Drumchapel Glasgow completed an unbeaten season to win the Senior British League, Championship Division as the SBL played to a finish over the weekend.
In clinches the Scottish club a place at the inaugural Senior British League Premier Division Cup in June, as well as earning them promotion to the Premier Division next season.
The Drumchapel squad (pictured above) won 17 of their 18 matches, drawing the other, to finish a healthy six points clear of second-placed BATTS II, who themselves were eight points clear of the chasing pack and only lost once all season.
The drawn match was against BATTS way back in the third round in October, since when they have carried all before them, spearheaded by Baoman Wan and Yaser Razouk, who were only beaten once each all season – Wan winning 17/18 and Razouk 13/14.
Edward Wesshagen of London Academy topped the averages but was not as active as the Drumchapel pair, though he did win all eight of his matches.
PPong Team won the National A(1) division, four points clear of Draycott.
It had been all square going into the final weekend, but while PPong won all their remaining four matches, Draycott lost their first two of the weekend – 6-3 to Ormesby III and 7-2 to Loughborough Unicorn. PPong’s 8-1 victory over Unicorn on Sunday clinched the title.
Three players had 100% records, though Martin Johnson of North Ayrshire II was the most active of them, having played eight matches. Of the regulars, Naphat Boonyaprapa of Draycott won 22 from 24 for a 91.67% ratio.
Brighton II topped National A(2) having won 13 out of 14 matches, putting them six points clear of runners-up Woodford Wells.
The champions had several prolific players in the averages, led by the impressive Joseph Langham-Ferreira, who won all 16 of his matches – one more than Jonathan Mooney of Ormeau II, from the same number of matches.
Guernsey were six points clear at the top of Division B(1), ahead of Draycott II, Halifax and Huddersfield, who all had 18 points – indeed, Halifax only finished ahead of Huddersfield on games ratio, by the slender margin of 1.17 to 1.15.
None of that troubled the champions, who won 12 of 14 matches and were led by Ben Foss and Josh Stacey, who both won 25/28. That was not quite good enough to top the averages, however, as Huddersfield’s Keigo Burnham won 15 from 16.
Horsham Spinners took Division B(2), finishing two points ahead of Draycott III.
The top two met in the final round and it was Horsham who took the spoils with a 5-4 victory. Draycott three times took the lead, but two successive Horsham victories from 3-3 – by Rory Scott and Ugur Saglik – put them over the line.
Ryan Choong of Oxhill won all eight matches to top the averages, with Draycott’s Sam Cooper taking 13/16 to be the highest placed of the more regular players.
Finsbury won Division B(3) by two points from Dartfordians, recovering from losing the first match of the weekend to Urban II to win their next three matches, including a 7-2 victory over their closest rivals in the final round of matches.
The champions had Emil Erkekov as their mainstay, and he won 22 out of 24 matches to finish as the highest regular in the averages – though Mateusz Mikosz with 8/8 for Urban was top of the table.
Division B(4) went to Cippenham, who lost only once all season and were six points clear of Somerset Sabres, who themselves edged out Foresters on sets ratio.
Cippenham won all their matches 5-4 on the final weekend, including against their closest rivals.
Sabres did top the averages, though, with Damian Swierczek winning a magnificent full house of 24 matches. Team-mate Artur Daniel and Fusion IV’s Tianer Yu both won 8/8.
Division C(1) was won in fine style by Colin Deaton TTA, winning all 14 of their matches to finish four points clear of Knighton Park.
Liam Murphy of Halton III topped the averages on 13/14, just ahead of Jake Meikle (Colin Deaton) and Oscar Bentley (Knighton Park) who both had 25/28.
Ormesby IV lost only once on the way to topping Division C(2), four points clear of Scarborough.
Andrew Wilkinson and Ella Pashley both won all 12 of their matches for the champions, while team-mate Karina Le Fevre won 27/28 across the full season.
There was an East Anglian flavour to Division C(3) as Norfolk’s Wensum II won the division by two points from Suffolk’s Britannia.
The top two met in the final round and a Britannia victory would have given them the title – but Wensum took it 5-4 and never trailed in the match.
Wayne Mason of Wensum was the top performer with 26/28 in the averages.
North Ayrshire III won Division C(4) by two points from Nottingham III, though the runners-up at least had the bragging rights of beating the champions 6-3 in the penultimate round.
John Hannah of Ayrshire led the averages, having won all 16 of his matches – club-mate David Hay notched 19/20.
National C(5) was won by Foresters III, who had a healthy six-point margin over Newton Abbot, who sneaked second place ahead of Cippenham II on sets ratio.
Lloyd Gregory of Cardiff won 9/9, while the best record of the regulars went to Charlie Usher, the Newton Abbot player winning 15/16.
It took sets ratio to decide National C(6) in favour of eBaTT, ahead of London Academy II – despite a 7-2 win for the latter then the teams met in round 12.
Agnelo Naik won all 20 of his matches for Ashford to lead the averages.
Morpeth won Division C(7) by four points from Essex Boys, beating their closest rivals 7-2 in round 12. The best performer in the averages, of those who played more than a handful of matches, was Cleeve Park’s Ryan Farthing on 14/16.