PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 21
Published 03/04/2023 at 12:14:33 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV CHERRY ON TOP AGAIN
Despite the League title having already been decided there was still plenty of silverware up for grabs in this final week of the season. Greenleys Monarchs and MK Spinners were locked in a battle for the runners-up spot and the destiny of the ‘Percy Hyde’ trophy for best individual average was still wide open with both issues delicately balanced and Monarchs players able to dictate their own destiny. A hat-trick for star man Tomek Nowakowski in a victory for his team over club-mates Kings would send both these trophies their way while failure to accomplish either would let in MK Spinners and their own star man Alan Cherry awarded these honours after, as expected, Alan featured in a straightforward 10-0 win for Spinners over bottom of the table MK Topspin.
Monarchs pulled off a 6-4 victory over the new champions but Tomek didn’t take a maximum, going down to Nick Howard at 11-8 in the 5th after winning the other two. So, while Monarchs held off Spinners for 2nd spot it was Alan who ended the season with the highest individual average (albeit by a mere 0.29% difference), the winner of this trophy for the 8th time. In a tightly fought match, the Monarchs trio of Tomek, Dave Tiplady and Dave Beddall all scored a decent brace, as did Craig Brown for Kings, who also took the doubles with Nick, whose crucial win against Tomek completing their scoring. Guy Sparrow was the other Kings’ man.
Tim Cheek and Jecu Aurelian joined Alan with hat-tricks in the Spinners/Topspin encounter while it was zeros all round for Mervyn Kelly, Jit Pitamber (re-registered from Div 1 side Powers for this last match) and myself.
MK Phoenix may be relegated alongside Topspin but they went down fighting against 6th placed team-mates Sasaki before losing 6-4. Nicolas Wong, the only player in the top 2 Divisions to play all 21 matches for his side, took the honours for Sasaki with a hat-trick and a share in the doubles with Michael Wilkins, who scored a brace. William Kit Liang completed their team. A brace too for Phoenix’ Mervyn Philips and one win each for Alan Bolding and Ioan Constantin.
And finally, the last of this season’s 84 matches took place at Wing on Friday between Leighton Buzzard Van Hire and Greenleys Warriors. Van Hire started the night 10 points behind 4th placed Warriors but ended it level with them after a whitewash. Maximums here for Biao Wang, Javier Goh and Hakan Karaagac, whilst it was blanks for Ricky Taiwo, Shirishlal Basant Rai and Div 2 sub Saravana Kumar (on Premier debut).
Player of the season : Alan Cherry
DIVISION 1
CLUB MK TEAMS DOMINATE IN FINAL WEEK
What a great week for the four MK club sides in this Division, who completely wiped the floor with the opposition.
Pride of place goes to bottom placed Pioneers with the draw against this season’s champions Greenleys Glory, who came from 3-5 down to share the spoils with the already relegated side. In surely the shock of the season Pioneers were left to wonder what might have been for them if they had shown this kind of form earlier. Marco Hahn and Paul Haig took all 5 points between them with a brace of singles and a joint share of the doubles. Marco beat Scott Dixon and Ian Brown while Paul took out Scott and Jacob Midson, playing himself into the end of season ‘top 8’ competition, where he is bound to be a major threat, in the process. However Ian rescued the draw for Glory in the deciding 5th game against Paul in the penultimate set of the night. Terry Lau was the other Pioneer on duty.
The remaining MK sides all won with Powers and Pumas posting their best scores of the season to boot. Powers, like Pioneers, are relegated but ended their season in a flourish too, pasting 4th placed Open University Primes 8-2. Clare Styles lost both, leaving team-mates Jit Pitamber and Sarah Hudson with hat-tricks against Patrick Wong (1 win), Andy Tan (1) and James Zeng.
Even without their star turn Lowri Hurd, 2nd placed Pumas strolled to a 10-0 win over Woburn Sands Mosquitoes, in 6th spot. Maximums for Andy Smith, Julie Snowdon and Chris Belton here and blanks all round for James Molloy, Rob McPheat and Glen Barcham. Pumas are promoted alongside Glory.
Not to be outdone by their club colleagues in this oddball final week, 5th placed MK Sharks ended their season with a win too, beating 3rd team Leighton Buzzard Avengers 6-4. The usual strong performances came courtesy of Derick Rodrigues and Rupert Greyling with a brace a-piece and a share of the doubles, but this time round Abhay Tijare added a single to clinch a victory. Alex Du Noyer hit his usual hat-trick for Avengers with Bernie Raffe one. Luckless Richard Hardy was the remaining Avenger.
Player of the week : Paul Haig