Dunnington head into the Christmas break as leaders of the Yorkshire Premier League after they hammered Chapel Allerton to take advantage of a rare defeat for title rivals Queens. 

Dunnington, the 2018 champions, whitewashed bottom club Chapel Allerton 20-0 in north Leeds on Wednesday night to top the table at the halfway point of the season by 11 points. 

Nos 4 and 5, Matthew Stephenson and Taminder Gata-Aura, both made quick work of their victories early in the evening, before Luke McFarland was at least taken to a tie-break in the first game by Chapel A’s no.3 Cameron Ward. 

Michael Andrews took care of Richard Hinds at second string before ex-England international Chris Simpson was taken to two tie-breaks by Connor Sheen, but the result was the same – a fifth straight-games win for the visitors from York. 

Dunnington’s joy at that annihilation was further enhanced by news filtering through from Pontefract, whose second team beat a somewhat weakened Queens. 

Missing Welsh international Emyr Evans, British junior champion Finnlay Withington and mainstay Josh Taylor, the defending champions were conquered 18-7 and surrendered top spot. 

Captain Matt Godson was up first and took care of Queens’ Matthew Hearst in four while on the adjacent court Commonwealth Games women’s singles runner-up Hollie Naughton also took four games to see off ex-Ponte player Danny Bray. 

At fifth string, Ponte’s Chris Gillespie sealed the winning bonus points for the hosts by quickly conquering former world no.15 Sarah Campion. 

The successes just kept on coming for Ponte 2 as Tom Bamford won an epic duel with enigmatic Kuwaiti Bader Almaghrebi 14/12 in the fifth. Queens finally put a ‘W’ on the board when veteran former pro James Earles won a top-string nick fest with Adam Taylor in four games. 

Hallamshire are handily placed in third, only 17 points off the lead, after they hammered cross-town Sheffield rivals Abbeydale 20-2. 

Ollie Turner and Hayden Tetley fought out a five-game cracker at fifth string, but thereafter all four remaining matches were over in the blink of an eye. Nick Wall Snr, Matt Gregory (winning his first YPL match of the season at the fourth attempt), Adam Turner (winning an eighth YPL game in succession) and three-time world champion Nick Matthew all romped home in three. 

There’s a bit of a gap to fourth-placed Doncaster, who are tied on 104 points with Pontefract 2. The South Yorkshire side won 17-9 at top-flight new boys Harrogate on Wednesday in a see-saw encounter. 

Lower-order duo Dominic Bayley and Ross Kneller got Harrogate off to a flyer with lengthy victories, but Doncaster clawed their way back into the contest with Canada’s Brett Schille winning in three and Lewis Doughty toppling Harrogate’s home-grown youngster Josh Rowley in four. 

It all came down to the top-string meeting which saw Harrogate’s Declan Christie peg back Kiwi Joel Arscott from 2/0 down, only to run out of steam and lose the decider 11/3. 

Wednesday’s other fixture was a mid-table battle between Woodfield and Pontefract 1 which went the way of the West Yorkshire visitors 17-5. 

The first two matches were shared with wins for Ponte’s stalwart Jon Riley at five and Woodfield’s Haaris Vine at four. Ponte took control thereafter though, with George Wileman and Welshman Rhys Evans winning in brisk fashion before world no.69 Sam Todd applied the coup de gras at no.1.