Drumchapel Glasgow are on course to defend their Women’s British Clubs League Premier Division title after the first weekend at WV Active Wolverhampton – but Fusion (pictured above) are right behind them.
A total of 43 teams were in action and Draycott III from Division Five were Team of the Weekend. The Player of the Weekend award went to Kerry Harvey of Sherwood Oak in Division Six.
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Defending champions Drumchapel Glasgow are off to a positive start as they bid to retain their Premier Division title – but previous champions Fusion are right behind them.
The Scottish side chiselled out a series of 4-2 victories, winning their opening four matches by the same score and on every one of Saturday’s encounters needing to win the final individual match to be sure of taking both points.
Sunday morning saw a victory over Fusion, who took the lead when Tianer Yu beat Ella Pashley, and levelled at 2-2 when Yu picked up her second victory, over Hannah Silcock.
Pashley put Drumchapel in front by defeating Elena Todirca, and that was that, with Fusion’s Tsz Yan Nancy Yeh having to withdraw from the last match through injury.
Drumchapel could not make it a perfect weekend, however, as last season’s runners-up Ormesby held them to a 3-3 draw in the final match. The Middlesbrough side led 3-2 and it was Pashley – formerly of Ormesby – who rescued Drumchapel’s point by beating Lowri Hurd in four.
Fusion won all their other matches to sit a point behind Drumchapel – and actually have a better sets ratio than the leaders. There is then a two-point gap to third-placed Draycott, who have a better sets ratio than both sides above them – when they won, they won big.
In the averages, Dun Laoire’s Mia O’rahilly Egan won all eight of her matches, while Naomi Coker of Draycott also has a 100% rating, from six ties.
In Division One, Joola Plymouth were unassailable, winning all their matches and only losing four individual ties all weekend to hold a three-point lead over Wensum at the top.
Plymouth had the biggest problems with Ellenborough in the first round of matches, winning it 4-2 after their opponents had hit back from 2-0 down to level the tie. Alyssa Nguyen and Yat Sum Ma made sure by defeating, respectively, Tumay Ekrem and Zsuzsanna Kalman in three.
Ellenborough are in third place, another point behind Wensum, and the 3-3 draw between the two teams probably did neither of them any favours in the title chase – though Wensum did come from 3-1 down to secure a point, Amy Marriot beating Kalman 3-2 in the last match.
Three players won nine of their 10 matches to jointly head the averages – Ma and Lois Peake of Plymouth and Hurey Ahmetoglu of Ellenborough.
The leaders of Division Two are Cippenham, and they also had a perfect record of five victories, including 5-1 against nearest challengers Worthing, who won their other four matches.
Cippenham were extended by St Neots, who closed the gap to 3-2 when Eva Eccles beat Anna Piercey in the fifth set. Mia Lakhani sealed it for Cippenham with a 3-2 (11-7, 11-5, 10-12, 12-14, 11-6) victory over Lily Walters.
Rachael Iles was the Cippenham spearhead as she won all 10 of her matches to sit top of the averages.
Division Three also has perfect leaders, Greenhouse winning all their matches to sit two points clear of Ackworth.
It was a 4-2 scoreline when the top two met in Round 3. Greenhouse were never behind and led 3-1, but were made to wait by Sophie Ackred, who defeated Isabella Turner-Samuels in a five-setter (12-10, 10-12, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8). Luna Archard secured the Greenhouse win in four games against Matilda Simms.
In the averages, Archard and Jonabel Taguibao both won nine out of 10 for Greenhouse, as did Ackworth’s Mridula Rajesh Hemalatha.
Cleeve Park stand two points clear at the top of Division Four and are unbeaten, though they dropped a point in a draw against Drumchapel Glasgow III in Round 3.
They secured their spot at the top with a 5-1 win over nearest rivals Butterfly Lilleshall Lightning, who are two points behind in the table.
The top player in the averages is Cippenham II’s Antonina Bohach, who had a perfect 10 wins, one better than Cleeve Park’s Nicola Duke.
Division Five was utterly dominated by Graham Spicer II, who won every match 6-0 and only dropped nine games between them all weekend.
Worthing II held on to their coattails by winning their other four matches to sit two points behind the leaders, though they could not stop the juggernaut when the sides met.
It was TJ’s Super Women who pushed them the hardest as three matches ended 3-2 to Graham Spicer, who used four players over the course of the weekend – Aldora Li, Kei Yin Ng and Yuvathi Vijay won all eight and Man Yin Ng won six from six as the domination not surprisingly translated into the averages.
The seven-team Division Six has a three-way tie at the top between Flick, Brighton B and Sherwood Oak, with a massive six-point gap ahead of the rest.
Flick and Brighton are unbeaten, winning four matches, while Sherwood have played an extra match and also won four – the defeat a 6-0 reverse at the hands of Flick, who had a 22-2 sets difference over the weekend.
A Flick trio lead the way in the averages – Meige Wang and Sarah Her-Lee won 8/8 and Binyu Zhas 6/6.