MONDAY NIGHT SUMMER LEAGUE WEEK 8 ROUND-UP
MONDAY NIGHT SUMMER LEAGUE WEEK 8 ROUND-UP
DIV 1
Results: HowSmall 4 Topspin 1, Spinners 5 Stormers 0, Ijebu Warriors 4 Phoenix 1,
Table: 1st HowSmall (29 pts), 2nd Spinners (29), 3rd Ijebu Warriors (24), 4th Topspin (15), 5th Stormers (14), 6th Phoenix (9)
Champion’s HowSmall’s only defeat so far has been against Topspin, but Nick Howard & Guy Sparrow got ample revenge tonight with a hard-fought 4-1 victory over Lutonians Mal Hussain and Paul Beard. Nevertheless it was a classy Summer League debut for Paul with a 7 game defeat to Nick followed by a 6 game win over Guy for Topspins’ consolation win.
Spinners brought in a useful sub themselves in Tring’s Matt George to accompany Alan Cherry and pull off a whitewash against Stormers. Andy Smith was still on fire from last week’s heroics as he went down fighting in 6 games to Alan and 7 to Matt. I was well off the pace though and Andy summed up my performance by saying that that I made a slow start before fading away completely.
Warriors are on the warpath once again after their back to back defeats with a 4-1 win over Phoenix. Ricky Taiwo and Jordi Amat Foraster may not trouble the top sides but they dispatch the lesser lights with commendable efficiency. Great performance though from Iaon Constantin with the win over Jordi and a 7 game defeat to Ricky. Gerald Ridgway completed the Phoenix line up.
Player of the week is Paul Beard.
DIV 2 (courtesy of Mike Ainsworth)
Sweet and Sour 0 Towcester 5
Swifts 1 Hit n Hope 4
Blades 2 Classics 3
Whilst there is allegedly another big match on in Moscow later in the week, in Milton Keynes Table Tennis Summer League division 2 matches don’t get much bigger than the clash of the top two teams as Sweet and Sour, looking to bounce back into the top division, came up against Towcester, who themselves have suffered just one defeat so far…
In the first round of matches it was this equivalent fixture that arguably ensured promotion for Phoenix as neither of the two Ians was able to play for Towcester and, despite Towcester fielding strong reserves, Phoenix won 5-0 to inflict the only loss on Towcester. Phoenix thus went top of the table, where they stayed until promotion in week six.
This time round both leading teams fielded their regular players and the end result was a whitewash to the Northants boys. But if the score appears one sided it must be said that most of the sets were very close and none more so than Ian Brown’s 11-6 win against Julie Snowden in the decider, this after Julie had lead by 5-3 at the change of ends. Arguably the turn-round was some consolation for Ian after losing a 3-0 lead against Sarah Hudson in the previous match. Terry Lau was the other player for Sweet and Sour.
As a result of the win both teams now sit jointly on top of the table with 32 points each and two matches to play before the next promotion / demotion.
Bottom of the table Blades were unable to build on their win of last week against Classics as a brace from Barbara Peters and a single win from Nick Markham were enough to see their team home by 3-2. Mark Thomas scored an excellent win against Nick and Brian Evans was the Blades other player.
Hit ‘n Hope welcomed Marco Hahn for his first match of the summer and, teamed up with Ivor Howard, Marco helped his team to their best result so far with a 4-1 win over Swifts. Braces here for Ivor and Marco and just a doubles win for Sue Lewis and Mo Duncan. Mo was particularly impressive in the doubles, taking good advantage of any loose balls set up by Sue.
Player of the evening: Ian Brown.
Week 8 Table
Sweet and Sour 32
Towcester 32
Hit 'n Hope 17
Classics 16
Swifts 12
Blades 11