Changing of the guard as Kings dethrone Monarchs once more!

It’s been a rollercoaster of a few seasons for the “top” Greenleys Team. Two years ago the Monarchs stormed to Premier glory, which they followed up last year with a bottom place finish.

This season has seen the Monarchs solidify a spot in the mid table of the Prem, although it’s anyone’s game between bottom place and 3rd place these days.

In a remarkable stat, the Monarchs have only fielded the same 3 players twice all year (Tomek, Dave Tiplady and Martin Hall), who featured in 2 of the first 4 games of the season. The rest has been made up of a wealth of experience from across multiple counties.

Last night it was Tomek, the “CHO” meister himself Martin Hall and the returning sandpaper Gladiator, Ian Johnson.

The Kings have predominantly relied on Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow to fill the first 2 spots, with Gary Deakin and Jordan Wood taking over the third place duties.

Nick, Guy and Gary were in action last night.

It was quite literally a game of two halves, with very little to write about in the first 5 matches.

Gary took full advantage of Ian’s lack of hard bat practice (sandpaper bats are completely different to the hard bat he uses in the league), and despite stealing the first set from under Ian’s nose, Gary never looked too troubled in a 3-0 victory.

Martin and Nick resumed their friendly rivalry which occasionally is a “CHO” off between the two Northampton natives.

No such need tonight, as Nick took the first two (17-15 in the second), before Martin made things interesting by taking the 3rd, only to succumb comfortably in the 4th and give Nick the win.

Tomek and Guy played out a close first set which Tomek won 14-12, before he stormed the next 2 sets dropping only 8 points.

The doubles was also one way traffic, as Deakin and Howard almost resembled a doubles pair in beating Tomek and Martin 3-0.

Whilst Howard then took little time in despatching Johnson in 3 sets, as he was still searching for that “double point ball” when down in the 3rd……. Sorry Ian, we don’t do that here!

Things started to pick up when Tomek played Gary. They shared the first 2 sets before Tomek took the 3rd comfortably. The 4th was a closely contested affair, with Tomek doing some great retrieving, and ultimately holding out to clinch the match in 4.

Martin and Guy were playing on an adjacent table at this time, with Guy somehow finding himself 2-1 up despite not playing particularly well. Martin fought back to take the 4th end 11-3 and was quickly 5-1 up in the 5th.

As is so often the case with Sparrow, he suddenly found the shots which made him unplayable at this point last season, and rattled off 4 excellent winners when match point down at 10-8, to run out a 12-10 victor.

Nick and Tomek were on next in a battle to decide who went unbeaten on the night.

Having played twice already this year, they were locked at 5 sets all with Tomek winning their last encounter 15-13 in the 5th.

Howard started strongly taking the first to 6, before Tomek bettered him by 2 taking the next to 4.

The next two sets were also shared, this time at 11-9 a piece, taking it into a 5th set - Was there ever any doubt?

Howard eventually prevailed after some monster rallies dominated the last set, and secured his 3rd hat trick of 2019 with just his 12-10 loss in the 5th to Dave Allison the blot on his record.

Fun fact (your definition of “fun” may vary) - Nick currently leads Tomek 154-144 in points on the year. That’s about as close as you can get when sharing 15 sets!

If you thought that match was close, Guy found himself up against a determined Ian at the same time.

Nothing split them across the first 4 sets, with the 5th being no different. But it wasn’t to be Johnsons night, as he finally had no answer for Sparrow who edged the victory 11-9 in the 5th.

If the match was a song, the final game was more of a fade out, than a crescendo.

Gary was too consistent for Martin who will be wondering how he didn’t pick up a win on the night.

The 2017/18 season saw the Kings win their remaining 5 games to sneak ahead of the Monarchs for the first time ever (I believe).

They have solidified that position with 3 out of 4 victories this season, with the other match ending in a draw.

2019 has already been full of surprises for the Monarchs - They secured their best win of the season in January beating the Spinners 10-0, before falling to their worst defeat of the year against their stablemates last night.

With Sasaki bringing out the bazookas to take on an understrength Warriors last night (winning 10-0), it looks like they’ve just about wrapped up the top spot, with the Kings likely to come in second (although they aren’t quite as comfortable!)

The next 4 places are up for grabs, with only 8 points separating last place Kingpins and 3rd place Monarchs!

All to play for in the coming weeks.

Final Score

Kings 8 - 2 Monarchs