PREMIER/DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 9

Published 15/11/2019 at 16:15:28 by David Wackrill.

PREMIER DIVISION 
CLARE WINS IN STYLE
 

An emphatic 8-2 win for leaders Greenleys Kings over 3rd placed MK Spinners, who finished the match with one player, Alan Cherry.  Alan secured Spinners’ wins with team-mates Gary Jones and Neil Massa departing early.  Soon to be dad  (good luck there) Gary had more pressing needs and rushed through his sets before dashing off whilst Neil, after losing in 4 to Matt Haynes, conceded mid game to Gary Deakin and  made his own early exit without playing his last set against Nick Howard.  Marquee Summer signing Matt was back in the Kingsmen fold  and took his standard maximum to extend his current run to 39.  I can’t see anyone beating him unless stablemates Monarchs make a few more star signings to extend their pool before the window closes.  
 
Monarchs stay in 2nd place after demolishing my MK Topspin side 10-0 in a more orthodox encounter.  Maximums for Martin Hall, Tomek Nowakowski and Dave Beddall.  Zeros for Meryn Kelly, Russell Penn and me.  Only the doubles went to a deciding game.
 
A fantastic straight games victory for MK Powers’ Clare Styles against Mark Purcell  doubled her win tally for the season in the match against MK Kingpins.  Sarah Hudson beat Peter Bannister in the opening duel and teamed up with Clare to win a lively doubles, so a good night for the girls against a higher placed team despite the 3-7 scoreline.  Dave Allison hit a maximum for Kingpins and Colin Munford appeared for Powers.
 
Dour defender Gerald Ridgway was too consistent for Ollie Horswell as MK Phoenix snatched a surprised point against Greenleys Warriors, who fielded an unchanged team after last week’s 10-0 success.  Maximums here for Tony Gorman and Ricky Taiwo. In Ricky’s case it was a hard fought one,  just the way he likes them though, as, after a tough 4-gamer with Gerald he was taken to 13-11 in the 5th by Mervyn Phillips.  Terry Lau was the other Phoenix man.
 
Player of the week is Clare Styles.
 
 
DIVISION 1
SUPER SUE BASKING ON CLOUD NUMBER NINE

 
A  7-3 win this week for MK Pumas over promoted side Chackmore Hasbeens enabled the pace setters to extend their lead at the top by 2 points as the chasing pair behind them fought out a draw.  Hasbeens’ Bub Burman is really stepping up to the mark now as his true colours come shining through.  The former MK Spinner, with bags of Premier experience behind him, beat Chris Belton and Julie Snowdon and paired up with Andy Whitehead to take the doubles.  However, facing the resourceful Andy Smith in the final set of the evening was a step to far.  Chris Whitehead was the remaining Hasbeen.
 
As alluded to previously, Greenleys Eagles featured in a hard fought draw with St. Christopher Van Hire in a match where Iain Lindsay lost for the first time this season after extending his unbeaten run to 20 following wins over Fabrice Spelta and Paul Haigh.  His conquerer was Biao Wang, 11-9 in the 5th, who had lost earlier himself to the still unbeaten Joe Lindsay.  Joe arrived at the match without a bat and had to reply on his dad’s, so no wonder they lost the doubles between them, and for the second week running too.  Dave Plumb remained winless for Eagles.
 
A Sue Lewis hat-trick ensured Newport Pagnell Vantage’s first win of the season at Woburn Sands Data.  She was ably backed with a brace from Tony Ardis and they combined forces to take the doubles set.  James Molloy lost over 5 games to Super Sue, her best win ever, but won his other sets with Rob McPheat and Darren Ward chipping in with one each.  A luckless Michael Howard played well without reward.  Half the sets went the distance and Michael featured in two of them.
 
The Thursday night match at the OU saw Primes losing 7-3 to Greenleys Glory, who gave a debut to Div 3 man Tim Welch.  Encouraged by narrowly losing 14-12 in the 5th to Charity Wong, Tim went out and beat Andy Tan in straight games, but finished on a losing note to Patrick Wong.  Hat-tricks here for Glory boys Ian Brown and Danny Sedgwick.  Terrific doubles win meantime for Andy & Patrick over Ian & Danny.

Player of the week is Sue Lewis.