DIVISION 2 ROUND-UP : WEEK 11
Published 03/12/2019 at 12:11:30 by Martin Johnson.
Division 2 Round-Up – Week 11 (Week 10 in D2)Apologies for the slightly belated update, as I was away over the weekend, but it was essentially an ‘as you were’ week, with the top two teams matching each other with similar wins, plus the third placed team also winning, and no real surprises, and with the bottom four teams all losing.
At the top of the table, Milton Keynes Hit ‘n’ Hope returned to winning ways after last week’s draw, to make it eight matches unbeaten, as they defeated St. Christopher Spitfires 8-2, although Spitfires had gone into a 2-0 lead early on, as Graham Silversides produced an upset to beat Paul Tompkins, and Andy King beat Hit ‘n’ Hope’s reserve, Pedro Anastacio – both in straight games. Hit ‘n’ Hope rallied with Marco Hahn edging our Bernie Raffe at 11-9 in the decider, as Marco went on to win all his singles, although all took five legs. Marco / Paul took the doubles against Andy / Graham, and despite most of the remaining sets being close, the leaders won them all, to collect a good win.
Milton Keynes Tornadoes stayed two points behind the leaders, as they, too, won 8-2, beating Mursley Hawks. Another maximum for Nicolas Wong, although in a see saw opening set against Martin Johnson, he only finally clinched it at 14-12 in the decider, whilst he was also pushed to five games in the final set of the night by Frank Beck, but took it 11-7, to extend his winning run to seven. Reserve, Rupert Greyling, also claimed three wins; his long pimples bat creating difficulty for all his opponents, losing just the one leg to Martin. Matthew Curley won twice, against Hawks’ reserve, Richard Hare, and against Frank, but lost out to Martin. The other set to go Hawks way was the doubles, as Frank / Martin won through in four games against Nicolas / Rupert.
Milton Keynes Classics stay in third place, as they won 7-3 at Milton Keynes Shambles. Two wins each for Masoud Nassor, Barbara Peters and Nick Markham, against the Shambles trio of Steve Jordan, Simon Green and Jim Robinson, plus Masoud / Nick taking the doubles against Jim / Simon. Player of the night, though, was Steve Jordan, with three singles wins, only dropping one leg to Masoud, whose run of 11 consecutive wins was thus ended. Some close calls prevented Shambles adding to their tally, as Jim lost 11-9 in the fifth to Barbara, Simon lost 8-11 in the fifth to Masoud, and in the tightest of the lot, Simon also lost to Barbara, 9-11, 15-13, 11-13, 11-9, 11-13 !!
Newport Pagnell Lagondas moved up to fourth spot, winning 7-3 at Milton Keynes Blades. Blades’ cause was not helped by Mark Thomas having to retire after his first set, which had gone all the way to a fifth against Roy Read, before Roy ran out an easy winner in the decider. Chris Horn won his only two singles, with Glen Davison picking up one win from his two, but losing out to Bill Tyler, who also went on to edge out Roy Read 12-10 in the fifth. Brian Evans took the third point for Blades, whilst Lagondas also took the doubles as Chris / Glen beat Bill / Brian.
Woburn Sands Mosquitoes defeated a two-player Milton Keynes Cavaliers 7-3, to stay sixth, with Andy Jenkins winning both his singles for Mosquitoes, whilst Glenn Barcham and Paul Hamer each won once and lost once, each losing out to Chris Paddon but beating John Bradley. Chris / John paired up to win the doubles in the only five game set of the night against Glenn / Paul.
Player of the Week : Steve Jordan