PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 13
Published 12/12/2022 at 16:28:12 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERKINGSMEN FALL AT LAST
The divisional leadership has changed hands for the first time this season as Greenleys Monarchs took full advantage of their Kings club-mates first defeat. After a frustrating fortnight of postponements, taking on the current champions MK Spinners battery of ace defenders was not, perhaps, the best suited opposition for the Kingsmen, who fell to a 7-3 defeat. Guy Sparrow picked up a brace with Nick Howard a single, leaving Danny Sedgwick winless on the night. For Spinners, Alan Cherry hit a hat-trick with Tim Cheek (2) and Jecu Aurelian (1).
Meantime, title rivals Monarchs enjoyed an 8-2 win on their frosty Friday trip to Leighton Buzzard Van Hire. Tomek Nowakowski picked up his usual maximum with Martin Hall and Dave Beddall two each. Fierce resistance was provided by in-form Van man Hakan Karaagac with two wins himself, although Fabrice Spelta went the distance in all his sets in another late, late show at Wing. Alex Du Noyer from Div 1 filled in here for the home boys. Kings go 5 points behind Monarchs (and 4 behind Spinners) but, of course, still have those 2 matches in hand to catch up in due course. Next week sees the always mouth-watering clash, though, of the Greenleys ‘royal’ Kings/Monarchs derby, the outcome of which may help indicate this year’s title destination.
Greenleys Warriors beat MK Phoenix by the same 8-2 score-line thanks to hat-tricks from Ricky Taiwo and Darren Ward plus a single from Saish Prabhu. Phoenix’ Mervyn Phillips may have run rings round local League ‘royalty’ last time out but he was stopped in his tracks in this one with just a single win to his credit, which was matched by team-mate Alan Bolding. Gerald Ridgway also featured for Phoenix.
More woes for my foot of the table team MK Topspin with a 10-0 defeat to club-mates Sasaki, leaving us 18 points adrift at the bottom. Hat-tricks all round for Michael Wilkins, Nicolas Wong and William Kit Liang and blanks for Russell Penn, Paul Tomkins and me. Paul, from Div 1, was filling in for Topspin to become the 6th different lower Division player we have used this season.
Player of the week : Alan Cherry
DIVISION 1
ALEX IN WONDERLAND
All the teams played sides adjacent or close to them this week, resulting in mostly hotly contested matches.
Top of the bill was leader's MK Pumas 6-4 win over 3rd placed Leighton Buzzard Avengers. Just for a change those ‘golden girls’ from Pumas, Julie Snowdon and Lowri Hurd, didn’t have matters all their own way thanks to a mega performance from Avengers’ Alex Du Noyer, who beat them both and paired up with Steve Jordan to inflict their first ever doubles defeat. Alex also triumphed over Chris Belton to record a memorable maximum, although that was the extent of Avengers scoring as Steve and Richard Hardy failed to get on the score-sheet.
In the other top half match Greenleys Glory ran out 8-2 winners against Woburn Sands Mosquitoes. The usual hat-trick for Jacob Midson with 2-a-piece from Scott Dixon and Ian Brown this time. James Molloy and Rob McPheat were single winners for Mosquitoes while Andy Jenkins remained winless.
Equilibrium was maintained in the bottom half of the table with draws between both 5th/6th as well as 7th/8th placed sides. Rupert Greyling and Derick Rodrigues took a brace each for 5th placed MK Sharks leaving Pedro Anastacio with a zero while James Zeng and Patrick Wong hit braces of their own for Open University Primes backed by a single from Andy Tan.
Bottom team MK Powers gave a seasonal debut to Lutonian Minesh Pitamber, who picked up a brace against MK Pioneers’ Terry Lau and Andy Frearson before losing to Paul Haig, Powers ever improving Paul Tompkins beat the same players and Keith Carrington got the better of Andy for the draw. Star of the night, though, was Paul Haigh with a hat-trick, achieved without a game dropped. Paul also up paired with Andy for doubles success with Terry adding the 5th set with a singles win over Keith.
Player of the week : Alex Du Noyer