PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 3
Published 03/10/2022 at 17:06:42 by David Wackrill; edited 1 times, last on 03/10/2022 at 18:08:18 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV
CURRENT CHAMPIONS IN CRUISE CONTROL
Big win this week for champions MK Spinners against their traditional title rivals (in this century anyway) Greenleys Monarchs. Only Tomek Nowakowski stood between them and a whitewash with good wins over Jecu Aurelian (close at 11-9 in the 5th) and Tim Cheek. Usual hat-trick for Alan Cherry while Monarchs’ Martin Hall and Dave Beddall registered blanks.
We did get a whitewash though, and a back-to-back one at that, for runaway League leaders Greenleys Kings with their 10-0 thrashing of bottom side MK Phoenix. Both teams fielded a full side in difficult circumstances, Kings with a late registration of Northampton’s Andy Wood to replace covid victim Guy Sparrow and Phoenix dipping down the League pond to Div 2 to play up Abhay Tijare. Much as Abhay and team-mates Gerald Ridgway and Ivor Howard tried they couldn’t win a single game all night against their high flying opponents, losing all 30 played. A dream debut for Andy and business as usual for Kings’ Nick Howard and Craig Brown.
A terrific performance from Greenleys Warriors to force a draw when faced with a MK Sasaki side that included Matt Evans. Mighty Matt took his 4 wins (3 singles and a share in the doubles) as expected but Warriors kept Sasaki down to just one more success, Nicolas Wong beating Shrishlal Basant Ria, to square the match. So a brace each for Warriors’ Ricky Taiwo and Darren Ward while Sasaki’s William Kit Liang went home winless.
Finally, the Friday match saw Leighton Buzzard Van Hire beat my MK Topspin side 7-3. Only one change for Van Hire from their big squad this week as they gave a club debut to Lutonian Marc Lyons, who teamed up with David Broome and Biao Wang. Marc repaid his selection handsomely with big wins over Topspin regulars Russell Penn, Mervyn Kelly (back in harness after holidaying) and myself. Biao joined him on a hat-trick, but only after a close shave (11-9 in the 5th) with a rejuvenated Mervyn. An exciting doubles also went their way with Biao/David pairing up to beat Russell/Mervyn in the decider.
Player of the week : Marc Lyons
DIVISION 1
PUMAS ROAR ON
Leaders MK Pumas took their foot off the gas this week and conceded twice against club-mates Powers. Pete Tillotson and Clare Styles both beat Chris Belton whilst Andy Smith and Lowri Hurd recorded their usual hat-tricks. One time long serving Pumas stalwart Keith Carrington made up the Powers side, playing against his old team-mates for the first time.
Greenleys Glory head the chasing pack thanks to star man Jacob Midson’s maximum, although twice taken to a 5th game, against MK Sharks in a 6-4 victory. Good support from John Stamp (2 wins) and Christine Scaysbrook (1) saw them home in a tight match. For Sharks, Derek Rodrigues was outstanding as always, his two wins complimented by one from Rupert Greyling, whom he partnered to doubles success. The busy Abhay Tijare, playing the first of consecutive nights in different divisions, was Sharks other player.
The third remaining unbeaten team at this stage is Leighton Buzzard Avengers, who played out a terrific drawn match with Open University Primes. I watched a fair bit of this match from the Wing Village Hall stage and it was a fitting climax to an even contest when Avengers’ Steve Jordan took the final point of the night to win 13-11 in the 5th against Patrick Wong to clinch a draw. Steve was one of 4 players to score a brace, Bernie Raffe for Avengers and an unlucky Patrick plus Andy Tan for Primes. James Zeng took the other singles leaving Avengers’ Richard Hardy winless, though he shared the doubles success (always vital in these close matches) with Bernie.
Finally, another close match to report between MK Pioneers and Woburn Sands Mosquitos, with the away side returning home with a 6-4 victory despite a useful hat-trick from Paul Haigh. But all Pioneers could add to Paul’s contribution was a 12-10 in the 5th game win by skipper Terry Lau against Rob McPheat. Mosquitos’ Dave McGarragh stepped up from Div 3 to take a brace along with Andy Jenkins, who paired with Rob to take the doubles. Andy Frearson was the remaining Pioneer.
Player of the week : Steve Jordan