PARK hit top spot in Section B title in the Bolton Badminton League with an 11-7 victory over fourth-placed Forrest C.

With one game remaining, away to second-bottom Westhoughton C scheduled for this Friday, they are strong favourites to lift the title.

Apart from losing the second match of the night against Forrest, they controlled the early games and built a commanding lead.

Bev Evans and Phil Pilling won the first pair of games when they beat Christine Travis and John Mealor 21-9, 21-19.

Fortunes were reversed when Forrest’s Judith Mealor and Tony Augustiniak won 21-11, 21-11 against Barbara Nowell and Ian Campbell before Park took control with victories in the next four games.

Third couple Tina Boyes and Jonny Mistry won 21-14, 21-12 against Catherine Jameson and Mitesh Patel, and the teams’ first-couples clash saw Evans and Pilling beat Mealor and Augustiniak 21-18, 21-13.

Forrest hit back when Travis and Mealor comfortably won the second couples' match 21-9, 21-9 against Nowell and Campbell.

In the first pair of ladies’ games Park's Boyes and Evans won 21-15, 21-10 against Jameson and Mealor, and Park extended their lead when Mistry and Pilling just about clinched the first game in their men's match against Patel and Augustiniak 22-20 before taking the second game comfortably 21-12.

The second pair of ladies’ games was shared when Jameson and Travis won 21-14 and Boyes and Nowell took the second 21-18.

With the match decided, Forrest's Patel and Mealor narrowed the gap by taking the last two games 21-13, 21-11 against Mistry and Campbell.