POOL: Crawley League champions suffer rare defeat

Crawley Rugby Club was the home venue of both teams so there could be no excuses for losing there.

The current champions Special K perhaps surprisingly lost by 9-4, which narrowed the gap between the top-two to a solitary point and opened the title back up, which the neutrals will always want to see.

Meanwhile, third-placed Raiders failed to capitalise with a 6-7 loss to Downsman A, but Pelham Jewels leap-frogged Rugby Club in to fourth after a 9-4 win away to Mavericks.

On the second Rugby Club table second played third in Division One with Scrum Pjack overcoming The Inn Crowd 8-5 in a well contested match that simply closed the gap between the pair.

Happy Slappers (pictured right from 2014) won 9-4 against Windmill Original to extend their lead at the top to seven points, and currently look the ones to beat for the rest of the season.

This Wednesday they play the Samuel Johnson while third and fourth play each other (Scrum Pjack v New Moon), so they could be even further clear by Thursday morning!

In Division Two, the front pair of Windmill Players and Pink Flamingos are now five points clear of the chasing pack after Downsman Dynamites sadly pulled out of the league, leaving bye nights and a rearranged table after all points were deducted.

Third-placed Raker have a game in hand so all may not be as it appears, and it will take a little longer for that particular table to settle down and show who is or isn’t leading the way. With the top two playing the bottom two (Touching Cloth and The Wild Dogz), don’t expect too many changes this time next week.

As for the hundred percenters who were yet to lose this season and who we spoke about last week, plenty fell by the wayside on Wednesday night (is this article the kiss of death?), and Lee Pryszlak stands alone in the Premier league with six out of six for The Rugby Club, so it will be interesting to see how he does against the Mavericks tonight (Wednesday).

In Division One, only John Bending remains on 100 per cent though he has played a game less than most, while Division Two five remain, headed by the six from six record of Jose Goncalves, followed by five from five for Simon Twort.

This week we have the first round proper of the Windmill Consolation Shield on Tuesday, so good luck to all 16 teams involved, all of them turning out on Wednesday again for league night, proving the great love of pool in Crawley and Worldwide as well.

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