Division 2 Roundup - Week 9

Published 18/11/2023 at 21:27:26 by Martin Johnson.

Top Three Triumph but Pioneers Plummet

Week 9 of the season saw the top three teams in Division 2 extend their lead over the rest of the Division, with all three winning well.  Meanwhile, such is the closeness at the foot of the table, that a first Greenleys Sultans of Spin win of the season saw them climb from eighth place to equal fifth, thus sending Milton Keynes Pioneers down to last spot.

Biggest winners of the week were third placed Woburn Sands Mosquitoes, who thumped equal fifth placed Milton Keynes Pioneers 9-1, with Rob McPheat securing a maximum.  Team mate James Molloy won his three singles, albeit pushed to five games by both Andy Frearson and Kareem Omar, whilst their third team member, Andy Jenkins, also picked up two singles wins, plus a share of the deciding leg doubles win with Rob.  The lone win for Pioneers came when Andy Frearson won the second set, to make the score 1-1 at that stage, but it all went Mosquitoes' way thereafter.  Andy F and Terry Lau came close to levelling it up again in the doubles, going 2-0 up, but eventually lost out in five.  The win sees Mosquitoes close to within three points of second place, but the loss for Pioneers sees them drop to last place, albeit only two points off fifth!

Leaders, Leighton Buzzard Spitfires, maintained their pace at the top, winning 7-3 at fourth placed Newport Pagnell Lagondas.  Syed Ali and Filip Simek both won their three singles, with Graham Silversides adding one singles win, whilst for Lagondas, Chris Horn and Glen Davison each won once, plus Chris and Michael Howard took the doubles against Syed and Filip to complete the scoring.  Spitfires had stormed into a 3-0 lead, early on, before being pegged back to 3-2, in a well fought match, but thereafter took all but one of the remaining singles, to maintain their six point lead at the top of the table.  Lagondas stay fourth, though are now nine points adrift of third place, but remain seven points clear of the bottom four.

Second placed Mursley Hawks held the gap to the leaders, as they too won 7-3, against equal sixth placed Milton Keynes Powers.  Once again Mick O'Mahony took the individual honours with another maximum, although he was pushed to four games by both Peter Tillotson and Keith Carrington, and also won in four in the doubles with David Bartlett, against Peter and Paul Tompkins, to maintain Hawks' 100% doubles record.  Mick was well supported by Ian Spanswick with two wins and David Bartlett with one win, whilst for Powers, there were two wins for Peter and one for Paul.  Although no set went to five, there were plenty that were close in four games.  Hawks remain second, whilst Powers drop slightly, to seventh.

The all Greenleys derby match, saw a first win of the season for eighth placed Sultans of Spin, who edged the encounter 6-4 against equal sixth placed Valiants.  Although on the losing side, the individual plaudits went the way of Lewis Copp, who scored a maximum by winning his three singles, plus the doubles, at 11-9 in the fifth, with Slava Volokha.  However, two wins each for Daniel Carter, Robert Anderson and Ricky Jackson was enough to see Sultans of Spin home.  Reserve Jose Blecau completed the lineup for Valiants, but found the jump up of two Divisions to be quite tough.  Sultans of Spin leap up from eighth place to equal fifth, now level with Valiants, just ahead of the two Milton Keynes teams.

Next week Spitfires take on Sultans of Spin, Hawks play Lagondas, Mosquitoes host Powers and Valiants play Pioneers.

Player of the Week : Syed Ali.