SUMMER LEAGUE MONDAY NIGHT WEEK 15 AND FINAL ROUND-UP
DIV 1
Results: Spinners 3 HowSmall 2, Ijebu Warriors 3 Topspin 2, Stormers 4 Towcester 1
Table: 1st HowSmall (55 pts) 2nd Spinners (50) 3rd Ijebu Warriors (41) 4th Topspin (30) 5th Stormers (28) 6th Towcester (21)
With the title safely retained last week the HowSmall pairing of Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow were in festive mood for the last round of fixtures tonight. But runners-up Spinners were happy to spoil the party by beating them, Alan Cherry taking his 29th win of the Summer to equal his own record and a revitalised Pete Tillotson chipping in with the vital victory over Guy.
3 Luton players were in action in the Warriors/Topspin clash but it was local lad Ricky Taiwo who came up trumps with a good brace in Warriors 3-2 victory, their first win in 4 matches. Ricky reversed the recent dominance of Russell Penn and bamboozled Mal Hussain with his unique style of play. Russell still had a good night though by besting Minesh Pitamber and shepparding Mal to a fine doubles win.
My Stormers team, the only top flight side to go through the Summer unchanged with Andy Smith and myself , finished with back to back wins after seeing off Towcester 4-1. All the singles were won against Iain Lindsay and Ian Brown and the doubles seemed to be going our way too for the whitewash as we stormed into a 2-0 game lead. But then the 2 Ian/Iains started picking off some brilliant winners themselves to take the next 4 games and a consolation set.
Many thanks to organisers Keith Thompson and Alan Cherry for facilitating the competition once again this Summer.
Player of the week is Pete Tillotson.
Top 6 averages (5 or more matches played) -
Alan Cherry 97%, Nick Howard 81%, Jordi Amat Foraster 75%, Guy Sparrow 63%, Ricky Taiwo & Ioan Constantin 60%
HISTORICAL RECORDS
Previous team winners in the 2-a-side competition –
2011 & 2012 Spinners, 2013 & 2014 London Lads, 2015 Walking Wounded, 2016 Sasaki, 2017 HowSmall
Most aggregate individual wins – Alan Cherry (215)
Highest run of wins – Craig Brown (59)
DIV 2 (courtesy of Mike Ainsworth)
CHAMPIONS PHOENIX END THE SEASON IN STYLE
Blades 0 Phoenix 5
Sweet and Sour 5 Swifts 0
Classics 2 Hit n Hope 3
After 15 matches the table doesn’t lie, or so they say, and certainly the division two table tells the story of the summer league very clearly as the two top teams once again trounced the opposition to end the season in style. As a result there was a massive 26 point gap between second placed Sweet and Sour and the next team.
Champions elect Phoenix choose to play their match before the due date and were untroubled in seeing off the wooden spoon team of Blades, who will hope that their unexpected elevation to division two next season doesn’t end the same way. Braces for Gerald Ridgway and unbeaten Ioan Constantin. Brian Evans and Mark Thomas played for Blades.
Sandwiched between the top two matches was the only closely contested match of the evening between third placed Hit n Hope and winter league division two rivals Classics. For Classics the star of the evening was Masoud Nassor, who won both his matches including a 4-0 demolition of Hit n Hope’s star man Marco Hahn. Barbara Peters was unlucky against Marco, spraining her ankle after coming back from 0-3 to level at 3-3 but then to see the match drift away from her in the decider. Tony Coomber’s 4-0 win against Barbara was less uneventful unlike the doubles, which the Hit n Hope duo just managed to claim in the deciding game to earn the team a narrow 3-2 victory.
Mo Duncan arrived for the match against Sweet at Sour at 8:45 pm, just as the only other division two match was finishing. I’m not sure what held him up but credit must be given for making the effort and not letting his team down. Mo was also the only ever-present player in division two.
Unfortunately for Mo his efforts were in vain as his two singles matches and also the doubles were all lost 4-0 against the division runners-up. Sue Lewis’s matches were more closely contested but with the same result as her team lost 5-0 against Julie Snowdon and Terry Lau.
Player of the evening: Mo Duncan (for not letting his team down)
Final Table
Phoenix 64
Sweet and Sour 59
Hit 'N Hope 33
Classics 31
Swifts 21
Blades 17
Top Averages (minimum 6 matches)
Constantin Ioan 100%
Iain Lindsay 100%
Ian Brown 89%
Ivor Howard 88%
Gerald Ridgway 80%
Julie Snowdon 69%
Nick Markham 63%
Terry Lau 56%