SUMMER LEAGUE MONDAY NIGHT WEEK 14 ROUND-UP - HOWSMALL ARE CHAMPIONS AGAIN

Published 21/08/2018 at 09:38:40 by David Wackrill.

DIV 1

Results:  HowSmall 4 Towcester 1,  Spinners 3 Topspin 2,   Stormers 3 Ijebu Warriors 2
 
Table: 1st HowSmall (53 pts)  2nd Spinners (47)  3rd Ijebu Warriors (38)  4th Topspin (28)  5th Stormers (24)  6th Towcester (20)
 
With a 5 point cushion in their favour, defending  champions HowSmall only had to match nearest challengers Spinners scoreline tonight to clinch the title with a week to spare. They more than achieved this after an emphatic win over promoted Towcester. Ever present Guy Sparrow has proved a more than adequate replacement for HowSmall founder member Dan Smalley, whose name still graces their team title, but it has been Nick Howard who has been winning most of the sets for the champions this Summer with another brace tonight. Iain Lindsay was outstanding again though with the consolation win in 5 games over Guy after taking Nick to a decider. Ian Brown completed the Towcester line-up.
 
Both Mervyn Kelly and Mal Hussain were very sharp for Topspin when beating Spinners’ Pete Tillotson but got nowhere near to Alan Cherry, who took the doubles with Pete for another Spinners 3-2 win.
 
I saved my best form of the Summer for Stormers against Warriors’ Ricky Taiwo and Jiten Pitamber with a decent brace. We were still playing the 3rd set when the last of the other matches had finished. Then the 4th set went to 12-10 in the 7th as Jiten got the better of Andy Smith to level the match score. And this after Andy had played an air shot going for the winner himself at 10-9. But the final doubles clinched a hard won victory for Stormers.
 
Player of the week is me.
 
 
DIV 2 (courtesy of Mike Ainsworth)
 
Hit n Hope 0 Phoenix 5
Blades 0 Sweet and Sour 5
Swifts 1 Classics 4
 
As expected Phoenix are the division two champions in the Milton Keynes Summer League as at the end of week 14 they lead runners up Sweet and Sour by 5 points and, having won the head to head match between the two teams, they cannot now be overtaken with one round of matches to play.
 
On the night both teams’ results looked one sided on the face of it as Phoenix beat Hit n Hope 5-0 whilst Sweet and Sour crushed the wooden spoon team Blades by the same score.
 
A look at the scorecards for the two matches tells a slightly different story as the Phoenix team of Gerald Ridgway and Ioan Contantin, who have dominated the division, were made to work hard to win every match and Marco Hahn and Mike Ainsworth could arguably count themselves unlucky to come away from the match empty handed. Unfortunately the extra class of the division one players told in the key points against the division two regulars of Hit n Hope.
 
Sweet and Sour were given a somewhat easier time against Blades, who fielded Terry Brennan alongside regular Bill Tyler. Both players struggled on the night to match Julie Snowden and Terry Lau and the 5-0 result was wrapped up quickly to give the players an early night.
 
Classics also fielded a new player as new winter league recruit Dylan Cox teamed up with Barbara Peters against the Swifts team of Sue Lewis and Mo Duncan. And it was Dylan who lead the way for his team with two wins as Classics won 4-1. Sue Lewis won the only point for Swifts with a win against Barbara, who in turn beat Mo, with the double also going the way of Classics.
 
Player of the evening: Dylan Cox
 
Week 14 Table
Phoenix                59
Sweet and Sour     54
Hit 'N Hope       30
Classics               29
Swifts               21
Blades               17