Roundheads claim thrilling success

In recent years there have been plenty of runaway leaders who have strolled to the title but it all went down to the wire in 2023.

After beating their nearest rivals Bewdley Institute in a thrilling 6-4 encounter at their home venue, Cookley then faced a return trip to Bewdley for the final game of the season.

The Roundheads needed to draw to win the league while a 6-4 victory would hand the title to Bewdley.

Both sides fielded strong teams, with both Carroll brothers playing for Bewdley, while the visitors put out county player Hawley Ellicott alongside former Black Country defender Matt Squires, who has been in great form during his comeback season after returning to the area from Bristol.

Cookley got off to the perfect start with Ellicott gaining revenge over his county team-mate George Carroll for the defeat he had suffered in the clash at Cookley. Squires then made it 2-0 with victory over Frank Carroll.

Cookley looked to be cruising to victory but disaster looked to have struck when their number three Rob Hatherly pulled a calf muscle early on in his match against Simon Morgan. He was forced to withdraw and had to forfeit his remaining games due to his injury. This let Bewdley back into the match and they pushed their opponents all the way before taking the doubles to leave the score tied at 5-5. It was not enough, however, and Cookley squeaked home to win the league by the narrowest of margins: both teams had 16 victories and 67 points but Cookley won one more set than Bewdley – 154 to 153.

The consistent Squires also took the honours for most wins in division one.

In division two, Cookley Mavericks enjoyed a strong season with Richard Painter recording an outstanding win ratio of 90 per cent. But they did not have enough points to pip the eventual league winners Harvington A, for whom the evergreen Eric Calver won 87 per cent of the 30 games he played.

Bewdley Institute B propped up the table and face relegation to the third tier. Both Robert Powell and Qian Zhang, who play for Bewdley Institute teams, notched up 30 wins apiece.

In division three, Bewdley Institute F cruised to the title by an 11-point margin. Steven Richardson won a huge 95 per cent of his games and was ably backed by David Horswell, Jonathan Cooper and Philip Smiglarski. Richardson narrowly lost out to Ken Worton, of Stourbridge Institute B, for the ‘most wins’ honour, 34 to 38. Harvington B were runners-up, with the veteran Brian Page still a force at this level.