PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 2
Published 02/10/2023 at 14:04:57 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV SPINNERS BOUNCE BACK
Last week’s top dogs Greenleys Monarchs went down 6-4 to their one-time traditional title rivals MK Spinners, who had Gary Jones back in their line-up. Gary could only win 1 though and that was a close 11-9 in the 5th affair against Martin Hall. Spinners other successes came from Alan Cherry with a straight games treble, the best of which was against Tomek Nowakowski (only 9 points conceded) and Jecu Aurelian (2). Monarchs wins came courtesy of Tomek (2), Dave Beddall (1) plus the doubles.
The Monarchs now share top spot with MK Titans who beat their fellow 'new team with familiar faces', Leighton Buzzard Generations, 7-3 in a similarly structured team effort to Spinners – a treble from star man Craig Brown, with support from Nick Howard (2) and Guy Sparrow (1). This time though the match winners also took the doubles. Generations skipper Hakan Karaagac provided stout resistance throughout, dispatching Nick and Guy before racing into a 2-0 game lead against Craig, only for the Titan chief to turn the set around, albeit aided by no less than 3 missed Hakan serves in the deciding game. Tim Cheek took the other Generations point at the expense of Guy while Div 1 sub Fabrice Spelta remained winless.
It’s been an interesting past fortnight for the Greenleys Warriors unit. Crowned MKTT Centre’s Summer League champions one week, vilified for not turning up for their opening MK Winter League match the next, it was back to more mundane matters on Wednesday with a 9-1 victory over promoted club-mates Glory. Hat-tricks from skipper Ricky Taiwo and Darren Ward here and a brace from Shrishlal Basant Rai. Jacob Midson took the Glory boys point with Ian Brown and Scott Dixon completing their line-up..
In the final match, MK Sasaki got off to their own belated start with an 8-2 win over rock bottom MK Phoenix. Hat-tricks from Michael Wilkins and Minesh Pitamber and a brace from Noah Levens in this one. Beleaguered Phoenix brought in a lower div sub again, this time Andy Frearson from Div 2, and came away with good wins from Mervyn Phillips in singles and Mervyn/Gerald Ridgway in the doubles.
Six players still hold 100% records and none of them are due to face each other in week 3 either, so many should continue their winning ways.
Player of the week : Alan Cherry
DIVISION 1
OU BACK TO PRIME FORM AFTER SHAKY START
Open University Primes took to the road this week after their disaesterous opener against Sharks and came away with a well-earned 7-3 success at Leighton Buzzard Avengers. Andy Tan went from zero last week to ‘hero’ this with a sparkling hat-trick and enjoyed good support from Patrick Wong (2) and Ning He (1) in a match where they might have taken more, twice losing 11-9 in the 5th game to the home lads. Bernie Raffe (2 wins) and Cristi Hulpan (1) got the Avengers points. Steve Jordan completed the team.
Last week’s runaway leaders MK Sharks (5 points clear of the field after just one week) were pulled back sharply this time round, suffering a 7-3 defeat to title rivals MK Topspin. Good all-round performance by Topspin with braces from Mervyn Kelly, Jit Pitamber and me, which were matched by Sharks’ Derick Rodrigues. Rupert Greyling (1 win) and Abhay Tijare also played.
Topspin remain a point behind but MK Pumas are level at the top following an 8-2 win over Divisional new boys Greenleys Princes. Maximums for Andy Smith and Julie Snowdon and one from Adam Snowdon, who also took the doubles with mum Julie. Princes went the distance 4 times but missed out on each occasion. William Egbuna and Saravana Kuma got the Princes’ wins while Gary Vine remained winless.
Draw specialists Chackmore Hasbeens shared the points with Leighton Buzzard Van Hire this week thanks to another good all-round display from Hasbeens – Bub Burman (2 wins), Andy Whitehead (1), Div 4 sub Janes Beckett(1) plus their customary doubles victory. For Van Hire, Iko Jacob hit a hat-trick and Dave Broome a brace. Andy Fiske was the other Van man.
Player of the week : Andy Tan