DIVISION 2 ROUND-UP : WEEK 9
Published 17/11/2019 at 23:02:33 by Martin Johnson.
Division 2 Round-Up – Week 9 (Week 8 in D2)There is just one more week to go until the first half of the League schedule completes, and the top team have opened up a seven point gap on the two main chasers, who are then a further six points clear of a closely packed mid-table, whilst positions at the foot of the table have closed up a bit, with just four points separating the bottom four teams.
Milton Keynes Hit ‘n’ Hope’s run of wins extended to five in a row, and with second placed Classics losing, they are now seven points clear of the closest opposition. They also got the biggest win of the week, for the fourth time in five weeks, although only a 7-3, this week. A bigger win might have looked likely on paper, as they faced Mursley Hawks, who had two reserves playing up from Division 3, but they were given a tough fight in every set. Ivor Howard maintained his run of singles wins, including his first win over Martin Johnson (after a couple of close attempts, last season), to take his run up to fifteen in a row, whilst Paul Tompkins won two and Andy Frearson won one, for Hit ‘n’ Hope. For Hawks, it was one win apiece for Martin, David Bartlett and Dan Walters. All ten sets saw the momentum swing from one side to the other, but Hit ‘n’ Hope came through in most of the close sets, yet despite the close fought play, only one set went to five, as Andy Frearson found his range with his big topspins, to come from two games down to David. At one stage, Hit ‘n’ Hope had moved to 7-1 up, but the two reserves, David & Dan, captured the last two sets of the night to limit the damage, with David edging past Paul and Dan doing similarly against Andy.
Milton Keynes Tornadoes moved up to equal second spot with their 6-4 win against Milton Keynes Cavaliers. A maximum here for Tanmay Tijare, to add to two wins for Nicholas Wong, and the pair teaming up to also take the doubles against Chris Paddon / Chris Welch, but no luck for Matthew Curley, although he was mighty close against Chris Welch, only losing out 11-9 in the decider. The other singles to go to Cavaliers, was a rare defeat for Nicholas at the hands of John Bradley - just his third loss of the season, although he remains joint top of the singles averages.
Milton Keynes Classics were surprisingly defeated 6-4 by bottom placed Milton Keynes Blades, who were indebted to reserve, Rupert Greyling, who won all his three singles. Brian Evans and Bill Tyler completed the Blades line-up, and they claimed one singles each, against Barbara Peters, plus the doubles against Nick Markham and Dylan Cox. Nick and Dylan picked up two wins each to make up Classics’ four points on the night. The win for Blades pulls them to within two points of the teams ahead of them at the foot of the table, whilst Classics now share second spot with Tornadoes.
Woburn Sands Mosquitoes hosted Milton Keynes Shambles, and honours were shared in a 5-5 draw, in one of those matches where no-one managed to win all three singles. For Mosquitoes, both Glenn Barcham and Andy Jenkins grabbed two wins, with one for Paul Hamer, whilst for Shambles it was two wins each for Steve Jordan and Jim Robinson, plus the pair took a close doubles against Glenn / Andy, one of five sets to go the full distance. Andy also went to five in all three of his singles, just edging out Simon Green at 11-9, but losing out in similar fashion to Jim, whilst the other set to go to five games was the closest of the lot, as Steve just took it 14-12 against Paul. The draw leaves Mosquitoes in sixth place, but with a match in hand over the teams above them, whilst Shambles share eight place.
St. Christopher Spitfires featured in another match which contained five sets to go to a deciding leg, but they just held sway over Newport Pagnell Lagondas by a margin of 6-4, whilst again no-one was able to win all their singles on the night. Spitfires started strongly, and moved out to a 5-0 lead at the halfway point, but then had to wait until the last set of the night to finally clinch the win. There were two wins each for Spitfires, from the bats of Andy King and Graham Silversides , to add to one win for Jock Campbell, plus Andy / Graham winning the doubles against Chris Horn / Roy Read. Lagondas’ four points came as a result of two wins for Chris, plus one each for Glen Davison and Roy. Spitfires might count themselves slightly unlucky not to have won bigger, given their start, but the Lagondas trio fought back well, from 5-0 to 5-4, including three consecutive close in the fifth wins, two at 12-10 in the decider, and the third at 11-8.
Players of the Week : Tanmay Tijare and Rupert Greyling.