PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 18
Published 26/02/2023 at 16:40:23 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERCHAMPIONS SPINNERS CHALLENGE SLIPPING AWAY IN TITLE CHASE
A 5th defeat of the season, this time to Greenleys Warriors, will probably be a loss too far for champions MK Spinners in their bid to retain their crown, with the title now looking to be heading down Greenleys’ way. To which team though? Contenders Monarchs and Kings both had easy wins against the bottom pair but face each in the final round of the season for what is sure to be a crunch fixture.
Monarchs are still top after disposing of MK Phoenix 10-0. Maximums here for Martin Hall, Tomek Nowakowski and Dave Beddall. Zeros for Mervyn Phillips, Alan Bolding and Gerald Ridgway.
3 points behind, but with a match in hand, are Kings following a 9-1 defeat of MK Topspin. Nick Howard and Craig Brown scored maximums and Guy Sparrow a brace. Russell Penn took the Topspin point in the final set of the night while Mervyn Kelly and Minesh Pitamber, a Div1 sub, were left winless. Remarkably, Topspin’s 8th 1-9 reversal of the season, nearly half their matches played.
Greenleys Warriors 6-4 win over Spinners keeps them in with a shout of a top half finish. Skipper Ricky Taiwo was on good form with an impressive hat-trick and a share in the crucial doubles, with timely single wins coming from Darren Ward and Shrishlal Basant Rai. The Spinners trio of Alan Cherry, Tim Cheek and Jecu Aurelian all took a win a-piece with the other point coming from a walk-over in an uncontested last set scheduled between Alan and Darren.
The final match saw another 6-4 result, this time for Leighton Buzzard Van Hire over MK Sasaki. Javier Goh took a maximum, Hakan Karaagac got a brace and they combined for the doubles. David Broome was the other Van man. Nicolas Wong hit a brace himself for Sasaki with Michael Wilkins and substitute Minesh Pitamber taking one win each. Certainly a busy week for Minesh, playing up a Division on consecutive nights to help out premier teams in trouble.
So, all Greenleys teams won this week and all MK club teams lost – a rare occurrence indeed!
Player of the week : Ricky Taiwo
DIVISION 1
ALL CHANGE AT THE TOP AT LAST
The divisional leadership changed hands for the first time this season as the Greenleys Glory jugernought overwhelmed former front runners MK Pumas 8-2 to go 3 points clear with 3 matches to go. Hat-tricks from Jacob Midson and Iain Lindsay and a single from Ian Brown plus the doubles made up their scoring. For Pumas Andy Smith and Julie Snowdon beat Ian and Chris Belton remained winless. The Glory boys should go on to win the title from here.
Leighton Buzzard Avengers consolidated 3rd spot following a 5-5 draw with MK Powers, although the Avengers’ trio of Cristi Hulpan, Bernie Raffe and Steve Jordan found an on-form Jit Pitamber far too hot to handle. With Sarah Hudson chipping in with in with 2 wins this was a good result for Powers, who nevertheless remain bottom. Keith Carrington also played.
Powers look doomed to relegation, as do club-mates Pioneers just a point above them. They went down 7-3 to another MK side, Sharks, who were only promoted last season. Rupert Greyling took a maximum with Derick Rodrigues a brace (plus the doubles together) and Abhay Tijare one. Paul Haig got a brace himself for Pioneers and Terry Lau one. Andy Frearson also played.
The final match featured Open University Primes, who are proving themselves to be the most ’average’ team of the division, with a third of the matches drawn and the same number of sets both won and lost (90 each). Another draw this week against fellow mid-table side Woburn Sands Mosquitoes whose James Molloy hit a hat-trick with Rob McPheat and Glen Barcham chipping in with one a-piece. The Primes sets came from a brace by Patrick Wong and single wins from Ning He and Andy Tan.
Player of the week : James Molloy