Winter League
Review of the Divisions 1 & 2 fixtures played on Wednesday 26 October

Reigning Division 1 Champions, Lower Hopton, were beaten by the all-ladies team of the New Millers on the opening day of the new Winter League season for the top division. This has thrown all predictions into turmoil (not to mention the Fantasy League entries) as Lower Hopton only lost one match all last season.

Certainly, the aggregate total of 37 is entirely alien to them being their lowest ever Winter League score so well done to the New Millers for an outstanding team performance and a result that will have alerted a number of other aspiring Champions to sit up and take note. One of those contenders is last season's runners-up, Kirkheaton Con, and they opened their campaign with a 6-2 win over Clayton West which was good enough to push them to the top of the inaugural league table. The 55-51 aggregate advantage proved crucial in claiming the majority of the points.
Similar fortunes for the two promoted teams as Meltham and Lindley Lib 'A' both drew their first matches of the new season 4-4. Meltham finished level with Thorpe Green whilst Lindley Lib 'A' drew with their Lindley neighbours. That result for Meltham ended a run of 19 consecutive wins stretching back to mid-December 2020 when they went down to the same opponents, Thorpe Green. It does however mean that they have extended their unbeaten record to 20 league matches.

The Lindley derby featured a really good game between Ian Briggs (BC) and Allen Chapman (Lib) with Allen leading well but being denied by repeated knock-ons by Ian. Starting from the very first end where all four woods were within 9 inches of the jack after Ian had pushed Allen's leading wood off the jack it was touching. I saw at least another 4 identical situations as both bowlers produced high-quality displays but it was not to be Allen's day. That contributed to the closest encounter of the day as Thorpe Green relied on the 57-56 aggregate win to share the points. Card of the Day (shown alongside) also came out of the Lindley derby match showing that Peter Thornton (BC) beat Richard Saunders 21-20 after 31 ends and notably fighting back from 9-17 to take the points.
In the Division 2 fixtures played at Springwood the new boys from Lockwood Con opened with a decisive 8-0 whitewash win over Jackson Bridge to put a marker in the sand as to their intentions. However they will have to overcome, at least, another couple of other good teams who will have strong claims to honours this season.
That is likely to feature Milnsbridge 'A' who took no time at all in putting last season's reorganisation relegation behind them to clock up the second whitewash 8-0 win of the day. The victims being one of the two teams that accompanied them down from Division 1 last season, Rastrick 'A'. This was a 17th consecutive defeat for the Rastrick side having lost all 16 matches last season.
Lowerhouses 'A' were relegated from Division 1 last season on the last day of the campaign and felt that they were unlucky to lose out that status so were keen to impress at the start of the new season and announce their intentions to be among the front-runners this year. A 2-6 loss to promoted Lindley BC 'B' was not what they were expecting signifying that this could be a close-run division with an increasing number of strong contenders for honours.
Springwood 'A' started with a close 6-2 win on their own green over Denby Dale. This is an improvement on last season for Denby Dale as they lost both matches last year by the same 8-0 scoreline.
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