PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 5
Published 17/10/2022 at 14:20:36 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERBIAO BLASTS SPINNERS
Leaders Greenleys Kings record of consecutive single set wins reached a conclusion this week at 30 with MK Sasaki’s Nicolas Wong ending the magic spell with a straight games win against Guy Sparrow, his only success on the night. Sasaki picked up 2 more wins thanks to an in-form Michael Wilkins, who saw off Guy and Craig Brown. That was the extent of the Sasaki success however as leaders Kings took the remaining sets with skipper Nick Howard dominant as usual. A zero for William Kit Liang.
Monarchs are looking good in second place after a 6-4 success in a Greenleys derby against Warriors. An unbeaten Martin Hall was man of the match here, notching up fine victories over Ricky Taiwo, Shrishlal Basant Rai and Darren Ward (12-10 in the 5th), and pairing up with Tomek Nowakowski for the crucial doubles win. Tomek took the other 2 sets for Monarchs, leaving team-mate Dave Beddall winless. Darren scored a good brace for Warriors with Ricky and Shrishlal on one-a-piece. The longest single game so far this season saw Martin beat Shrishlal 20-18.
Champions MK Spinners, in 3rd spot, faced a feisty Biao Wang at Leighton Buzzard Van Hire’s Wing headquarters on Friday as he blasted a great hat-trick against the champions, the first player ever to beat the famed trio of Alan Cherry, Tim Cheek and Jecu Aurelian in the same match. But Van Hire could only add one further set to the tally when Ben Rolfe beat Jecu, allowing Spinners to leave with a 6-4 win. Fabrice Spelta was the other Van man.
The basement battle went to MK Phoenix, who more than quadrupled their points tally in a 7-3 win over my MK Topspin team and are now only 4 points adrift of their bottom place rivals. The ever reliable Alan Bolding was the star of the show with a treble, well supported with a brace from Iaon Constantin, who he shared the doubles with. Ivor Howard broke his duck for the season at Mervyn Kelly’s expense to complete the Phoenix scoring. I got a brace for Topspin and Russell Penn one.
Player of the week : Biao Wang
DIVISION 1
CIRCLING SHARKS MENACE LEADERS
At last a close match for runaway leaders MK Pumas with MK Sharks’ Derick Rodrigues and Rupert Greyling inflicting Welsh no. 2 cadet Lowri Hurd’s first defeats of the season. With Lowri’s team-mate Chris Belton also winning just the once the onus fell on Andy Smith, whose broad shoulders proved well up to the task with another straight games maximum plus the crucial doubles win alongside Chris, albeit at 15-13 in the decider, to bring home a 6-4 win. Pedro Anastacio was the other Shark.
Leighton Buzzard Avengers lost their way at Greenleys Glory after a promising start, losing the last 5 sets from 3-2 up to fall to their first defeat of the season. Jacob Midson did most of the damage, still on 100% after beating Christinel Hulpan, Steve Jordan and Richard Hardy for the loss of a one game. Good support came from Christine Scaysbrook and Ian Brown with a brace each while Avenger Richard remained winless.
Despite the loss, the Avengers hang on to joint second spot for now. A position shared with Woburn Sands Mosquitos, who had an 8-2 win this week over an MK Powers side, who turned up one player short yet again. Pete Tillotson was in fine form for Powers in beating both Glen Barcham and Rob McPheat but found Andy Jenkins too hot to handle. Keith Carrington was the other Power man.
Finally, down at the bottom MK Pioneers continue their losing streak, falling 7-3 to Open University Primes. Unfortunately, Pioneers were handicapped by an injury to Marco Hahn, who was unable to finish the match, conceding his last 2 sets after opening brightly with a singles win against an in-form Andy Tan and following up with a doubles success partnering Paul Haigh. Paul secured Pioneers’ other point with a win over James Zeng. Andy Frearson for Pioneers and Primes’ Patrick Wong also played.
Player of the week : Andy Smith