Bollington’s teams finding their groove
ALL but one of the 13 men’s teams from clubs in and around our town were in North West Counties League action last Thursday – with victories and defeats coming their way in precisely equal measure.
And of the six victorious local sides, precisely half came from Bollington - including the First Team, whose 4-1 victory at fellow Division Two East strugglers Tollgate 1 created an invaluable 20-point cushion between the two teams, as well as lifting the ‘Bolly Firsts’ a place to 11th. Rick Walters, Brigg Simpson, Lyndon Stonier and 17-year-old James Walton all won on the night.
One of this season’s odd coincidences is that if ever, and only when, Bollington 1 win, divisional companions Prestbury 1 come a cropper! And so it came to pass once again at Bollin Grove, where they went down 4-1 to The Northern 2. Only Mike Lomas was victorious as the seventhplaced home side continued a five-week sequence of alternate victories and defeats.
Prestbury’s ‘Seconds’, in Division Three SouthEast, suffered the same reverse-scoreline, although in their case it was a first defeat of the campaign - with midtable Crewe Vagrants 3 inflicting the damage down at Willaston.
Chris Dunkerley achieved the sole victory from a long trip for the side, which has dropped a position to fifth - albeit with a match in hand over most rivals.
Biggest climbers of the week were Third Division Central South side Bollington 2, who, having waited until the previous week for an inaugural victory of the campaign on court, promptly recorded another, at home to Marple 2. Ian Cottrill, Neil Garner, Martin Ogden and Tom Binder triumphed to secure a 4-1 win that propelled the ‘Bolly Seconds’ up four places to sixth.
Prestbury 3 looked to have the toughest assignment of all the club’s teams in action - but ended up being the only one from Bollin Grove to enjoy a victory. Receiving Division Four Central South leaders The Northern 5, the fifthplaced hosts set about their task to great effect, as Mike Brauckmann, Rich Curry, Paul Bartle and Andrew Worsley all prevailed. Further down the table, however, Prestbury 4 slipped to 13th after losing 5-0 to, and being leapfrogged by, the Third Team’s previous opponents, David Lloyd Manchester 2, at TraffordCity.
The Division Four South fixtures included a ‘derby’ between Macclesfield 1, in fourth, and Bollington 3, a couple of positions below, at the town’s leisure centre.
The hosts edged victory, and gained some local bragging rights, by the odd match in five - with James Douglas, Simon Evans and Martin Hall triumphing for Macc. Aldo Palazzo and junior player George Lomas (14) gained Bollington’s pair of consolation victories.
Elsewhere in the division, Prestbury 5’s losing streak extended to five matches - but only just, as the eighth-placed side came close to pulling off victory, before falling 3-2, at home to promotion-chasing Glossop 1. Rob Thorneycroft and junior Kaamil Bhatti (15) won in straight games - but, agonisingly for the hosts, Paul Wilson’s third-string match saw him edged out 16-14 in the fifth.
It was a similar story of what might have been for Prestbury’s ‘Sevenths’ in Division Five Central South, as they travelled up to the National Squash Centre a player short. Dave Marwood and Chris Murray both triumphed against hosts City of Manchester 7, but two defeats on court and the walkover-loss at fifth string off it resulted in a 3-2 reverse and a drop of one place to eighth.
In the Cheshire Ladies’ League Second Division, Prestbury 1, in fifth, edged home 3-2 at Liverpool Cricket Club 1 for a first victory in three matches, thanks to wins in straight games by Linda Maher, Sarah Lonsdale and Helen Thaw.
But Bollington, despite another success for unbeaten first-stringer Annika Hall, fell one position to eighth, and suffered a fourth consecutive defeat, after losing 4-1 at third-placed Bowdon 2