Division 2 Roundup - Week 21 (Final week)

A *belated* final week's Report, given I was away for a couple of weeks!!

As things stood before the final week, the title was between Woburn Sands Mosquitoes and Milton Keynes Sharks, with Mosquitoes holding a four point advantage,
having clawed back the Sharks' early lead in the Division as the weeks went by.  In the end, the concusion was a slight anticlimax, as Sharks were without their star
player for their final match, and in fact had their six week unbeaten run ended by bottom placed Milton Keynes Shambles, who won 6-4, to give Shambles their first
win in 10 matches!  It was good all round effort from Shambles, with Steve Jordan & Jim Robinson each winning twice, both only losing out to Rupert Greyling, whilst
Paddy Patel did the opposite, beating Rupert, but losing out to Pedro Anastacio and Abhay Tijare.  Steve/Jim also combined to take the doubles versus Rupert/Pedro.

This meant that Mosquitoes only needed one point from their match with Leighton Buzzard Spitfires.  It was not too long before that was achieved, as James Molloy
fittingly sealaed the title for his team, defeating Graham Silversides, as he went to to win his usual treble, and so end the season with the perfect 100% singles record.
Spitfires did limit the damage, as Dwight Edwards beat Glenn Barcham, Filip Simek beat Andy Jenkins and Dwight/Graham took the doubles against Andy/Glenn, but
from that point on, Mosquitoes won the remainder of the sets, to run out 7-3 winners, although Filip pushed Glenn to 14-12 in the decider.  This meant that Mosquitoes
won the Division by seven points, and completed 10 matches unbeaten, and condemned Sharks to second spot, whilst Spitfires had a good second half of the season,
having moved up from 5th to finish 3rd.  Congratulations to the Woburn Sands Mosquitoes team of Glenn Barcham, Andy Jenkins, Rob McPheat and James Molloy.

Newport Pagnell Lagondas finished the season in 4th spot, concluding their campaign with a 6-4 win over 6th placed Little Horwood Wooden Tops.  No treble winners
in this match, as Sue Lewis and Tony Ardis won two each for Lagondas, whilst John Sharp and Paul Reynolds did likewise for Wooden Tops, with Chris Horn picking
up a further win for Lagondas to add to the dependable doubles pairing of Sue/Tony who beat John/Andy Hooper, to take their doubles record to 5 wins from 6.  Four
sets went the full distance, but probably the set of the night saw Tony edge legs 1 and 2 against Paul, only for Paul to reverse the dose in legs 3 and 4, but it was Tony
who just came through in the decider, in a very well fought out set within an equally well fought out match.

The final match in the Division saw the bottom two teams face each other in a postponed fixture, with Wooden Tops leading Shambles by five points.  Despite their last
place position and the five point deficit in the League Table, Shambles almost managed to reverse the positions, as they won 7-3, but thus finished just one point adrift.
Set 8 could easily have gone to Shambles, which would have reversed the positions, but despite going two legs down, Paul Reynolds battled back to edge legs 3, 4 &
5 against Nick Markham, to get his team that vital third point on the night.  Shambles thus finished last, but won their final two matches, with Steve Jordan again in fine
form here to win his three sets, well backed up by Jim Robinson with two wins once again, and Nick with one win, whilst Nick/Jim also took the doubles against Andy
Hooper/John Cripps, with the Wooden Tops wins coming from Paul with two and Andy with one.

A quick mention to the three players who played *every* match for their team : David Bartlett, Ian Spanswick and Andy Hooper, whilst John Sharp only missed the final
match and five players each just missed two matches - Rupert Greyling, Martin Johnson, Steve Jordan, Nick Markham and Graham Silversides.

So ends another season, and a relatively even one in Division 2, although in the end, the top two and bottom two were decided a few weeks ago, but the final placings
went right down to the final week!  All that now remains is the Top 8 competition on Monday, 25th April.

Player of the Week : Jim Robinson.
Player of the Season : James Molloy.
 

Copyright © 2014-2024 Chris Welch / Milton Keynes Table Tennis League