MONDAY NIGHT SUMMER LEAGUE WEEK 2 ROUND-UP

Published 04/06/2019 at 12:48:15 by David Wackrill.


DIV 1

Scores –
Howsmall 5  Phoenix 0
Spinners 3  Aylesbury 2
Warriors 3  Towcester 2

A sensational opening set in the Howsmall/Phoenix clash saw Ioan Constantin in fine form as he took Nick Howard all the way, with the Howsmall skipper having to fight back from 3 games to 1 down to settle the tough encounter against the ace defender at 11-9 in the 7th. No such dramas for ice cool team-mate Guy Sparrow as the champions clocked up yet another maximum. Gerald Ridgway was the other Phoenix player.

Newcomers Aylesbury continue to struggle and prop up the table at this early stage. While Tim Cheek and Ben Rolfe proved too strong for Spinners’ Peter Tillotson, Alan Cherry was a major stumbling block, winning his own singles and guiding his all action top spinning partner to a victory by taking the crucial doubles set, albeit in the deciding game of 7.

Warriors also featured in a 3-2 scoreline but there was a great win here for Towcester’s Iain Lindsay, the Div 1 Top 8 champion overcoming Premier man Ricky Taiwo to add to a doubles success with Ian Brown. Interestingly the Iain/Ian doubles combo also beat Warriors in a rare win in their short stay in this division last Summer. Michael Wilkins was unbeaten for Warriors.

Player of the week is Iain Linsday.

Table :
Howsmall (10 points)
Warriors (6)
Spinners (5)
Towcester (4)
Phoenix (3)
Aylesbury (2)
 

DIV 2 (courtesy of Mike Ainsworth)
PHOENIX II SET THE EARLY PACE

Tornadoes 1 Phoenix II 4
Blades 1 Hit n Hope 4
Topspin 5 Classics 0
Sweet and Sour 2 Stormers 3
 
Two of the teams who were amongst the pre-season favourites to contest division 2 of the Milton Keynes Summer League faced each other in week 2 and it was Stormers who came away with the honours against Sweet and Sour to earn their second hard fought 3-2 win of the campaign.
This week it was Sarah Hudson’s turn to play the sweet to Terry Lau’s sour and Sarah was involved in the two closest matches of the evening, winning 11-9 in the seventh against Dave Wackrill and then losing by the same score in the seventh against Andy Smith. Both Andy and Dave had fairly straight forward wins against Terry whilst Terry combined with Sarah in the doubles for the team’s second point. The second loss in two weeks leaves Sweet and Sour as one of three teams at the bottom of the table although they are sure to pick up wins sooner rather than later.

The early leaders after two weeks – Phoenix II - are the only team apart from Stormers with a 100% record at this stage and this week their win was at the expense of the young Tornadoes team by 4-1. Valentin Cazacu was the hero this week for Phoenix II and he was assisted by reserve Mo Duncan who gained a fine win against Tanmay Tijare. Nicholas Wong won the single point for Tornadoes against Mo.

Topspin were on the right end of the first whitewash of the season against Classics. Mervyn Kelly and Russell Penn both won braces for Topspin whilst Nick Markham and Dylan Cox were the Classics players. The comfortable win keeps Topspin hot on the heels of Phoenix II at the top of the league.

At the other end of the table Blades are the only team apart from Sweet and Sour without a win after two matches as they succumbed by 4-1 to Hit n Hope. Marco Hahn and Ivor Howard both earned braces for Hit n Hope whilst Bill Tyler and Mark Thomas had just a doubles win to their credit at the end of the evening.

Player of the week: Valentin Cazacu
 
Week 2 Table:
Phoenix II  8
Topspin          7
Stormers  6
Tornadoes  5
Hit n Hope  5
Classics           3
Sweet and Sour 3
Blades            3