Division 2 Roundup - Weeks 1/2

With the new season now well underway, and Match Reports already in from regular correspondents, Nick Howard & Dave Wackrill, I thought I'd better get started and do my first Division 2 "roundup".

The opening week saw a very neat set of results, with a 5-5, a 6-4, a 7-3 and an 8-2 !

Newport Pagnell Lagondas picked up the biggest win, defeating last season's Division 3 champions, Milton Keynes Blades, 8-2, despite going 0-2 down early on.  Mark Thomas defeated Michael Howard in four, and Chris Paddon beat Sue Lewis in three, but Blades were a player short, and from then on it was all one-way traffic to Lagondas, as Tony Ardis won twice, Michael & Sue won the reverse of the opening singles (although Mark took it close in the decider against Sue) and Tony & Sue were convincing winners in the doubles.

The other promoted team, Greenleys Princes, enjoyed a 7-3 success over new team, Open University Shockwave.  Tom Davey secured a treble, although was pushed to five games by Charity Wong.  He was backed up by two wins apiece from William Egbuna and Gary Viner.  The main resistance came from Charles Tien, who grabbed two wins, plus teamed up with Charity to take the doubles against Tom and William.  Charity also lost another close one in the decider against Gary, whilst Marcus Fung will have to wait for his first win of the season.

Down from Division 1, Chackmore Hasbeen started their season with a 6-4 win over Mursley Hawks, despite only having two of their regulars available, with Freddie Burman making up the numbers, but slightly out of his depth at this level.  Nevertheless, Freddie hit some blinding winners along the way.  Meanwhile, Bub Burman won all his games, only dropping one leg each to Martin Johnson and Mick O'Mahony, and also teamed up with Andy Whitehead as the ever dependable doubles pairing (who went through the whole season unbeaten the last time they played in Division 2) won a five gamer against Mick & David Bartlett.  Andy picked up two close singles wins, with Mick pushing him to 11-9 in the decider, but he lost out to Martin.

The one 5-5 draw in week 1 was between Leighton Buzzard Spitfires and Little Horwood Wooden Tops.  Individual honours went to Graham Silversides, with a treble, although in the doubles with Andy King, they just lost out at deuce in the fifth against John Sharp and Bill Higgins (on his debut in Milton Keynes).  No further success for Bill, though, despite pushing Andy King to a decider, but team mates John and Andy Hooper each won twice, both beating Andy King and Andy Fiske, in a well matched encounter.

So, to week 2, and Monday matches had to be rearranged due to the Queen's funeral.  Leaders, Lagondas, agreed to a Tuesday rearrangement of their match with Hawks, and all night the teams were joking that they might as well agree on a 5-5 draw, as the last two encounters had finished that way.  So, no surprise that it did indeed end in a third consecutive 5-5 draw, as neither team could ever edge more than one set ahead.  Only one set was settled in three games, whilst three sets went the full distance, and as in each case it was Lagondas who won the decider, Hawks could maybe feel slightly the more unlucky!  Glen Davison won his three sets on his first outing of the season, although it took a deuce in the fifth against David Bartlett, plus an 11-7 in the decider versus Martin Johnson.  David lost out at deuce in the decider again, in his narrow defeat to Michael Howard.  The other win for Lagondas came by way of Tony Ardis against Mick O'Mahoney, but Tony lost out to both Martin Johnson and David, whilst Mick and Martin each defeated Michael and also teamed up in the doubles to beat Glen and Tony.

Chackmore Hasbeens stormed to the top of the table as their regular trio of Bub Burman, plus Andy and Chris Whitehead, ran out 9-1 winners over Open University Shockwave.  Bub and Andy each won maximums, as they won their three singles and also took a close doubles against Yifan Liu and Charles Tien.  Charles claimed the solitary Shockwave win against Chris, and went very close against Andy, losing both legs 4 and 5 at deuce, whilst  Yifan took Andy to a close four games, but Hasbeens were farly comfortable winners in the remaining sets, with Marcus Fung the third Shockwave player.

Leighton Buzzard Spitfires moved up to third spot, with a 7-3 win over Milton Keynes Blades, who were a player short for the second week running!  The Spitfires trio of Graham Silversides, Andy King and Dwight Edwards each won one singles on the night, whilst Andy & Graham took the doubles aginst Bill Tyler and Mark Thomas.  For Blades, Bill won in four games against Dwight and Andy, but lost out in four to Graham, whilst Mark did the opposite in beating Graham, but losing out to Andy and Dwight.

The final scheduled encounter between Wooden Tops and Princes had to be postponed from the Monday, so will be caught up at another time.

Player of Weeks 1 and 2 : Bub Burman - unbeaten in both singles and doubles.
 

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