PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 7
Published 31/10/2022 at 13:35:28 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV BATTLE ROYAL ENDS ALL SQUARE
This week sees the conclusion of the first cycle (of 3) of League matches with top billing going to the Greenleys royal derby between Kings and Monarchs which turned out to be a high octane draw. Leaders Kings registered Dan Smalley, not seen in MK since 2018, in time for this one. But not even the highly accomplished former MK Sasaki captain could ensure Kings maintained their impressive 100% record, going down to Tomek Nowakowski, who was in rampant form throughout with a terrific maximum. Tomek’s other victims were Guy Sparrow and Craig Brown, who had to settle for a single win each against Dave Beddall. That still left two more needed for Monarchs to force the draw and these came courtesy of Dave Tiplady. Great match.
3rd place MK Spinners closed the gap by 5 points on their championship rivals after a whitewash against club-mates Topspin. So, maximums for Alan Cherry, Jecu Aurelian and Gary Jones whilst blanks for Russell Penn, Pete Tillotson and me. Pete was playing up from Div 1 to help us out and was on the receiving end of a 11-0, 11-2, 11-0 hammering from Alan. I haven’t ever seen a single set score like that before and believe it may be an MK League record biggest ever set win.
Another MK derby and another Div 1 sub filling in for a struggling team. This time the player was Terry Lau representing Phoenix, who did slightly better than Topspin and reduced their arrears at the bottom by 1 point in their match with Sasaki. The point came from a great win by Iaon Constantin against William Kit Liang. Otherwise it was all plain sailing for Sasaki with hat-tricks by Nicolas Wong and Michael Wilkins. Mervyn Phillips was the other Phoenix man.
Leighton Buzzard Van Hire fielded a strong side against visiting Greenleys Warriors and were well rewarded with a 7-3 win. An anomaly here was that no-one remained winless and Warriors isolated successes came against different players. Darren Ward beat Marc Lyons, Shrishlal Basant Ria took out Biao Wang and Ricky Taiwo triumphed against Hakan Karaagag.
Player of the week : Tomek Nowakowski
DIVISION 1
TRIO OF TIGHT MATCHES
Just the 3 matches again this week as Woburn Sands Mosquitos were unable to complete their fixture, this time against leaders MK Pumas with the meeting rearranged for 8 November.
Leighton Buzzard Avengers took advantage to cut the gap at the top to 3 points after a 6-4 win against 3rd placed MK Sharks, this despite Sharks main man Rupert Greyling grabbing another hat-trick. Rupert is red hot at the moment and this time round Alex DuNoyer, Bernie Raffe and Steve Jordan were his victims. But the Sharks could only add one more set to their tally with Paddy Patel, playing up from Div 3, beating Steve. Abhay Tijare was the other Shark.
Open University Primes saw off the challenge of MK Powers in another 6-4 score-line. This all came down to the wire with a final set meeting between Patrick Wong and Pete Tillotson, both on 2 wins each at that stage, with Patrick winning 11-8 in the decider to complete his own maximum. Good support came from Andy Tan with a brace and the crucial doubles win when partnering Patrick. A blank here for James Zeng. Clare Styles and Keith Carrington were the other Power players with a win a-piece.
Bottom placed MK Pioneers had a good week, drawing with Greenleys Glory thanks to a Paul Haigh/ Marco Hahn double act. They won 2 a-piece and paired up for the doubles set. Andy Frearson was the other Pioneer. Jacob Midson took his usual hat-trick for Glory and now sits on top of the averages. A win each for Saravana Kumar, playing up from Div 2, and Ian Brown ensured a share of the spoils for Glory.
Player of the week : Patrick Wong