PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 10
Published 19/11/2022 at 16:23:53 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV SPINNERS COMEBACK ON THE CARDS
‘Don’t write us off’ was the message MK Spinners sent to their championship rivals this week after their customary win over Greenleys Monarchs. The reigning champions may be having a poor season with 4 defeats already but there is still plenty of time left for them to turn things around. Skipper Alan Cherry was back with a bang from covid isolation to notch up a fine hat-trick, starting with Monarchs main man Tomek Nowakowski to bring an end to Tomek’s 14 set winning streak. Jecu Aurelian hit 2 and together they won the doubles for a 6-4 match win. A zero for Tim Cheek on this occasion. Martin Hall hit a brace for Monarchs with Dave Tiplady and Tomek contributing just one each. Monarchs stay 2nd with Spinners 3rd.
7th placed MK Phoenix came away from visiting leaders Greenleys Kings with a surprise point thanks to Ioan Constantin’s win over Nick Howard 11-8 in the 5th in the final set of the night. Maximums for Guy Sparrow and Craig Brown. Blanks for Gerald Ridgway and Ivor Howard.
The 4th and 5th placed sides MK Sasaki and Greenleys Warriors squared up to each other and fittingly fought out a 5-5 draw. Another great week for Sasaki’s Nicolas Chong, on fire at the moment, with another hat-trick and a share in the doubles with Michael Wilkins. A single from Noah Levens completed the Sasaki scoring. A brace each for Warriors’ Darren Ward and Shrishlal Basant Rai and one from Ricky Taiwo completed their scoring. Both sides have now won 4, drawn 3, lost 3 thus far.
That left 5th placed Leighton Buzzard Van Hire to play my bottom of the pile MK Topspin team. We recruited a Div 1 sub, 14 year-old Lowri Hurd for this match, just as well as the Welsh Cadet International provided Topspin’s only success of the night when beating Hakan Karaagac. Maximums for Biao Wang and Fabrice Spelta with blanks for Russell Penn and myself.
Player of the week : Alan Cherry
DIVISION 1
CLASSY CLARE CAN’T STOP POWERS SLIDE TO ROCK BOTTOM
Leaders MK Pumas sent club-mates Powers crashing to the foot of the table this week with an 8-2 victory despite a terrific performance from Clare Styles. Clare won the two for Powers with some mighty fine hitting against Chris Belton and Andy Smith, but couldn’t get past a resilient Julie Snowdon, who now sits at the top of the averages. This has been the only all-girl clash thus far in the top 2 Divisions. Pumas’ old boy Keith Carrington and new recruit Paul Tompkins featured for Powers.
MK Pioneers long struggle to climb away from the bottom has come to fruition at last thanks to back-to-back wins inspired by Marco Hahn hat-tricks. His victims this time were Rob McPheat, Glenn Barcham and Andy Jenkins in Pioneers 6-4 win over Woburn Sands Mosquitoes. Doubles support came from a reliable Paul Haig, who picked up 2 singles. A zero though for Andy Frearson. Mosquitoes own Andy hit a good brace with Rob and Glen one-a-piece. Pioneers resurgence is bad news for Powers and 1 or 2 other teams hoping to avoid relegation.
Leighton Buzzard Avengers hang on to 2nd place after drawing with Open University Primes. Alex DuNoyer got his usual maximum and Richard Hardy one plus the doubles between them. A blank for Steve Jordan. Primes sets came from Andy Tan (2), Patrick Wong (2) and James Zeng (1).
Finally, Greenleys Glory beat MK Sharks 7-3 thanks mainly to another regular hat-trick man, Jacob Midson. Ian Brown scored a brace and Scott Dixon one plus the doubles. Sharks star-men Derick Rodrigues, 2 wins, and Rupert Greyling (1) haven’t been hitting the heights lately with Rupert just the 1 win in his last 5 attempts. Abhay Tijare was the other Shark.
Player of the week : Jacob Midson