PREMIER/DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 8

Published 17/11/2017 at 13:56:22 by David Wackrill.

PREMIER
Another big win for MK Sasaki, 8-2 victors over closest rivals MK Kingpins, extends their lead to 14 points. While no title was ever won in November Sasaki must consider themselves to be firm favourites. If ex-skipper Thai-Anh Lieu had just played one more season he would be overseeing the team that he built now on the threshold of fulfilling his dream of winning the League. Perhaps he’ll be back. Usual maximums for Dan Smalley and Dakshin Subramanian while Mark Purcell and Julian Adams managed consolation wins for Kingpins against Kelvin Choong.
 
MK Bandits 7-3 victory over MK Spinners means that we now have 3 teams, both of these plus Kingpins, on 41 points. A great win for Bandits, who recruited their prize asset Matt Evans for the match to steer them to victory with a maximum. Dave Buckley hasn’t enjoyed much success this season but after showing some promising form last week came good with a brace this time, beating Tim Cheek and Gary Jones. Alan Cherry scored a brace himself for Spinners. 
 
Our 2015 ladies singles champion Jordan Wood played her first league match over 2 years in the Greenleys derby in what proved to be a personal triumph for her Kings’ team-mate Nick Howard. Nick took the first ever maximum for a Greenleys 2nd team against the 1sts when he beat Monarch’s trio of Tom Nowakowski, Martin Hall and Ollie Horswell.  Jordan also beat Ollie, playing up again from Div.1, but that was it for bottom placed Kings who went down 6-4. And at least Monarchs preserved their 26 year record of never having lost to any Greenleys 2nd team in all that time.
 
Player of the week is history maker Nick Howard.


DIVISION 1
Alan Bolding and James Molloy may only play for mid-table teams but they are the division’s hottest properties at the moment and continued to extend their unbeaten runs this week, Alan to 13 and James to 11, with highly impressive performances at the expense of the top 2 teams.
 
Alan’s hat-trick brought about leaders Greenleys Warriors first defeat. Terry Lau and Gerald Ridgway provided a win a-piece to back his efforts and Phoenix won the doubles as usual. Warriors fielded Div. 2 player Jock Campbell alongside regulars Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell, who won 2 each. Ollie cut it fine though with 2 close 5-gamers, winning 12-10 in the decider when playing Terry and 11-9 against Gerald.
 
Warriors defeat leaves them 1 point clear of my MK Topspin team, who, while no match for an electrified display of power hitting from James Molloy, managed to win the remaining singles with 2 each from Russell Penn, Mervyn Kelly and me. Sympathy for Data’s David McGarragh though as he squandered 4 match points along the way, 3 against Russell and 1 against Mervyn.
 
3rd placed St.Christopher Van Hire welcomed back star-man Biao Wang after his latest Chinese travels and he did not disappoint, clocking another maximum for them. A brace from Paul Haigh plus the doubles was enough for a 6-4 win over bottom team Chackmore Hasbeens, one of Hasbeens best results. Bub Burman hit a decent brace himself for Hasbeens and Andy Whitehead broke his duck for the season when beating David Broome.
 
After a slow start MK Pumas continue to climb the table and now move up to 5th slot with both their big guns in action this week against Greenleys Eagles, hat-tricks from Andy Smith and Julie Snowdon cementing a 7-3 success. Half the sets went the distance with the steely determination of the Pumas' players shining through in 4 of them. Just a win a-piece for Eagles’ Geoff Callaway and Barry Bishop, who also combined to win the doubles.
 
OU Primes leapfrog MK Powers into 8th place, their highest position this season, after beating them 8-2. Powers could only muster 2 players this time round and their wins came from the reliable (new) bat of Pete Tillotson while Mark Moore continues the search for his first. Pete’s conquerer was Patrick Wong, who is collecting some good scalps this year.
 
Player of the week is Alan Bolding.