British League (Sunderland report) [Archive]

DaveR

01-11-2008, 12:20 PM

Sunderland do well.............

For at least 400 years it has been recognised that there is a period of calm immediately preceding a violent storm. This would be a fitting description of the penultimate weekend in Division 4 of this season’s Senior British League which took place on Sunday 6th January at the Central Sports Complex in Grantham. The four teams at the top of the division went into the weekend separated by just four points and at the end of the day’s play they were still separated by four points, with all of them winning both of their matches to maintain the status quo.

The first match for leaders Sunderland was against a Rotherham Scorpions side that had defeated fourth placed St Marys Hull the previous weekend. The team made no mistake, however, and took the match with a resounding 8-0 victory. Anthony Barella was man of the match with a gutsy 3-2 victory over the temperamental defender Stephen Arliss and a comfortable 3-0 win against Richard Element. Kevin Wilson, Keith Weatherby and Graeme Barella were also unbeaten in the match.

The second game of the day proved to be even more one sided than the first for Sunderland as a young Drumchapel side were unable to cope with the north east team and another 8-0 win resulted. The knowledge that they could set off for home straight after the match clearly galvanised the Sunderland team as they raced through the match without dropping a singles end. Once again the team comprised of Kevin Wilson, Keith Weatherby, Graeme Barella and Anthony Barella.

So Sunderland remain top of Division 4 going into the final weekend but with a lead of just one point and the teams in second, third and fourth still to play the division is far from over.

DaveR

02-18-2008, 01:27 PM

British League Follow Up....................

'We will win the division. It is our fate. We may not be ahead on Saturday night but we will win it.' Those were the words of Sunderland TTC number 2 Keith Weatherby as the team travelled down to Hull for the final weekend in Division 4 North of this season's Senior British League with a slender one point lead and the teams in second third and fourth, Pudsey, Barnt Green and St Mary's Hull, still to play. What made a potentially difficult weekend even tougher was a wrist injury to Sunderland number 1 Kevin Wilson who, with no other players available, was forced to play.

The first match of the weekend pitted Sunderland against third placed Barnt Green who were strengthened by the inclusion of England number 86 Darren Griffin in their line up, who would play at one. Kevin Wilson was first on and had a routine 3-0 win against Pat McCabe but Barnt Green levelled with Darren Griffin proving too strong for Keith Weatherby. The Barella brothers then made the scoreline 3-1 to Sunderland as Graeme comfortably beat Gordon Shaw 3-0 and Anthony scored a superb victory over Sasha Grokhotov 3-1. Darren Griffin steadied the ship for Barnt Green as he won his second singles against Kevin Wilson 3-0 but from there Sunderland took control. Graeme Barella made light work of Pat McCabe winning 3-0 and this was followed by Keith Weatherby avenging a first half of the season defeat by defeating Sasha Grokhotov. Anthony Barella completed a good 6-2 win for Sunderland by defeating the defensive skills of Gordon Shaw.

Pudsey were Sunderland's afternoon opponents and with just one point separating the two teams this was a crucial match. Sunderland got off to a poor start and quickly found themselves 2-0 down after Chris Parker edged out Kevin Wilson in 5 tight sets and Keith Weatherby was well beaten by David Smith 3-0. Anthony Barella got the team back on track with a good win over Joanna Roberts and Graeme Barella levelled the match in defeating Chris Newsome 3-0. Kevin Wilson was no match for David Smith as he went down 3-0 but Keith Weatherby made the match score 3-3 as he beat Joanna Roberts. At this point the Sunderland team felt that the match was there to be won but it was not to be as Chris Parker took another close match, this time against Graeme Barella 3-1. Anthony Barella looked on course to secure the draw when leading 2-0 in the final match against Chris Newsome but the game slipped away amidst an extremely unsportsmanlike performance from the Pudsey player and in the end Barella was defeated 3-2 to give Pudsey their second victory of the season against Sunderland by a scoreline of 5-3.

This result left Sunderland in second place overnight, one point behind Pudsey. The first part of Keith Weatherby's prediction had come true, now the team had to hope that the second part would too.
After a good night's sleep the Sunderland team returned to the venue refreshed on Sunday morning to take on a strong St Mary's Hull side. With Hull lead by the England number 76 and highest ranked player in the division Luke Carrington this promised to be a tough match, but the Sunderland team excelled and won it comfortably 7-1. Kevin Wilson produced two 3-0 wins over Julian Gittens and impressively Luke Carrington, Keith Weatherby also performed superbly to beat Luke Carrington but went down in his second singles to Gary Usher 3-1, Graeme Barella had a second good win of the season over Julian Gittens 3-1 and also defeated Adam Smith and Anthony Barella played well to beat Gary Usher 3-0 and just edge out Adam Smith 3-2 to avenge an earlier defeat to the Hull player.

With their own match over, the Sunderland team's attention then turned to the other hall where Pudsey were 4-2 up against Barnt Green and appeared to be heading to a routine victory. Barnt Green number 2 Pat McCabe had other ideas, however, and defeated Chris Newsome 3-0 to take the match score to 4-3. The final match pitted Barnt Green's Gordon Shaw against Lee Orange with the Pudsey player knowing a victory would see the Yorkshire side to the Division 4 title. Shaw produced a fine performance, however, to defeat Orange 3-1 and secure a draw for Barnt Green and a dropped point for Pudsey.

This left Sunderland and Pudsey tied at the top of the table on 22 points with one match left to play but, with Sunderland posessing a far superior sets ratio, a win for them in the final match against bottom side Isle of Mann would see them win the title. This they duly did with a convincing 7-1 victory. Keith Weatherby, Graeme Barella and Anthony Barella all won twice and Kevin Wilson won one.

In the end then Keith Weatherby's predictions were proved correct and Sunderland have won Division 4 North in their first season in Senior British League. This is quite an acheivement for a Premier Club which has been in operation for less than 10 years and congratulations must go to all of the players who have represented the club this season; Kevin Wilson, Keith Weatherby, Graeme Barella, Anthony Barella and Philip Dixon. With a young and improving squad Division 3 next season should be very interesting indeed.