division five. Henhurst had earlier won another close semi against Swadlincote Catholics A, again by four shots.

Floodlit Leagues

We lost Spondon 3 and Rykneld 3 from last year so division seven had only five teams and played a third game against each team on a neutral venue. Littleover 1 regained the division one title this year with Stretton Anglesey as runners up. Stretton and Woodville ( who played their home games at Newhall whilst awaiting the construction of lights at their new venue ) were the bottom two. Rowditch took division two ahead of Rolls Royce 1 who always seem to yoyo between the top two divisions. The bottom pair were Rolleston and Spondon 1. Division three was taken by Swadlincote Catholics 1 with Brackens 1 as runners up and Derby Co-op 1 and Ashbourne 1 suffered successive relegations. Denby won a very tight division four from Rowditch 3 who finished ahead of Belper Pottery 1 by virtue of having won more matches. Newhall and Stretton 2 were the bottom two. Marehay 2 and Spondon 2 were the promoted two from division five with Marstons and Ashbourne 2 being relegated. Chaddesden Park won division six from Rowditch 2 with Washlands 2 and Rolls Royce 2 at the bottom. Stapenhill 2 and Sitwell Arms 2 were the best of the small division seven. Rowditch 1 retained the floodlit cup beating Littleover 1 in the final. The losing semi finalists were Henhurst 1 and Belvedere Park 1.

Federation

We had a disappointing year this time round only winning one game and finishing fourth with 60 points. As it transpired, however, Doncaster withdrew from the league and so the expected relegation did not materialize. The biggest blow was in the first game against Doncaster when an administrative error cost us five points and a 13-19 defeat instead of a 18-14 win. Richard Gill and Eddie Furniss had fine 21-6 and 21-7 wins in the home leg at Rolls Royce and Matt Ford and Tony Batchelder came in 21-11 and 21-12 away. The second game was a split match against Furness and this yielded our only win. David Redfern was the best of five winners at Barrow with a 21-8 and Steve Gibson and Ollie Walters both won 21-10 at Littleover in the home leg to complete a 20-12 success. Against Calderdale we narrowly lost 15-17 only failing to get the overall aggregate by 3 shots Richard Gill was on form again at Stretton in the home leg on a flying green with another 21-6 and Andy Stretton also won well 21-10. Lee Pacey was the best of five winners in Yorkshire with a 21-10. The last game was against the winners of the league, Mid Cheshire. We did well enough away with Gareth Nash the best of six winners but we lost by four shots at Chellaston in the home leg despite a 21-8 from Brian Woodcock and lost the match 12-20. Thanks go to the two team captains Nick Jellyman and Neil Gibson and to all of the players especially those prepared to travel. We are also grateful to all of the Clubs who staged games and catered for us in the home matches The veterans repeated their success of last season by retaining the Midlands division with 9-1 and 8-2 wins over Swadlincote and Cannock B and a 3-7 reverse to Cannock A. We thus beat Cannock A to the title with 20 points to their 19. Allestree's Sylvia Hughes and myself won all three of our games. We fared better this time in the champion of champions event at East Lancashire C. & B.C. where we finished second with 18 points, 8-2 against winners Ormskirk, 6-4 against South Lancashire and a narrow 4-6 loss to the winners Worth Valley. Jim Bancroft won all three of his games. Thanks go to Dave Merry for captaining and organizing this team.

Thanks

I would like to finish by thanking everyone who has helped me and the Association in any way during season 2010, all of the Officers and the Executive committee and all of the Club secretaries and Club sponsors.

Graham Jackson