PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 11
Published 27/11/2022 at 15:49:46 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERMERVE THE SWERVE ROCKS TITLE CHASERS
Keen ballroom dancer Mervyn Philips turned in a virtuoso performance for lowly MK Phoenix with a stunning treble against high flying Greenleys Monarchs this week. He beat Martin Hall, Dave Beddall and Matt Rayner in a 6-4 defeat, the other Phoenix win came from Alan Bolding against Matt. Gerald Ridgway drew a blank. Monarchs remain 2nd.
Leaders Greenleys Kings were without a match when bottom team MK Topspin pulled out of the Wednesday fixture with their threadbare squad entirely depleted with two players sick and one on holiday. Daniel Sedgwick was due to make a rare appearance for Kings and Paul Tompkins was on stand-by as a lower division substitute for Topspin.
Champions Spinners in 3rd spot had an 8-2 win over Greenleys Warriors, who were missing their charismatic talisman Ricky Taiwo for first time since 2019 as his team slip to 6th. Hat-tricks for Alan Cherry and Jecu Aurelian and one for Gary Jones, who lost to both Shrishlal Basant Rai and Ameya Phatak. Darren Ward was the other Warrior.
Paul Tompkins may have missed out on a second MK league outing this week on Wednesday, but he made up for it on Friday, filling in for Sasaki in their match at Leighton Buzzard Van Hire. A 7-3 win for the home boys here with a maximum from Marc Lyons and support from Biao Wang (2) and Hakan Karaagac (1) plus the doubles. A good brace from Nicolas Wong and a single win from Michael Wilkins were the Sasaki scorers.
Player of the week : Mervyn Phillips
DIVISION 1
JACOB CLIMBS LADDER TO TOP SPOT
The big match this week was at Greenleys on Wednesday where Glory entertained MK Pumas in a top of the table clash, both sides having lost only once so far this season. The home boys took all the plaudits in a 7-3 win which helped them narrow the gap against the leaders to 11 points. Jacob Midson was in great form with a hat-trick and just a single game dropped in the process. Ian Brown got a decent brace and Scott Dixon chipped in with a single plus the doubles with Ian. For Pumas, Julie Snowdon scored two and Andy Smith one, while Chris Belton remained winless. Those of us following events at the top of the individual averages, will note that Jacob’s win over Julie meant he replaced her at the head of the list by a mere 1.11%.
Glory had played the previous evening at Woburn Sands Mosquitoes to enable their hosts to catch up to date with their fixtures. A 6-4 win this time for Glory with a brace a-piece from Jacob & Ian and the doubles between them. John Stamp made up the team and secured a vital win in the opening set over James Molloy. James beat Ian 13-11 in the decider for his only win while Rob McPheat picked up a brace and Glenn Barcham one.
Mosquitoes suffered another 6-4 defeat in their scheduled match of the week against Open University Primes. The regular trio of James Zeng, Patrick Wong and Andy Tan got the business done for Primes by beating Rob McPheat and Andy Jenkins, leaving James Molloy with a hat-trick this time plus the doubles win with Andy.
Meanwhile Leighton Buzzard Avengers were cementing their 3rd place in the table with a 9-1 win over bottom team MK Powers. Pete Tillotson avoided his team’s whitewash with a victory against Steve Jordan, leaving team-mates Keith Carrington and Paul Tompkins winless. Hat-tricks for Avengers duo Alex Du Noyer and Bernie Raffe.
The last match to cover was an all MK club affair with Sharks beating Pioneers 8-2. The Sharks pretty much had things all their own way as they strolled into a 6-0 lead before sharing the remaining sets. Derick Rodrigues and Rupert Greyling were back on form with maximums. Abhay Tijare lost the two for Sharks when going down to Terry Lau and Andy Frearson after beating Paul Haig.
Player of the week : Jacob Midson