PREM/DIV 1 FINAL WEEK ROUND-UP
Published 23/03/2018 at 14:31:25 by David Wackrill.
PREM DIV
CAPTAIN CHERRY TAKES SPINNERS TO DRAMATIC TITLE VICTORY
CAPTAIN CHERRY TAKES SPINNERS TO DRAMATIC TITLE VICTORY
What a dream climax to the season. Better than the League could ever have imagined when drawing up the fixture list last August. A single point separated the 2 contenders who played this week at the same (Kingston) venue on the same night on adjacent tables, both against good opposition as well.
Unsurprisingly it all came down to the last set of the night when MK Spinners’ Alan Cherry needed to beat Greenleys Monarchs’ Ian Johnson to match rivals MK Sasaki’s 6-4 scoreline to maintain their one point advantage. I can’t think of anyone more likely to triumph in such a tight situation than Alan, who lived up to expectations with a dramatic win over 4 tense games. So the ‘fab four’ Spinners squad are League Champions once again after last year’s blip, their 6th triumph in 7 years. Alan bagging his 14th maximum of the season, duly assisted by wins from Tim Cheek (2) and Gary Jones (1). The defeat leaves Monarchs rock bottom of the Division, the first time ever that the reigning Champions have sunk so low in the following year.
With old boy Matt Evans facing them in the MK Bandits line-up it was always going to be tough for Sasaki to better Spinners sore anyway. And so it proved, with Matt scuppering the chances of his, and mine, former team with his usual hat-trick and the other win provided by Jamie Hendy. These two have been the signings of the Summer, responsible for 68 of the Bandits 108 sets from the 28 matches played between them, and transforming Bandits from also-rans to outside contenders themselves, finishing a close 3rd this year. Sasaki’s response here was a brace each from Dan Smalley and Dakshin Subramanian, who paired up for the doubles, and another from Matt Horrocks, leaving them tantalisingly short of what would have been their first title.
Meanwhile, over at Greenleys the home club’s (supposedly) second string team (but surely no longer?) Kings continued their remarkable run of wins by beating MK Kingpins 6-4 to complete a clean sweep of victories against the other teams in this last round. And it was the ‘old firm’ of Guy Sparrow and Nick Howard who yet again provided the winning sets between them, as mercurial Guy takes his incredible unbeaten run of 16 into next season. Ian Brown made an infrequent appearance for Kings, playing well without success. Kingpins finish 4th and Kings 5th whilst half the players on view here (Guy plus Kingpins’ Mark Purcell and Dave Allison) have played every match of the season for their respective teams, in Mark’s case for the third consecutive year, which is getting to be a rare occurence these days.
Player of the week is Alan Cherry.
Player of the week is Alan Cherry.
DIV 1
THE SAINTS COME MARCHING IN
THE SAINTS COME MARCHING IN
With the title won long ago by Greenleys Warriors, the main interest in this final week was the close tussle for runners-up spot, which was taken by St.Christopher Van Hire on number of matches won over MK Pumas, after both teams had finished level on points. That’s what you call a close finish.
On Tuesday night Van Hire were trounced 9-1 by Warriors with all singles sets lost to hat-tricks from Ricky Taiwo, Ollie Horswell and Jordi Foraster. But Warriors are hopeless at doubles, the worst in the Division, and provided Van Hire, who are rather good at it themselves (check out their impressive record), with a lifeline which proved decisive in their season’s fortunes. That result left Pumas, playing Chackmore Hasbeens on Wednesday, targeting an 8-2 scoreline to seal a second place finish. This seemed to be an easy task on paper against by far the Division’s weakest team. But it was not to be despite regular maximums from Andy Smith & Julie Snowdon, who combined to lose the doubles deuce in the 5th to Bub Burman & Andy Whitehead. Bub had already beaten Keith Carrington and the coup de grace was delivered by Andy, with only one previous singles win all season, when he beat Keith for Pumas crucial 3rd set loss of the match.
My MK Topspin team finished 2 points behind in 4th place and were the only team in the top 2 divisions to go through the season unchanged, with Russell Penn, Mervyn Kelly and myself more than happy to play every match. We beat Greenleys Eagles 6-4 thanks to maximums from Russell and myself while Mervyn remained badly out of form. Russell’s aggressive style, almost of copy of Julie Snowdon’s, was finely tuned for this one as he beat that awkward pair of gnarled veterans, Barry Bishop and Geoff Callaway, for the first ever time.
8 points further adrift in 5th place were MK Phoenix, 6-4 losers to MK Powers this week. Alan Bolding stood out as usual for them with another hat-trick against a good looking Powers outfit, who finished 8th, Alan also taking the double set with Carl Furness.
Woburn Sands Data’s James Molloy extended his current excellent run of wins to 15 with yet another maximum, this time against OU Primes to steer his side to a 7th place finish, one point behind Eagles. However the Data hero in their 6-4 win proved to be Andy Jenkins, playing up from Division 2, with a vital win over Martin Lok.
The relegated teams in 9th & 10th places are last season’s promoted ones from division 2, OU Primes and Chackmore Hasbeens.
Player of the week is Russell Penn.