Published 16/10/2017 at 09:00:00 by David Wackrill; edited 1 times, last on 16/10/2017 at 12:38:12 by David Wackrill.

PREMIER
3 years ago last week Sasaki crushed MK Kingpins 10-0, which remains both Sasaki’s best ever result and Kingpins only whitewash since Mark Purcell and Dave Allison formed the team over 20 years ago. Some readers may still recall skipper Thai-Anh Lieu’s effusive (on League's Facebook page) match report at the time. I certainly do but I was a Sasaki player then, though not in the team that night. Hopes were raised, and subsequently dashed, of us lifting the title. And another victory this week against the same Kingpin trio of Dave Allison, Mark Purcell and Julian Adams keeps unfashionable Sasaki well to the forefront this time round too, the only team to win all 3 matches so far. Club founder Kelvin Choong is the sole Sasaki survivor from that famous 2014 victory and contributed here by repeating his win over Julian. The remaining 5 sets came from star-men Dakshin Subramanian (3) and Dan Smalley (2).

The Greenleys derby went to Monarchs as always (I don’t ever remember them losing it) as they trounced Kings 8-2. Hat-tricks for Nigel Metcalfe and Tom Nowakowski. Consolations wins for Guy Sparrow and Olan Gabriel, ‘playing up’ from Division 1, over Martin Hall. Monarchs lead the table by one point from Sasaki while Kings are in danger of finishing last.

The Premier ‘curse’ of fielding a player short (it happened 20 times last season) has come early this year as 2-man MK Spinners struggled in vain against an MK Bandits side containing Matt Evans. But Spinners came close to snatching a draw with an Alan Cherry hat-trick plus the doubles with Gary Jones. The crucial set here was Jamie Hendy's 14-12 in the 5th win over Gary. Alan seems to have the upper hand over Matt once again, I’m sure he won their last encounter too, after quite a long spell of defeats.

Player of the week is Alan Cherry.

The MK Powers side were putting out the bunting on Wednesday night to celebrate their first win since 26 January 2016, which was all of 29 matches and 28 defeats ago. Heroine of the hour was Sarah Hudson with a final set victory over Woburn Sands Data’s James Molloy to clinch her own hat-trick along with the match. Earlier she had won her other singles against Rob McPheat and Andy Bambridge (playing up from Div 3) plus the doubles with Colin Munford, who had set the ball rolling with a surprise win himself in the opening set over James. This was Colin’s first victory after more than 50 consecutive defeats, though he always remained confident he would regain his form.

A hat-trick from Paul Haigh, outshining Biao Wang’s brace, steered  St.Christopher Van Hire to a 7-3 result which ousted MK Topspin from the leadership of the division. But the highlight of the night has to be Mervyn Kelly’s win over Biao, who I had thought unbeatable at this level. Mervyn kept his cool as Biao recovered from 2 games down, with an exhibition of some fantastic hitting in the decider. And this display of brilliance after losing his other singles as well as the doubles!. St.Christopher picked up their 3rd doubles win here, which is more than in the whole of last season when they finished in the relegation zone.

Warriors beat Eagles 9-1 in another Greenleys derby to take them to top spot where they belong. Olan Gabriel ‘doubled up’ on the night, also playing and winning in the Monarchs Premier match on the next table, and joined team-mates Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell on maximums. Some stout resistance from the old boys though, collectively giving away more than a century in age to the young bucks, as half the singles went to a decider and a sixth, the doubles, was won.

MK Phoenix have started the season brightly and their 7-3 win at Chackmore Hasbeens puts them into 2nd place. Alan Bolding recorded a straight games treble and Terry Lau a brace. Bub Burman got a brace himself while the big surprise of the night was Chris Whitehead’s win over Gerald Ridgway.

Finally, a victory at last for MK Pumas, who may have been slightly flattered by the 8-2 score-line as they won all of the 5 sets going to a decider. Andy Smith took his regular hat-trick while team-mates Julie Snowdon and Keith Carrington lost one each, Julie to Xiangyu Gau and Keith to Larry Lung.

Spoilt for choice for ‘Player of the week’ (after 2 relatively ‘thin’ weeks searching for outstanding achievement) as there have been noteworthy performances from Colin Munford, Sarah Hudson, Paul Haigh, Mervyn Kelly and Chris Whitehead. I’ll go for Powers saviour Sarah.