02-03
.Weekend 1 report
Ashford, playing all matches at their home venue, are going to be the team to beat.Their No 1 Stefan Edlund (not Stefan Edberg (!!) which appeared on one scorecard) won't lose many at this level and he showed his class as he saw off Farhat Rasul and Adrian Davis in their 5-3 victory over second-placed JAGS. Dave Crowley took the Player of the Match award for his "steadying-the-ship" win over Adrian Davis in the fourth game.
Second-placers JAGS II scored a fine 6-2 win over last year's third-placers Horsham III. Farhat Rasul, as befits an occasional Premier division performer, led his team by example and stayed undefeated and Dele Ayoola contributed a double at the expense of Terry Dean and Graham Faulkner. Simon Pink's opening-game win over Adrian Davis represented the most outstanding effort from the Horsham players
JAGS have taken over the leadership of this division on games difference after first round leaders Ashford were beaten 5-3 by York Gardens. JAGS and Ashford both have 14 points followed by York Gardens on 13 points.
A big gap has developed between the third and fourth placed
teams and the fourth placers Guernsey trail York Gardens by a
full 6 points. Their best performance arguably came against JAGS II
where they only succumbed 5-3. Their No 1 player, the very consistent Phil
Ogier, scored a stunning 3-0 victory over Farhat Rasul (ranked No 175
nationally) having missed out 3-1 against Rodney Farquharson (No 446).
"Three became
two......" . Leaders JAGS II effectively surrendered any hopes they
had of taking the title as they lost twice; against York Gardens (2-6)
and Horsham III (3-5). The defeat against Horsham III was the
real stunner as an inspired Horsham side raced into a 3-1 lead. Farhat
Rasul scored his second win by beating Simon Pink (3-2) and Adrian Davis just
got the better of Chris Vincent 17-15 in the decider to make the score 3-3. You
might have favoured JAGS after such a narrow victory but Horsham
were having none of it. Terry Dean scored his second fifth set win, at 11-3 in
the decider against Martin Smith which left Graham Faulkner with the task of
winning the last singles to take the match. He proved up to it by beating Musa
Farquharson 3-1.
York Gardens found themselves tied at 2-2 against JAGS,
but a 3-0 win for their No 1 player Mark Smith over Farhat Rasul seemed to give
them fresh heart and they rattled off the last three games. Peter Barrow
impressed with a 3-0 win over Adrian Davis and Dipan Shah completed the job
with a -6, -12, 7, 8, 9 victory over Rodney Farquharson.