Argosy Allstars had a very close encounter with Stone Art Squash in Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association’s A League last week, narrowly coming out on top 3-2.

The Allstars’ top two players Dave Norman and Malcolm Levy both won 3-0, results that were mirrored by Stone Art players Steve Baker and Toby Woolard.

With the match score at 2-2, the decider was between Stone Art’s Lyndon Cheetham and Allstar Steve Morley.

On rankings, Cheetham was the favourite but he was hampered by having not played squash for three months because of a foot injury and therefore lost 3-1, with Morley bagging the bonus points for his team.

Team AON continued their unbeaten run with a victory over Crazy Phil Shaw Vehicles. AON’s Dafydd Lewis, Chris Cave, Mason McLarney and Jason Crease got the four wins for AON, with only McLarney dropping a game on his way to the win.

Vehicles’ captain Ashley Sandyford-Sykes prevented AON from getting maximum points with his 3-0 win over Pat Fitzpatrick in a close-fought match where the former managed to win the vital points at the end of each game.

The match result was 174-110 to AON - so far they have dropped only 21 points in this winter league campaign.

Racketeers Pioneers maintained their unbeaten record in the B League with a great 5-0 victory over Crowe Dragons.

Baillie Watterson and Marc Taggart both finished the match with 3-0 wins, whereas Andrew Brown dropped a game in the win over regular sparring partner Beth Jones.

Crowe Dragons players Dave Hedley and Stephen Pitts, who really is improving at the moment, provided their team’s stiffest resistance. Both had really close games but eventually lost 2-3 to Dafydd Lewis and James Leith respectively.

Racketeers could be title contenders if they maintain this form.

Sharks played Outcasts and, with both teams heading into the match undefeated, this promised to be a good contest.

Outcast Chris Cave beat the Sharks captain 3-0 and his team-mate Liam Davies got the better of Douglas Jacobsson in a very close five-game match in which players took it in turns to win the games.

But Sharks’ lower order players - Dave O’Neill, Alan Macnair and Mark Stratford - all triumphed over their opponents to claim the win for Sharks with an overall match score of 235-180, putting them top of the table.

Island Tyres and Exhausts got their first win of the winter league when they met Argosy Junior Academy. Exhausts’ top two of Shaun Wyllie and Liam Townsend both won 3-0.

This was matched by juniors Ben Leith and Leighton Ginty at four and five, leaving the middle order match as the decider.

It turned out to be the closest match of the night as Richard Cretney and Harvey Douglas battled it out.

Cretney lost the first game but came back to win the next three and take the match 3-1, therefore claiming the bonus points and the overall victory for Exhausts.

Hansard Racketeers picked up their first C League win of the season last week with a narrow 3-2 success over Chrystals Junior Academy.

A strong Racketeers side were kept honest by the Juniors thanks to wins from number one Emma Leith and the ever-improving Kai Kiernan at number four.

But Racketeers clinched their first triumph of the 2020-21 campaign thanks to victories for Daryl Richards, the in-form Tom Burrows and Barry Irvine who made a successful return to the third-tier with a 3-1 win over Leith’s fellow island player Amaline Batty.

Falcons performed well and stretched the strong Island Exhaust Vets team, although they eventually lost 2-3.

Exhausts’ wins came from their number one Mark Stratford who edged Lance Wyllie 3-1, Peter Sharples who beat Vicky Waterson 3-0 and Gerrit Du Toit - now nicknamed the postman because he always delivers.

Falcons’ wins came from their captain Vusimbe Zivave who beat a player new to IoMSRA squash but a South African veteran, Johan van der Merwe, 3-0, while Phil Butler overcame Les Callow 3-1.

This was a very close match ending 198-216 on points.

The match between Buchanan & Pitts Misfits and Outcasts Dragons produced an interesting outcome.

Dragons won the top order matches through Darren Smethurst, Stuart Highy and Phil Whittam, with Smethurst having a particularly close battle against Pat Russell who took him all the way to five games.

Misfit Terry Holt claimed a good 3-0 win at fourth string and his team also had a walkover at five as Outcasts could only field four players.

High-scoring by both sides resulted in an overall 3-2 match win for Outcast Dragons, losing on points by 201-189, a rare occurrence.