SUMMER LEAGUE MONDAY NIGHT WEEK 9 ROUND-UP

Published 17/07/2018 at 09:08:44 by David Wackrill.

DIV 1

Results: HowSmall 3 Phoenix 2, Topspin 4 Spinners 1, Ijebu Warriors 5 Stormers 0

Table: 1st HowSmall (32 pts), 2nd Spinners (30), 3rd Ijebu Warriors (29), 4th Topspin (19), 5th Stormers (14), 6th Phoenix (11)

Plenty of upsets this week with the only match going to form being Warriors completion of another whitewash against Stormers in the clash between the only remaining teams to stay unchanged this Summer. Ricky Taiwo and Jordi Amat Foraster for the triumphant Warriors and Andy Smith and myself for the vanquished Stormers.

Champion’s HowSmall could only manage a 3-2 win over promoted Phoenix for whom regulars Gerald Ridgway and Iaon Constantin were magnificent in beating Guy Sparrow. This was Gerald’s first win in the Division this Summer as he showed true grit to grind out a victory over 7 games. Nick Howard was impressive as always for HowSmall.

It looked like business as usual for Spinners when Alan Cherry cruised to an opening set win over Topspin’s Paul Beard but that turned out to be Spinner’s only success of the night as Paul and Luton’s star debutant Muhammad Khalid had matters all there own way thereafter. A rare defeat for Alan partnered this time by Tring’s James George, following brother Matt's, who made an appearance last week, footsteps in the Spinners side.

Player of the week is Gerald Ridgway.

DIV 2 (courtesy of Mike Ainsworth)

Towcester 5 Hit n Hope 0
Blades 2 Sweet and Sour 3
Classics 3 Swifts 2

With just two fixtures remaining before the end of the second phase of matches and with all to play for between Sweet and Sour and Towcester it was a bit of a surprise to see Kelvin Choong line up for Blades alongside Bill Tyler against his erstwhile team-mates. And it was Kelvin deploying his lobbing tactics to good effect who picked up two points for bottom placed Blades, denting his own team’s chances of promotion along the way.

But if the result was closer than might have been expected the scorecard shows that the result could have been completely different with Kelvin only getting the better of Terry Lau by 19-17 in the seventh and deciding game and Julie Snowdon 12-10 in the seventh game! All the other matches went the way of Sweet and Sour and all by a 4-0 margin.

Meanwhile on the next table Towcester had seemed to have the tougher fixture on paper but the class of Ian Brown and Iain Lindsay showed against the third placed Hit n Hope team of Marco Hahn and Mike Ainsworth and Towcester ended up 5-0 winners. Some good matches here but Towcester were steadier when it mattered.

In the final match Classics won 3-2 against Swifts and, whilst it is clear from the scorecard that this was a tight match, surprisingly none of the sets went beyond five games. Sue Lewis was unbeaten in the singles and recorded good wins against Masoud Nassor and Barbara Peters who in turn both beat Mo Duncan. A 4-1 doubles win sealed the match for Classics who jump ahead of Hit n Hope in the league.

Player of the evening: Sue Lewis

Week 9 Table

Towcester 37

Sweet and Sour 35

Classics 19

Hit 'n Hope 17

Swifts 14

Blades 13