PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 15
Published 22/01/2023 at 16:13:58 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV MONARCHS REIGN AGAIN
It’s tight at the top with the 3 challengers separated by a mere 2 points and the lead constantly changing as we go into the final round of matches. Greenleys Monarchs are back in pole position after a 9-1 victory over my bottom placed team MK Topspin. Maximums for Tomek Nowakowski, Dave Beddall and Martin Hall. Zeros for Russell Penn. Mervyn Kelly and myself, though we went home happy with the doubles win to our credit.
MK Spinners slip back into 2nd place following their 6-4 win over club-mates Sasaki. A good match for Sasaki’s Michael Wilkins with wins against Tim Cheek and Jecu Aurelian plus a share in the doubles partnered by Nicolas Wong, who picked up the other point for his team. Alan Cherry posted his usual Spinners’ maximum and William Kit Liang was the other Sasaki player.
Two matches to report on from 3rd placed Greenleys Kings’ camp as, in addition to this week’s fixture, last week they played their outstanding match with Sasaki, losing 4-6. The writing was ‘on the wall’ from the moment when Kings’ Craig Brown lost to Nicolas Wong 11-9 in the 5th with the match balanced at one all after Sasaki’s Matt Evans had beaten Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow levelled with a win over Noah Levens. Matt hit a hat-trick with Nicolas adding a further singles and the two combined for the crucial doubles. This week’s match saw Andres Bayer replacing Nick on the Kings’ team-sheet in a 8-2 win against club-mates Warriors, Ricky Taiwo beating Andres and Saish Prabhu beating Craig for Warriors consolation sets. A cracking match though with half the sets going the distance with Ricky missing out at deuce in the 5th to both Craig and Guy Sparrow. Darren Ward was the other Warrior. Kings may be 2 points off the lead but they still have a match in hand over their rivals.
Finally, the Friday match at Wing saw Leighton Buzzard Van Hire’s multi-national side of Hakan Karaagac, Biao Wang and new boy Javier Goh slaughter lowly MK Phoenix 10-0. Zeros all round for Ioan Constantin, Mervyn Phillips and Ivor Howard. A timely reminder here that any new player registrations for this current season must be made by 31 January.
Player of the week : Guy Sparrow
DIVISION 1
PUMAS LEAD CUT TO SINGLES FIGURES
Two MK club derbies this week as we start the final cycle of matches. Leaders Pumas squeezed home 6-4 against 7th placed Pioneers’ thanks to a Lowri Hurd hat-trick. Lowri and Julie Snowdon won the doubles as usual with Julie and Chris Belton adding a win a-piece, Julie having to forfeit her final set through injury. A good brace for Pioneers’ Paul Haig with a single from Andy Frearson plus the un-played set completed their scoring. Terry Lau was the other Pioneer. Pumas lead at the top of the table seemed unassailable at one time but is now down to 8 points. With main man Andy Smith possibly side-lined till the end of the season, can they hang on to win the title that once looked to be a formality?
Jiten Pitamber was the Powers’ hero in the other MK derby as he ensured a second win for the bottom team as Powers beat Sharks 6-4 in his seasonal debut. 2 wins from Sarah Hudson, in another rare appearance, and I from (almost) new boy Paul Tompkins sealed the deal. Rupert Greyling scored a brace for Sharks, Derick Rodrigues 1 and they shared the doubles win. Abhay Tijare was the other Shark. More of this and Powers will be shooting up the table pretty soon.
Title challengers Greenleys Glory beat Open University Primes 8-2 to remain in 2nd place. The Primes sets came form Patrick Wong, who ‘topped and tailed’ the score-card with impressive wins over Ian Brown and Iain Lindsay in the first and last sets. But there was no stopping Jacob Midson from obtaining his customary maximum. As always, James Zeng and Ning He were the other Primes.
James Molloy was in top form for Woburn Sands Mosquitoes against 3rd placed Leighton Buzzard Avengers, winning his 3 singles and sharing doubles success with regular partner Ron McPheat in his side’s 6-4 defeat. Glen Barcham was the other Mosquito while Avengers fielded Alex Du Noyer, Cristi Hulpan and Steve Jordan for their trip out to Woburn.
Player of the week : Jit Pitamber