Queens Club of Halifax roared to a third straight victory on Wednesday to take a commanding early grip of the Yorkshire Premier League. 

All three of their wins so far have seen them take maximum 20 points and this week’s triumph over Hull & East Riding was a 20-0 whitewash, with every home player winning 3/0. 

Finnlay Withington, England’s top junior, led the rout at no.1 string by thrashing Mike Reid and was backed up by his national coach Josh Taylor, playing at second string, who made short work of Glyn Saunders. 

Queens no.3 James Earles, the former world no.83, dispatched Yousuf Forster without expending too much sweat and Lewis Harding and Danny Bray were also emphatic winners at the bottom of the order. 

Woodfield picked up their first win of the campaign by bringing out the big guns. World no.28 Declan James (straight off the plane from his second-round exit in the Qatar Classic) and world no.36 George Parker both starred in their line-up at defending champions Abbeydale. 

Both were, somewhat inevitably, victorious in straight games, despite the plucky efforts of Adam Turner and Phil Scully respectively. George’s brother Luke also won at no.3 string over Nick Wall Snr. 

The night had started more promisingly for Abbeydale with wins at four and five for Oli Turner and Sam Watts, but Woodfield’s immensely strong top order always looked likely to swing the match the way of the visitors from Doncaster, who carded a 14-7 win. 

Chapel Allerton occupy second spot behind Queens courtesy of a consummate 20-2 home win over local rivals Pontefract 1. 

Home-grown junior Gabriel Cox kickstarted the rout, while Sam Davey beat ex-Chapel A member John Riley (now playing at Ponte) in straight games. Declan Christie and Conor Sheen also needed just three to see off George and Sam Wileman respectively. 

That left world no.56 Richie Fallows to complete the job for Chapel and although he found it tougher than his team-mates, he did eventually grab victory by overcoming Lewis Doughty 12/10 in the deciding fifth game. 

Hallamshire are just a point behind in third after taking care of South Yorkshire rivals Doncaster 19-4.  

Highly promising 16-year-old Asia Harris, who’s from the Pontefract stable but representing Hallamshire in the YPL, whipped Steve Wright at fifth string and Alex Cutts also saw off Craig Huckerby with minimal fuss at no.3. Tom Turner’s four-game win at fourth string meant the match was over as a contest before the no.1s had started warming up. 

Doncaster’s second string Nick Ratnarajah at least got a ‘W’ on the board for the visitors by winning a classic with Ashley Davies (who’s popped back from his new home in the US), but Hallamshire’s dominance was reasserted by Harry Falconer’s assured 3-0 win at no.1. 

Fourth-placed Dunnington are amongst the chasing pack after a see-saw 15-6 home victory over Pontefact 2, who are now the league’s only winless side. 

Ed Shannon and Matthew Stephenson were authoritative winners early doors for the York side, but back came Ponte with Tom Bamford getting his first win of the season and Matt Godson levelling up the match scores with a 3/1 triumph over Julian Tomlinson (now coach at Wigan Squash Club). 

It all came down to the night’s final tete-a-tete which was won by Chris Simpson, the former England international, who beat Adam Taylor in three to the delight of the home supporters.