PREMIER/DIVS 1 & 2 ROUND-UP WEEK 10

Published 30/11/2018 at 17:30:44 by David Wackrill; edited 2 times, last on 05/12/2018 at 10:21:43 by David Wackrill.

 

PREMIER  DIV

NO CHANGE AT THE TOP

 

It was top v bottom this week as we conclude the 2nd cycle (of 4) of the premier fixtures with MK Sasaki dispatching club-mates Kingpins 7-3. A victory against Jamie Hendy is fast becoming a precious commodity these days so credit to Dave Allison for a top scalp in this match. Kingpins’ other wins came at the expense of James George, who fell to Craig Brown and Mark Purcell. Hat-trick here for Matt Evans and a close shave for Jamie’s dad Wayne when Craig’s discarded bat whizzed past his head following the Jamie defeat.

 

2nd placed Greenleys Kings saw skipper Nick Howard in fine form with a maximum himself against MK Spinners in another 7-3 win. Gary Deakin was back in the side after his impressive debut a fortnight ago and joined Guy Sparrow with a brace, but the usually reliable Howard/Sparrow doubles combo failed on this occasion. Guy took Alan Cherry to deuce in the 5th, coming back from 10-6 down before losing. Gary Jones and Neil Massa were winless for Spinners.

 

Mid-table Greenleys Monarchs drew with club-mates Warriors, predictable as these well matches sides started the week on the same number of points. Half the sets went the distance too. Warriors star man Colin Huang got his usual maximum with single wins support coming from Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell, who sealed the draw with a final set victory over Iain Dummett after losing to Martin Hall and Tomak Nowakowski. Tomak came close to a maximum himself, just falling to Colin at deuce in the decider in his last outing, 

 

Player of the week is Nick Howard.

 

 

DIVISION 1

 

My MK Topspin crashed to another defeat, this time to an MK Powers side for whom the Pitamber boys ran riot when taking all 7 set wins between them. The nearest we got to halting the landslide was when I held 3 match points against Minesh. Brother Jit was particularly outstanding. Russell Penn and Mervyn Kelly played for Topspin as always and Iain Willcocks appeared for Powers, who now sit joint 2nd with an identical record to MK Phoenix.

 

With Topspin failing again Phoenix wasted a golden opportunity, which might not come again, of claiming the top spot by sending an understrength side to St.Christopher Van Hire. They needed an 8-2 or better scoreline to do so but drew the match with a 2-man side. Terry Lau got a hat-trick and Division 2 substitute Masoud Nassor one, also taking the doubles between them. For Van Hire Paul Haigh and David Broome beat Masoud with Jez Wilcox completing their team.

 

4th placed Pumas saw off the challenge of Woburn Sands Data 6-4 with a maximum from Andy Smith, a brace from Chris Belton and the doubles between them. James Molloy was too good for Chris while Glenn Barcham, playing up from division 3, scored a notable success in beating Keith Carrington, winless on the night. Dave McGarragh was the third Data player.

 

Mike Howard got Newport Pagnell Vantage off to a terrific start against Greenleys Eagles by beating Geoff Callaway over 5 games, his final points in his 3 winning games all coming with nets and edges. But the Vantage side could only add the doubles win from Sue Lewis and Tony Ardis to their total in an 8-2 defeat.  Although Barry Bishop and Dave Plumb both hit hat-tricks, this was Dave’s match though as he scored his first wins of the season, and against the players who had beaten him on the opening day to start off his losing sequence.

 

Player of the week is Jit Pitamber.

 

 

DIVISION 2  (courtesy of Martin Johnson)
Primes in Prime Position

 

With the second half of the League season starting, it was back to a repeat of the matches from the opening week.  Leaders, OU Primes, made amends for their only defeat of the season in that opening week, picking up yet another big win, 9-1 against third placed Milton Keynes Hit 'n' Hope.  Larry Lung made one of his few appearanaces, thus far, but maintained his 100% record, now over nine sets, whilst Patrick Wong was also unbeaten on the night, extending his unbeaten run to twenty, as Primes racked up a ninth successive win, including a ninth consecutive doubles win.  The only set to slip through their fingers was the win for Ivor Howard against Martin Lok, but Martin won his other two against Mike Ainsworth and Tony Coomber, as Primes have opened up a twelve point lead at the top of the table.


Second placed Chackmore Hasbeens returned to winning ways, but had to settle for a 6-4 scoreline against the youngsters of MK Tornadoes, in an excellent match in which five of the ten sets went the distance.  Bub Burman again recorded a maximum, taking his winning run to eleven in a row, although Tanmay Tijare took him to deuce in the fifth and Nicolas Wong also lost out to him in five.  Andy Whitehead teamed up with Bub for their eighth doubles win from eight, whilst Sam Willett contibuted the other two wins for Hasbeens, but found Charlie Gray just too good on the night, with Charlie winning over four close games.

 

The derby match between the two Mursley teams saw another reverse of the result from the opening week, as this time it was Swallows who emerged victorious, beating Hawks 7-3.  A rare defeat for Mervyn Phillips at the hands of Martin Johnson in the opener paved the way for Swallows, with Peter Sear and reserve, John Paul, playing his first match of the season, each winning twice against Andy King and Richard Hare, to add to Martin's maximum. Mervyn won two for Hawks, and Hawks maintained their excellent doubles record as Mervyn and Andy took it in a tight five legs against Peter and Martin.  The win edges Swallows up to third spot, for now, but it remains very close behind the top two, with both Hit 'n' Hope and Tornadoes just a further two points back, plus Classics another four points away, but still with a game in hand.


Milton Keynes Classics closed on the group vying for third spot, racking up a big 9-1 victory against MK Blades, thanks to maximums for Nick Markham and Dylan Cox, plus a pair of wins for Barbara Peters, to counter the single win for Bill Tyler in the opening set, but it was largely one-way traffic after that, although Andy Phillips took Dylan to five, following a mammoth 21-19 fourth leg to take him level, only to go down 11-7 in the decider, whilst Brian Evans took the first leg against Barabara before losing out in four.


To round off the week, Greenleys Cardinals continue to struggle and were only able to raise two players against Newport Pagnell Lagondas.  Regular James Zeng was joined by reserve, Andres Lopez, but they could make no impression on the match score, as the Lagondas trio of Chris Horn, Glen Davison and Greg Norden won all their sets to score a big 10-0 win, which edges them ahead of Murseley Hawks for seventh spot.  The closest Cardinals got was when James pushed Chris to 11-9 in the decider, but Chris came through to increase his winning run to eight in a row.

 

Player of the Week : Larry Lung