Published 03/12/2017 at 12:44:49 by David Wackrill.

PREMIER DIV
SASAKI OLD BOY PLOTS LEADERS FIRST DEFEAT
 

A great win for MK Bandits this week against the League’s frontrunners. With marquee signing and former Sasaki star Matt Evans, playing against his former team for the first time, only taking a brace, Bandit regulars Michael Wilkins and Jamie Hendy were left with plenty to do to topple the favourites. The doubles went Bandits’ way leaving Michael & Jamie with 3 singles to win between them, which they achieved with aplomb. Pick of these was Michael Wilkins beating Dakshin Subramanian, the League’s best player in the Bucks Inter-League competition the previous weekend. After picking up just 5 points from his first 2 games against Dakshin, Michael recovered brilliantly to win 11-8 in the 5th. But the daunting task of getting them over the line fell to Jamie in the last set of the evening and he did not disappoint, taking his chance with a fine victory over Kelvin Choong. In a match of many upsets perhaps the biggest one of all was Dan Smalley beating Matt, 19-17 in the 5th no less, to seal yet another maximum for the talented Sasaki skipper. However, if Bandits can persuade Mighty Matt to play in the remaining matches I can see them going on to take the title. Then they really would be living up to the team name.
 

2nd placed MK Spinners reduced the gap to 9 points after a 9-1 victory over troubled Greenleys Monarchs, who again called up a division 1 player in Ricky Taiwo to assist them. Tom Nowakowski beat Gary Jones for Monarchs consolation win as Alan Cherry and Neil Massa rolled out the hat-tricks for Spinners, which was Neil’s first.
 

Bottom placed Greenleys Kings shared the spoils with MK Kingpins. Nick Howard extended his current hot streak to 10 wins by beating Dave Allison, Mark Purcell and Jason Tustain, but more impressive was a brace from Guy Sparrow, who has found the going tough so far this term. Between them they paved the way for Jordan Wood to nail Kings’ first match win in the final set. But Mark held strong under pressure to save the draw for Kingpins.
 

Player of the week is Dan Smalley.

 

DIVISION 1 

The jinx surrounding Greenleys Warriors was finally lifted this week when Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell secured the leaders first doubles win in the 9-1 trouncing of MK Powers. Claire Styles saved the whitewash with a deciding game 11-8 victory over Div 2 player Jacob Midson.
 

Bottom side Chackmore Hasbeens are improving fast as they adjust to a higher division this season. They gave my MK Topspin side an early scare in a 7-3 defeat and have now collected 16 points in their last 5 matches, compared to 10 in their first 5. A Russell Penn maximum secured the victory for Topspin, who remain 2nd. Hasbeens are only 4 points behind Powers now and the 2nd half meeting between these teams could prove crucial in deciding who takes the wooden spoon.
 

Andy Smith went hunting for the scalp of the only man to have beaten him so far., but to no avail. The ace defender came up short with an 11-8 defeat in the 5th against Biao Wang, best player in this division by far, and had to settle for just a brace this time, as did team-mate Julie Snowdon, in MK Pumas 6-4 loss to St.Christopher Van Hire.
 

All the hype last week about the prospective meeting between in-form MK Phoenix’ Alan Bolding and Woburn Sands Data’s James Molloy came to nothing as Alan was missing from the match! This meant an easy ride for James, who duly extended his unbeaten run to 17, while a brace each for Carl Furness and Terry Lau was enough for a Phoenix 6-4 victory, even without Alan.
 

A 2-man Greenleys Eagles team visited OU Primes and wiped them out, winning every set played without the need for any deciding games. Well done Barry Bishop and Iain Lindsay, who both took maximums for the second week running. The win was enough for Eagles to leapfrog Data into 6th place.
 

Player of the week is Iain Lindsay.