Division 2 Roundup - Week 9
Published 11/11/2022 at 18:02:38 by Martin Johnson.
Princes push for the Crown !Week 9 saw just one team able to achieve a win, with Greenleys Princes winning against Little Horwood Wooden Tops, to close to within seven points of the leaders, and with a match in hand. Elsewhere, it was 5-5 draws all around, and inevitably some very close competition along the way.
Leaders Newport Pagnell Lagondas took on second placed Mursley Hawks, and the final result of 5-5 was hardly a surprise, as these two teams have now drawn four times in succession, despite changes of players each time! Mick O'Mahony scored his second treble in three matches, although was pushed all the way by Mike Howard, with Mick just sneaking it 12-10 in the decider. Mike mixed his defence and hits well and managed to win his other two, making the most of a night where he had most of the luck going, by defeating both Martin Johnson and Ian Spanswick in four, with Ian especially unlucky when Mike got an edge at set point in game 4. Martin won the other two for Hawks, including scraping past Chris Horn in another five setter where the first four games were all 11-9 or deuce, whilst Chris and Tony Ardis each claimed one win against Ian, with Ian v Chris another classic, with three deuces. Tony & Mike were comfortable winners in the doubles against Ian & Martin, to complete the scoring. Lagondas thus stay top, whilst Hawks drop to third place.
As mentioned above, Greenleys Princes were the only winners this week, winning 7-3 against Little Horwood Wooden Tops, to end a three match winning streak by Wooden Tops. Although the result was the only non-draw this week, this doesn't suggest the closeness of the match, as five of the sets required a decider, with Princes taking four of those five. Saravana Kumar was once again the pick of the Princes players, claiming his fourth treble in six outings, and dropping just one leg, whilst Tom Davey and Gary Viner each grabbed two wins. Bill Higgins managed the two singles wins for Wooden Tops, whilst Andy Hooper and Paul Reynolds combined to take the doubles against Saravana and Tom. The win moves Princes to second spot, seven points behind Lagondas, but with a match in hand, whilst Wooden Tops stay in fifth spot.
Fourth placed Chakmore Hasbeens were perhaps surprisingly held to a 5-5 draw by sixth placed Open University Shockwave, with Charity Wong is fine form, as she won all three of her singles, including only the second loss of the season for Bub Burman in the opening set of the night, although it took 11-9 in the fifth to do so! Andy Whitehead then went on against Charles Tien, and their set was even closer, with Andy taking it 12-10 in the decider. After Chris Whitehead won against Yifan Liu, Bub and Andy's 100% doubles record looked in threat, as Charity and Charles went 2-0 up, but a fine fightback saw their unbeaten record maintained. With Charity going on to win all her singles, and a win each for Charles and Yifan, Shockwave moved 5-4 ahead, but Bub won his second of the night, beating Charles in the final singles, to complete the draw, and maintain Hasbeens and Shockwave in fourth and sixth places, respectively..
The remaining match saw the bottom two teams play, and eighth placed Milton Keynes Blades collected their first 5-5 draw of the season against seventh placed Leighton Buzzard Spitfires, after seven losses in a row. They achieved this, despite only having two players, including one reserve, and not able to play the doubles, so things looked even bleaker when Graham Silversides beat Mark Thomas in the opener, to effectively put Spitfires 5-0 up. However, it was all Blades from then on, with star substitute Malcolm Whetstone, up from Division 3, winning all his singles, although both Graham and Filip Simek pushed him close in five, whilst Mark also chipped in with two wins, including another five gamer against Dwight Edwards.
Next week sees the top four teams each play a team in the bottom four, with Lagondas visiting Shockwave, Princes visiting Spitfires, Hawks hosting Blades and Hasbeens visiting Wooden Tops.
Player of the Week : Charity Wong.