PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 7
Published 06/11/2023 at 14:05:26 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER DIV ROUND-UP
BIG 3 WIN AGAIN
Big wins this week for the top 3 to consolidate their superiority in the Division as we complete the first cycle (of 3) of this season’s matches.
Top of the tree MK Titans walloped club-mates Sasaki 10-0 with maximums from Craig Brown, Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow. Struggling Sasaki started with just 2 of their registered players, William Kit Liang and Minesh Pitamber, but managed to co-opt the services of Div 1’s Mervyn Kelly on the night as live-wire Mervyn agreed to play across 2 matches simultaneously, even managing the not inconsiderable feat of featuring in both doubles sets in addition to his multiple singles. It was all one way traffic though for Titans with just the one tight set as Minesh took Guy to a 5th game.
2nd placed MK Spinners played Greenleys Glory in a match which brought together two of the League’s best, Alan Cherry and Ian Mead, Alan winning in 3-straight games. Spinners ran out 7-3 victors despite being a player short from their own squad, Div 1’s Sarah Hudson filling in for her third Premier team in consecutive weeks. Sarah won again too, as she did last week, with a victory over Glory’s seasonal debutant Iain Lindsay. Alan took his usual maximum, Gary Jones got a brace and together they won the doubles. Ian bagged a brace for Glory and Jacob Midson one. I look forward to the time when all three of Glory’s Ian/Iains get to play in the same team together.
Greenleys Monarchs won their match against Leighton Buzzard Generations 9-1 with Dave Tiplady coming in for a seasonal debut and returning home a hat-trick winner along with Tomek Nowakowski. Dave Beddall was the Monarch who missed out this week, going down to Generations’ Hakan Karaagac over 4 games. Ben Rolfe and Div 1 sub Fabrice Spelta completed the Generations’ side this time.
Just for a change here, no Div 1 subs involved in the last match which saw a 9-1 win for Greenleys Warriors over bottom side MK Phoenix. Hat-tricks for Ricky Taiwo and Darren Ward with a brace from Shrishlal Basant Rai, who lost out to Ioan Constantin. Phoenix’ Mervyn Phillips and Gerald Ridgway completed the singles line-up but in addition Alan Bolding came in for the doubles only in his own first outing of the season.
Player of the week : Alan Cherry.
DIVISION 1
SHARKS BITE PUMAS
Biggest win of the week came from high flying MK Sharks with an 8-2 win over club-mates Pumas, which propels them up to 2nd spot. Sarah Hudson seems unstoppable at the moment with another hat-trick here, seeing off Julie Snowdon Chris Belton and Adam Snowdon , as did Rupert Greyling. The Pumas wins were supplied by Julie and Chris at the expense of Abhay Tijare. 8 of the sets went to a 4th game though, but none to a decider.
Top dogs MK Topspin took on Open University Primes, who were on a great run of form themselves with four consecutive victories behind them. But tough nuts Topspin came through with a 6-4 win thanks to a terrific performance from Div 2 sub Kareem Omar in picking up 2 crucial wins. Mervyn Kelly also bagged a brace, Russell Penn one plus the vital doubles with Mervyn. For Primes, Ning He and Andy Tan picked up a brace a-piece, leaving Patrick Wong winless. Several close contests though with Andy both winning and losing deuce in the 5th battles.
The two promoted sides, Chackmore Hasbeens and Greenleys Princes, met for the first time this season in another close encounter. Bub Burman was in good form to see his Hasbeens side home 6-4 with his own hat-trick and share of the doubles with Andy Whitehead, who grabbed a single, as did Sam Willett. Saravana Kumar and William Egbuna scores a brace each for bottom of the table Princes, leaving last week’s hat-trick hero Gary Viner winless this time round.
The Friday match at Wing was a local derby, pitching the two Leighton Buzzard teams against each other. The Avengers came away with the bragging rights after a 7-3 win but for Van Hire’s Mateusz Browarnik the match proved a personal triumph with tremendous wins over Alex Du Noyer, Richard Hardy and Cristi Hulpan. Lee Draper and Andy Fiske were the other Van men on duty.
Player of the week : Mateusz Browarnik