DIVISION 2 ROUND-UP : WEEK 5
Published 21/10/2019 at 16:15:58 by Martin Johnson; edited 2 times, last on 21/10/2019 at 23:34:59 by Martin Johnson.
Division 2 Round-Up – Week 5 (Week 4 in D2)As Division 2 nears a quarter of the way through the League schedule (already!), it remains fairly close, with the top nine teams only separated by eight points. This week the lead changed hands, plus two of the three unbeaten team records perished.
The new team at the top, after their fourth win out of four, to add to a run of 14 wins at the end of last season’s Division 3 campaign, are Woburn Sands Mosquitoes, who maintained their 100% winning record with a 6-4 victory over Milton Keynes Blades. Mosquitoes stormed into a 5-1 lead, but it wasn’t until the final set of the night that they finally managed to clinch the win, as Paul Hamer completed another treble. There were also two wins for Andy Jenkins and one for Glenn Barcham, whilst for Blades, there was a win apiece by Brian Evans, Mark Thomas and Tony Coomber, with Mark/Tony just taking the doubles against Paul/Glenn at deuce in the decider.
Milton Keynes Tornadoes overpowered Milton Keynes Classics by an 8-2 scoreline, to topple Classics from the top of the table, and hand them their first defeat, although the match was not as one-sided as the score suggests, with four sets going the distance. Indeed, early on, it was level pegging at 2-2, with Dylan Cox beating new Tornadoes player, Samuel Davies, plus teaming up with Masoud Nassor to claim their first doubles win of the season, and inflicting a first doubles defeat of the season on Nicholas Wong / Tanmay Tijare, albeit it went to deuce in the fifth! Nicholas and Tanmay had both won their opening singles, against Masoud and Samuel, respectively, however, from 2-2, Tornadoes took the remaining sets, despite three more finishing close in the decider, to end up as convincing winners, with Nicholas and Tanmay both hitting trebles, whilst Samuel scored two wins.
Newport Pagnell Lagondas were the other team to lose their unbeaten record, losing 6-4 to Milton Keynes Cavaliers, and that despite Cavaliers being a player short. Chris Paddon picked up two wins, whilst reserve, Derick Rodrigues won all his three singles, then they clinched the match at 11-8 in the decider of the doubles, having been two legs down against Glen Davison and Chris Horn. Glen had earlier just edged out Chris Paddon, in five games, in the opening set, to effectively put Lagondas 4-0 ahead, but despite Chris Horn taking Chris Paddon to a deciding leg, and the close doubles, Lagondas, whose third player was Roy Read, couldn’t quite summon up another win, to give Cavaliers an excellent result.
Biggest win of the week went to Milton Keynes Hit ‘n’ Hope, who have moved up to equal fourth place with Lagondas, after despatching Milton Keynes Shambles 9-1. Largely, it had looked relatively plain sailing for Hit ‘n’ Hope, despite being pushed to a fifth leg a couple of times, as they raced into a 9-0 lead, but Paddy Patel came back from two legs down to Paul Tomkins in set 10, to grab the consolation point for Shambles. Ivor Howard and Mike Ainsworth both completed trebles, to add to Paul’s two wins, whilst Ivor/Paul took the doubles in five against Paddy and reserve, Kareem Omar, whilst Shambles’ other player was Simon Green.
St. Christopher Spitfires visited Mursley Hawks, with the two teams level on points going into the match. It was Hawks who came away just ahead, after clinching a 6-4 win in a balanced encounter! No-one was able to win all three singles, as both Frank Beck and Martin Johnson won two for Hawks, adding to one win for Roger Shelton in his first outing of the season, whilst Andy King also picked up two wins for Spitfires, assisted by one win apiece for Bernie Raffe and Jock Campbell. The difference perhaps came down to the doubles, with Frank / Martin combining well to take it in straight games against Andy / Bernie.
Players of the Week : Ivor Howard and Derick Rodrigues.