WSSL Week Six: Aston House Teams Gallop Into The Final

30/06/22: The Westway Summer Superleague semi-finals saw victories for the Stampede and the Thoroughbreds to set up an all Aston House final next week.

This year's competition has featured six teams - Aston House Thoroughbreds, Aston House Stampede, Newbury HA1, Westway Warriors, Emanuel Wanderers and Highgate - battling it out in a round robin format followed by semi-finals, final and 3rd/4th and 5th/6th play-off matches.

Week Six saw the competition resuming after a week's break with the semi-finals and 5th/6th play-off. Regular season table toppers the Aston House Stampede continued their excellent run of form with a dominant victory over Newbury HA1 with the powerful quartet of Riki Houlden, Tom McCahon, Nathan Turnbull and Nick Shaw proving too strong for Richard Tyler, Will Seath, Ollie Avery and Jack Hopkins. The other semi-final had the look of a close one, as the Thoroughbreds took on Highgate. Both sides were missing key players, with Noah Caplin unavailable for AHT and Joe Marks and the Bhattacharya brothers absent from the Highgate line-up. The return of Alex Abrahams to the starting line-up gave the Thoroughbreds the boost they needed and two wins in the first rotation (including a crucial 15-14 win for Sahil Shah & Stephen Thatcher over Jack Ledigo & Emily Scoones) gave the Aston House team a lead which they never relinquished. The Stampede will take on the Thoroughbreds in next Tuesday's final, while Highgate will be up against Newbury HA1 in the 3rd/4th match.

Wednesday's match saw the Westway Warriors defeat Emanuel Wanderers in the 5th/6th play-off, the home side's greater strength in depth taking them to a 5-1 win in an exciting match, with two of the six games going all the way to 14-14.

Chief Stampeder Riki Houlden closed in on both the MVP award and the Golden Gloves title with another perfect record, making it 18 wins out of 18 in the competition and adding another four winners into the hole to take his tally well clear of his nearest challenger Adam Field. Karen Hird of the Thoroughbreds is the only player who can prevent Riki from becoming tournament MVP and is still the only other player over the 200 point mark. 

League Table

Results

Week Six

Semi-Finals

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, T.McCahon, N.Turnbull, N.Shaw) beat Newbury HA1 (R.Tyler, W.Seath, O.Avery, J.Hopkins) 6-0

Aston House Thoroughbreds (A.Abrahams, S.Shah, K.Hird, S.Thatcher) beat Highgate (O.Hallam, J.Ledigo, R.Morgan, E.Scoones) 5-1

5th/6th Play-Off

Westway Warriors (A.Field, F.Lebon, T.Campbell, C.Wheeler) beat Emanuel Wanderers (F.Prickett, J.Hammond, C.Nkwocha, T.Bush) 5-1

Final (Tuesday 5th July)

Aston House Stampede v Aston House Thoroughbreds

3rd/4th Play-Off (Tuesday 5th July)

Newbury HA1 v Highgate

Week Five

Aston House Thoroughbreds (N.Caplin, K.Hird, S.Thatcher, N.Choustikov) beat Westway Warriors (A.Field, F.Lebon, T.Campbell, C.Wheeler) 6-0

Newbury HA1 (O.Denby, O.Avery, W.Thomas, P.Holland) beat Emanuel Wanderers (F.Prickett, C.Lumbard, S.Kelly, M.Till) 4-2

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, T.McCahon, M.Chinery, N.Shaw) beat Highgate (O.Hallam, Ar.Bhattacharya, Ab.Bhattacharya, D.Lioubimov) 5-1

Week Four

Aston House Thoroughbreds (Sahil Shah, K.Hird, S.Thatcher, S.Chapman) beat Emanuel Wanderers (C.Nkwocha, R.Swallow, Saajan Shah, T.Bush) 6-0

Highgate (O.Hallam, Ab.Bhattacharya, D.Lioubimov, R.Morgan) beat Newbury HA1 (W.Seath, W.Thomas, P.Holland, J.Hopkins) 5-1

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, T.McCahon, N.Turnbull, M.Chinery) beat Westway Warriors (P.Wilkinson, C.Wheeler, M.Gwynne, J.Caplin) 6-0

Week Three

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, N.Turnbull, N.Shaw, C.Austin) beat Newbury HA1 (M.de Souza Girao, W.Seath, J.Hopkins, O.Avery) 6-0

Emanuel Wanderers (F.Prickett, S.Kelly, C.Nkwocha, T.Bush) beat Westway Warriors (A.Field, D.McCahon, C.Wheeler, N.Lilienthal) 4-2

Aston House Thoroughbreds (N.Caplin, A.Abrahams, S.Shah, K.Hird) beat Highgate (J.Marks, D.Lioubimov, Ar.Bhattacharya, Ab.Bhattacharya) 4-2

Week Two

Highgate (O.Hallam, R.Morgan, J.Ledigo, E.Scoones) beat Emanuel Wanderers (J.Hammond, S.Kelly, M.Till, A.Lewthwaite) 6-0

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, N.Turnbull, N.Shaw, M.Chinery) drew with Aston House Thoroughbreds (N.Caplin, A.Abrahams, S.Shah, K.Hird) 3-3

Westway Warriors (A.Field, P.Wilkinson, M.Gwynne, D.McCahon) drew with Newbury HA1 (W.Seath, W.Thomas, P.Holland, O.Avery) 3-3

Week One

Aston House Stampede (R.Houlden, T.McCahon, M.Chinery, B.Merrett) beat Emanuel Wanderers (J.Reynolds, J.Hammond, T.Bush, R.Swallow) 6-0

Highgate (Ab.Bhattacharya, J.Ledigo, E.Scoones, D.Lioubimov) beat Westway Warriors (F.Lebon, A.Field, P.Griffiths, D.Thackeray) 4-2

Aston House Thoroughbreds (N.Caplin, K.Hird, S.Thatcher, N.Choustikov) beat Newbury HA1 (M.de Souza Girao, R.Tyler, J.Hopkins, O.Avery) 6-0

MVP Race Leaders

Riki Houlden 270

Karen Hird 250

Adam Field 188

Tom McCahon 180

Stephen Thatcher 180

Matt Chinery 166

Noah Caplin 164

Nathan Turnbull 164

Nick Shaw 158

Abhishek Bhattacharya 145

Dan Lioubimov 140

Sahil Shah 137

Oli Hallam 131

Alex Abrahams 125

Emily Scoones 122

Will Thomas 111

Paul Holland 107

Ollie Avery 107

Ralph Morgan 107

Jack Ledigo 104

Frank Lebon 101

Chris Wheeler 97

Fred Prickett 94

Toby Bush 91

Nick Choustikov 90

Golden Gloves (Shots in the Hole)

Riki Houlden 17

Adam Field 13

Fred Prickett 6

Karen Hird 5

Sahil Shah 5

Abhishek Bhattacharya 4

Noah Caplin 4

Oli Hallam 4

Ollie Avery 3

Matt Chinery 3

Nick Shaw 3

Stephen Thatcher 3

Nathan Turnbull 3

Chris Wheeler 3

Mark Gwynne 2

James Hammond 2

Stephen Kelly 2

Chiedo Nkwocha 2

Will Thomas 2