Division 2 Roundup - Week 10

Closest Week of the Season, So Far !

In a Division which has seen a good share of close scores, this week takes over as the closest of all, with three matches ending as 5-5 draws, and the other being a 6-4 win.  Unsurprisingly, positions thus remain basically the same, but more suprising is the fact that this week saw the top three teams take on the bottom three teams, so some more varied scorelines might have been expected, but, it was not to be, and just emphasises that there is still some possibility that a team or two might be able to move themselves up the table, with a run of good results?

The one team that managed to grab a win was Open University Shockwave, who triumphed 6-4 against leaders, Newport Pagnell Lagondas, thus pulling Shockwave up to equal fifth in the table (albeit Wooden Tops have a match in hand), whilst Lagondas' lead at the top is cut to six points.  Once again, Charity Wong won all her singles for Shockwave, to take her run of wins to seven, and she was joined this week by Charles Tien doing likewise, although they were unable to add the doubles together, as the Lagondas pairing of Glen Davison and Mike Howard took that in three close games.  In the singles, Sue Lewis came the closest to more than one win for Lagondas, as she took both Charity and Charles to deciding games, and only losing out 13-11 in the fifth against Charles.  However, Sue, Glen and Mike all managed to edge past Yifan Lui in close sets, which, added to the doubles success, meant they managed to grab four points for Lagondas.

Second placed Greenleys Princes have edged to within six points of the lead in the Division, with a match in hand, despite being held to a 5-5 draw by seventh placed Leighton Buzzard Spitfires.  In a tremendous match, six of the ten sets went the full distance, with all those six finishing at 11-7 or closer, in a match that had nine deuce games plus eleven games that finished 11-9, with a grand total of 813 points played on the night!  Individual honours went, once again, to Saravana Kumar of Princes, who moved to the top of the averages, and extending his winning streak to six sets, by winning his three singles, and he added the doubles with Muhamad Hamza, who was playing up from Division 3, against Mateusz Browarnik and Graham Silversides.  Graham went very close to beating Saravana, losing out 12-10 in the deciding leg, in the final set of the night, whilst Andy King also pushed Saravana to 11-8 in the fifth.  Muhamad can also count himself unlucky, going down in deciding games in all three of his singles, on the wrong end of 11-7, 11-8 and 11-9 final games!  Gary Viner added the extra point for Princes in another five gamer against Graham, whilst for Spitfires Andy picked up two wins, new recruit Mateusz also claimed two wins, and Graham won one.

Third placed Mursley Hawks were playing bottom placed Milton Keynes Blades, and this match eventually saw yet another 5-5 draw, a second successive draw for both teams.  Early on, though, it was all Hawks, as Martin Johnson, Ian Spanswick and David Bartlett completed straight games wins, then Ian and Martin put their team 4-0 up after their doubles win over Bill Tyler and Mark Thomas.  However, Blades sharpened up, with Bill overturning a 2-0 deficit to beat Ian in five, new player Kareem Omar scoring wins over both Martin and Ian, then Mark Thomas turning on the power against David, to square the match at 4-4.  David put Hawks back ahead with a four game win against Bill, but Mark ensured the spoils were shared with some excellent hitting in a close final singles against Martin.

The final match of the week pitted fifth placed Little Horwood Wooden Tops against fourth placed Chackmore Hasbeens, and provided the third 5-5 draw of the week, which actually makes six draws out of eight matches over the last couple of weeks!  Five of the ten sets went to a deciding leg, with the closest two being Sam Willett's 11-9 win in the fifth against Paul Reynolds, and Bill Higgins winning 11-8 in the fifth against Bub Burman.  Bill, who is new to Wooden Tops this season, went on to win all his singles, and has now won seven of his last eight, after starting the season with eight losses out of nine!!  The Hasbeens doubles pairing of Bub and Andy Whitehead was its usual reliable self, notching up their eighth win out of eight, although were given a close game by Bill and Paul.  Sam collected his second singles win on the night for Hasbeens against John Sharp, Paul gained the other singles win for Little Horwood against Andy, whilst Bub won his other two singles, although he was pushed to a fifth game by John.

Players of the Week : Saravana Kumar and Bill Higgins.
 

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