THE second half of the Basingstoke and District League season is now in full swing after the Winter break, writes PAUL MYERS.

In the Premier, Hannington A and St Peters A continued their dominant form with 10-0 wins against St Peters B and Queens B respectively.

Cummins, Cowburn and Fettes for Hannington and Pickin, Wright and Matthews for St Peters were all unbeaten.

The top two teams then shared the spoils in which Ed Slot won a hard fought treble and Malcolm Cummins a duo for Hannington. In reply James Wright bagged a brace for St Peters.

This result was a big improvement for St Peters A having lost the reverse fixture 8-2 and it stopped the run of 10 consecutive victories for Hannington A.

Malcolm Cummins said: “A closely contested match where many games decided by the narrowest of margins. Ed Slot displaying his silky skills under pressure earned him man of the match with an unbeaten trio of wins. A 5-5 result being a fair outcome on the night.”

Queens A continue to perform well and chase the pace in third with 8-2 and 9-1 wins over Queens C and Hannington B respectively.

Tony Palaczky and Callum Coombs both won 6/6 with Justin Mead winning 3/6.

Peter Cowburn prevented the blushes of Hannington B defeating Mead to prevent the whitewash.

Queens D made the perfect start to the second half with a 10-0 thumping of Oakley A in Division One. George White, Eric Wong and Peter Martin were all in treble form for their Queens Club keeping up the pressure on the top two teams.

Aldworth B in second beat Queens G 9-1 and continue to chase Hannington C who beat St Peters C 8-2. Andy Prince and Bobby Zhou both grabbed hat-tricks for Aldworth B with Farhan Shahzad winning two. It was the last game of the evening in which Queens G’s Gabriel Bori beat Shahzad 11-8, 13-11, 9-11, 9-11, 12-10 to prevent the drubbing.

St Peters B beat fellow strugglers Queens C 7-3 in Division One. Praveen Pant claimed top honours with a maximum and he was ably assisted by Clive Welsman and Gary Livingstone who won two each.

Hannington C’s Barry Carter was top dog in their win, winning all three and he was backed up well with duos from Steve Rollason and Mark Pettengell. Weight Loss sensation ‘Keith Russell’ who by his own admission is a “New Man” bagged a brace for St Peters with two hard fought five set thrillers going his way. Queens G beat bottom team Aldworth C 8-2 with trebles from Melvyn Lovegrove and Gabriel Bori.

After losing 8-2, Aldworth C went on to beat KG B by the same scoreline. Andy Jeffery was the man of the match for winning all three for Aldworth with his new bat. Jeffrey Huggins(two wins) and Philip Jones(two wins) both lost out to KG B’s main man Dave Kimberley who bagged a brace. KG B are sliding down the table like a knife through butter and are looking sure to be involved in a relegation battle.

In Division Two, AWE have won their first two games after the break to move into the top spot. They beat Queens K 7-3 and Queens H 9-1. With a big squad to choose from, Jamie Rivers, John Mclarty and Paul Wallace all grabbed trebles with Alan Clarke and Jules Cheongvee two each in their respective wins. Ron Powell(2wins) continues to play consistently well for Queens K. OMI continue in great form and beat Queens K 9-1 who struggle when Powell doesn’t play. Steve Redstall and Peter Blunden both won all three and they were well supported by Avril Waters(2wins) who lost out to Paul Gilbey 3-11,11-8,5-11,11-7,9-11 in a tense encounter. Aldworth D have decided they like the winning feeling and continue to improve. They beat Queens H and J, 6-4 and 7-3 respectively. Phil McDonagh proved hard to beat with two trebles and Matt Riddler bagged a couple of braces. The most notable performance however was the first win of the season for Paul McDonagh. Congratulations Paul!! Lovely to see family McDonagh getting better match by match, helped by Dad Phil. The only unbeaten players in the whole of the league in their respective Divisions are Lorraine Mortimer who continues to impress for Queens I and bagged hat-tricks against Queens J and Oakley B to take her record to 23/23(8 matches) for the season and AWE’s John Mclarty 12/12(4 matches). Who will lose their 100 per cent record first?