Erks maintained their position at the top of the EMBL with a hard earned victory over one of their main rivals for the title on Sunday morning in Leyton.
With Garbage Time Dave Churches and Mark Denchfield arriving late in the second quarter (having been locked outside for 10 minutes) and Martin Overare arriving in the third quarter, Erks played with 5 players for almost the whole first half. With Hainault sporting a bench of 11 players, the Erks 5, comprising Declan McCusker, Ed Bailey, Steve Herd, Dela Agbolegbe and "Twinkle Toes" Atkinson, faced an uphill battle but Erks opened the scoring with a Stockton & Malone "pick and roll" move between Fun Ed and Dela. Erks then kept the scores level and edged ahead 16 - 15 at the end of the first behind 9 points from Steve Herd and 5 points from Declan McCusker (coming off a season high 26 against Galleon on Thursday).
Erks defence continued to hold the hosts at bay in the second quarter as Erks started to edge ahead as Dela drove to the hoop and Herdy continued to score on his way to a game high 19 points. As Hainult continued to struggle at the offensive end, Denzil McDonald entered the game. With Denzil's confidence sky high following his 5 foul and 1 rebound performance at Caistor 2 years ago, he came up trumps hitting his season high 2 points (and the only technical foul of the game for asking the referee the time!!!!). Mark Denchfield and Garbage Time Dave entered the game having finally been let in and Church quickly hit 2 "and ones" to open a half time lead of 10.
Scores were traded in the third with Mark finding his range hitting 8 points as the hosts still struggled to hit their shots. Ex Erk and club debtor "Scarlet Pimpernel" Pringle failed to find his usual scoring range and with Graham Hill in foul trouble and Paul Edwards struggling to shoot over his ever increasing midriff, it was down to "Mr Attitude" Wayne Ali to keep the hosts in the game with more cross overs than Tim Hardaway (and a couple of points too).
Martin Overare entered for the fourth quarter and chipped in 6 points and his usual array of round the basket moves. Graham Hill fouled out to the "man of the match performance" from referee Lloyd Miller and full court pressure and fouls from the hosts left Erks closing out the game from the free throw line.
Erks now host Forest whilst Hainault host Galleon with a bottle of Jack Daniels at Caistor up for grabs between Denzil & Declan based on who scores the most points in their respective games. Denzil will be looking to get sluggy and Ernie Wise in the post whilst Declan will be looking to take Alan Daintan to the hoop!!
Erks scorers:
Declan McCusker 5, Mark Denchfield 10, Lee Atkinson, Martin Overare 6, Steve Herd 19, Fun Ed Bailey 4, Dela Agbolegbe 10, Garbage Time Dave Churches 15
Hainault : Wayne "Nutcase" Ali 17, Paul "Midriff" Edwards 10, Graham Hill 9, R Burns 6, V Goddard (although Vic wasn't actually there) 5, Ex Erks & club debtor Pringle 4, Jon Clarke 3 (from downtown in Steve Herd's face), Denzil 2 (and a technical foul).
Report posted: 28/02/05
