Gong roars back for Unicorn II after four-year lay-off

THERE was a flurry of excitement in Division One of the Leicester and District League as a young lady from China joined the Unicorn second team, writes John Bowness. Already Yu Yu Gong has played in three matches and made her mark.

First up were Thringstone. Gong, having not touched a bat for four years, had a few minutes knock-up half an hour before the match and promptly won two, including the scalp of Maurice Newman, but not finding a way around David Arrowsmith in a 7-3 victory.

Even better followed when this team beat their own first team who are defending champions and topping the chart at the moment. Gong this time won three in a remarkable 9-1 victory including beating Jared Patel. For the victorious second team, Luke Greenfield also took three, Craig Witheford two, Jared only taking one for the first.

This week it was the turn of Knighton Park’s first team, when their star performer, Chris Rogers, lost all three for a once in a blue moon return.

Hero for KP was Jack Rogers who defeated Gong. Finding himself 9-10 down in the fifth Rogers saved six match points in a row before squeezing home 17-15, winning two overall as Unicorn took the match 7-3. Gong won two, Witheford a cracking maximum and Greenfield one.

This makes a difference to both the chart and the averages with Unicorn firsts just one point ahead of their own seconds and Knighton Park a further two points adrift. The averages show a number of players in heap around 90 per cent.

Another very good performance came from Arnesby’s Ian Brown who took all three for his team to lead the way to a tight 5-5 draw against AW Wolvey.

Desford Village first team surely look destined for promotion from Division Two this term having just missed out last time. They defeated one of their nearest rivals, Holwell Sports II, by 7-3.

Abbots Road are second after beating Syston Casuals II 8-2, while Regent Sports fell to sixth after going down to Electricity III 12-10.