PREMIER/DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 8
Published 09/11/2019 at 13:31:40 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIVISION
PENHOLDER LAU PROVIDES THE ‘WOW’ FACTOR
Greenleys Kings kept faith with Gary Deakin and he came up with the goods this time round against lowly MK Phoenix in support of regulars Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow, despite strong resistance from the Phoenix boys. The 9-1 scoreline flattered the League leaders but inevitably attention was drawn to that one win, which was by Terry Lau against Guy Sparrow. The penholder from Hong Kong got off to a flyer to take the first game comfortably but was pegged back before coming through over 5 games for his greatest win since beating Alan Cherry in 2012. Mervyn Phillips and Gerald Ridgway were the other Phoenix players.
Greenleys Monarchs move into 2nd place after beating MK Powers by the same margin. Powers turned out a 2-player side from their 8 player squad for the 3rd time this season, just Clare Styles and Jiten Pitamber this week. Clare and Jit lost all their singles enjoyed an unlikely doubles win at the expense of Tomek Nowakowski and Martin Hall. Ian Johnston didn’t drop a game but Martin went to a decider twice over.
Another 2-player team this week were Spinners, who drop to 3rd after being held to a draw by club-mates Kingpins. No trouble for Alan Cherry but Gary Jones lost to Mark Purcell and the ever improving Peter Bannister. The vital doubles was a close win for Spinners, 11-9 in the 5th. Dave Allison was the remaining Kingpin.
An emphatic whitewash, their first ever in the Premier, for Greenleys Warriors over my bottom of the table MK Topspin team, who were very ‘flat’ on the night. The visitors to the MK centre brought along their new star turn and one time Bletchley boy, Tony Gorman, who ripped through the home opposition like grease lightening. Regulars Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell followed suite and I doubt that the usually hard working skipper Ricky will have a simpler hat-trick all season. He strolled into a 5-0 lead in all of his 4 games against me, and brushed aside my team-mates Russell Penn and Mervyn Kelly with equal ease. A lively Ollie, meanwhile, extended his current winning streak to 6.
Player of the week is Terry Lau.
DIVISION 1
SMITH RESCUES PUMAS
Leaders MK Pumas fought out a draw with St. Christopher Van Hire in the basement of the Foster Institute. A bad night for Julie Snowdon, with just a single win to go alongside Chris Belton’ solo success, meant Pumas needed to rely on Andy Smith once again. He relishes the challenge of course and, as he often does, produced his best form when it mattered most. Going head to head with Biao Wang in the 9th set of the evening with the scores level to see who would remain unbeaten on the night, the ace defender won through over 5 tough games. However Chris then lost the last set to David Broome to give the home side an equal share of the spoils. Jez Wilcox remained winless for Van Hire.
Bottom side Newport Pagnell Vantage’s Sue Lewis brought her weekend County form with her to this match against high flying Greenleys Eagles, who went with an unchanged side for the third week running. Super Sue polished off Dave Plumb in straight games but it was her stella performance in the doubles set with regular partner Tony Ardis that really caught the eye. Eagles Iain and Joe Lindsay have swept all before them this season but came unstuck in this set against the regular Vantage pairing. Tony & Sue are used to taking big scalps in doubles but this was their best yet and kept Vantage in the match right up until the end. A blank for Dave meant the score stood at 4-4 before Iain beat Tony and Joe secured victory against Michael Howard.
Woburn Sands Data came back with an 8-2 win on their visit to Open University Primes. A maximum here for James Molloy with braces from Dave McGarragh and Rob McPheat. Martin Lok beat Dave 13-11 in the 5th and James Zeng took out Rob in straight games for Primes, who remain in second to last place. Charity Wong was the other Primes player.
A good draw for Chackmore Hasbeens at Greenleys Glory, where, for the third time this week the match score stood at 4-4 to set up a tight finish. Bub Burman and Sam Willett got the sets between them for the Hasbeens while Andy Whitehead missing out. Bub continues to impress and his maximum elevates him into the Division’s top ten players, although, with scores of 0-11, 0-11, 0-11 being enteresd on the scorecard, there must be doubt as to whether or not his final set against Jacob Midson was actually contested. Danny Sedgwick took a brace for Glory with Jacob & Dan Englander one each plus the doubles set.
Player of the week is Andy Smith.