Division 2 Roundup - Week 6

Published 26/11/2021 at 20:43:58 by Martin Johnson; edited 4 times, last on 29/11/2021 at 10:31:27 by Martin Johnson.

Division 2 - Week 6 Roundup

With the League five weeks into the new season, the early leaders in Division 2 were Milton Keynes Sharks, maintaining a 100% winning record, a couple of points ahead of Woburn Sands Mosquitoes.  Newport Pagnell Lagondas held third spot, level with Mursley Hawks, but with a match in hand, whilst Leighton Buzzard Spitfires were just another two points back, also with a match in hand.  Completing Division 2 are Little Horwood Wooden Tops and Milton Keynes Shambles, with no eighth team this season.

Week 6 saw Sharks maintain their winning record, but they were pushed hard by Lagondas, who actually lead 2-0 early on, and had looked likely to snatch a draw in a see-saw final set.  Glen Davison got Lagondas off to a good start with a rare defeat for Rupert Greyling, with Chris Horn then coming from 2-0 down to beat Perdo Anastacio in five.  Sharks got into their stride as Derick Rodrigues beat Roy Read, then paired up with Rupert to comfortably win the doubles against Glen & Chris.  Pedro and Glen battled out the closest set of the night, with Glen just sneaking it a 12-10 in the decider, again from 2-0 down!  Rupert beat Roy, Derick beat Chris, Roy beat Pedro and Derick beat Glen, all in straight game, to leave Sharks 5-4 up.  The final set between Rupert and Chris swung one way then another, as Rupert went 1-0, only for Chris to forge ahead 2-1.  However, it was Rupert who finished the stronger, as Sharks finally won a fifth leg at the third bite to take the match 6-4, and maintain thier 100% record.

Mosquitoes closed the gap on the leaders to just one point, as they beat struggling Shambles 7-3.  Another maximum here for James Molloy, only dropping a single game to Steve Jordan in the opener, to maintain his personal 100% record in the Division.  James was well backed up by Andy Jenkins with two wins, and Glenn Barcham with one win, whilst Andy joined James to win the doubles against Steve & Nick Markham.  Nick was Shambles' top scorer, with wins over Andy & Glenn, whilst Steve scored one win against Jim Robinson, as Shambles closed to within a point of Wooden Tops at the foot of the table.

The final match of the week resulted in an 8-2 win to Hawks over Spitfires, somewhat masking the closeness of the match.  Hawks got off to a good start as Martin Johnson beat Filip Simek in four and Ian Spanswick beat Paul Baker, also in four.  Alan Chandler looked good to pull one back versus David Bartlett, but David upped his game and a real nail-biter ensued, with David just taking it in the decider.  The doubles was also incredibly close, as David / Ian somehow nicked the deciding leg against Alan / Paul, having been behind almsot all the way!  Filip finally got Spitfires on the scoresheet, as he powered to a straight games win over Ian. Alan again went ahead early against Martin, but eventually lost yet another close one.  He finally won yet another tight encounter, defeating Ian in five; having played a total of 19 legs out of a maximum possible of 20, and played 359 points on the night!  David & Martin won their remaining sets to make the final score 8-2, a win that pushes Hawks up to 3rd spot, for now, and leaves Spitfire in 5th place.

Player of the Week : James Molloy.