Milton Keynes Phoenix 7-3 Milton Keynes Topspin

Monday 16 September 2019

Game Result Score Match score
1 Alan Bolding beat David Wackrill (3-1) 11-7, 7-11, 11-3, 11-8 1-0
2 Ioan Constantin beat Russell Penn (3-0) 11-9, 11-9, 11-3 2-0
3 Mervyn Phillips lost to Julie Snowdon (2-3) 10-12, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11 2-1
4 Alan Bolding and Ioan Constantin beat Russell Penn and Julie Snowdon (3-1) 11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4 3-1
5 Ioan Constantin lost to David Wackrill (2-3) 11-9, 11-5, 16-18, 4-11, 7-11 3-2
6 Alan Bolding lost to Julie Snowdon (1-3) 13-11, 9-11, 10-12, 11-13 3-3
7 Mervyn Phillips beat Russell Penn (3-2) 11-9, 16-18, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6 4-3
8 Ioan Constantin beat Julie Snowdon (3-1) 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 5-3
9 Mervyn Phillips beat David Wackrill (3-1) 12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 6-3
10 Alan Bolding beat Russell Penn (3-2) 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9 7-3
 
Played on loan
Team Legs won Legs average (%) Points won Points average (%)
Milton Keynes Phoenix 26 60.47 452 53.43
Milton Keynes Topspin 17 39.53 394 46.57
Team Player Games played Games won Legs played Legs won Legs average (%) Points played Points won Points average (%)
Milton Keynes Phoenix Alan Bolding 3 2 13 7 53.85 251 134 53.39
Milton Keynes Phoenix Ioan Constantin 3 2 12 8 66.67 233 123 52.79
Milton Keynes Phoenix Mervyn Phillips 3 2 14 8 57.14 285 152 53.33
Milton Keynes Topspin David Wackrill 3 1 13 5 38.46 245 113 46.12
Milton Keynes Topspin Russell Penn 3 0 13 4 30.77 255 113 44.31
Milton Keynes Topspin Julie Snowdon 3 2 13 7 53.85 269 134 49.81
 
Played on loan
Julie Snowdon played on loan from Milton Keynes Pumas in Division One.
Match date Monday, 16 September 2019 at 19:30
Competition League
Division Premier Division
Venue Milton Keynes Table Tennis Centre
Season 2019-2020
Legs played 43
Points played 846
Published 28/03/2024 13:11 by David Wackrill.
MK Phoenix 7  MK Topspin 3
ELUSIVE HAT-TRICK EVADES SUPER SUB SNOWDON
 
My Topspin side celebrated our promotion to the top echelon of local table tennis with a new shirt design for the team courtesy of skipper Russell Penn, who has made it to the Premiership at last with a regular berth after pottering around the lower divisions for a dozen years or so.
 
Our opening fixture pitted us up against fellow promotees  MK Phoenix and In the absence of regular Mervyn Kelly we were delighted to have the opportunity of strengthening the side by bringing in Pumas’ star striker Julie Snowdon, fresh off a plane from Florida too.  As expected, Julie put in a superb performance and deserves all the accolades coming her way.  She polished off Mervyn Phillips over 5 games in her opening set and then Alan Bolding in 4 before falling to the wiles of Ioan Constantin, also in 4 games, after hitting the proverbial ‘brick wall’ of fatigue when leading 5-0 in the 3rd and only winning 3 of the next 18 points.  Bear in mind she had also played the doubles with Russell.
 
Mervyn, following his meteoric rise through the Divisions, was actually the only player who had never played a premier match before and mightily impressive he was too. He certainly has joined a solid team who I reckon are in for some late finishes this season. The 5th set here ended at 10.15 and then we started playing on 2 tables. There was even talk of playing on 3 tables and umpiring ourselves but I didn’t fancy that.
 
That 5th set took about an hour between Ioan and myself and had expedite written all over it from the beginning. Mervyn timed the games and it was only at 7-6 in the 5th that the 10 minute time limit (for first 18 points in any game) was reached. Mervyn then explained the rules (and was 100% correct in his interpretation of them) before calling out the successful returns himself. Despite this the set ended in chaos as Ioan got confused over the service procedure and whose responsibility it was to win each point. I was the lucky beneficiary of the mix up to run an 11-7 winner for our only other set success on the night.
 
The match ended around 11.25 with a bad result for us but a good start made by Phoenix.