PREMIER & DIV 1 ROUND UP WEEK 8
Published 13/11/2023 at 14:31:28 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER
UNBEATEN BROWN BOOSTS TITANS
Another strong week for the top sides with the big boys winning comfortably against the bottom half teams.
The main focus of interest was at the MK centre on Wednesday and the rematch between chief Titan Craig Brown and Greenleys Glory strong man Ian Mead, with Craig coming through again in a tough 5-game encounter to preserve his valued 100% singles record. An 8-2 Titans win saw half the sets going the distance with the League leaders winning all but one of them, an Ian Mead success against Guy Sparrow. Ian also took the other Glory point when beating Nick Howard. Regulars Jacob Midson and Ian Brown made up the Glory side. That’s 21 on the bounce now for Craig, but still a way to go to surpass another long winning run by team-mate Guy some years back.
2nd placed MK Spinners, now at full strength again, saw off Leighton Buzzard Generations by the same score. A great match for Generations’ Hakan Karaagac though, with deciding game wins over Gary Jones and Jecu Aurelian. Div 1 subs Bernie Raffe and Matuusz Browarnik made up the Generations team. Usual max for Alan Cherry.
It was a familiar score-line for bottom side MK Phoenix as they went down 10-0 to 3rd placed Greenleys Monarchs. Maximums here for Tomek Nowakowski, Dave Beddall and Martin Hall. Zeros for Mervyn Phillips, Gerald Ridgway and Ioan Constantin.
Another MK team struggling are former champions Sasaki, losing 9-1 to Greenleys Warriors, the whitewash avoided by a William Kit Liang victory over Ameya Phatak. Hat-tricks for Darren Ward and Ricky Taiwo whilst Minesh Pitamber and Noah Levens were the other Sasaki players. Unfortunately 15 year old Noah has to leave the match at 9.30 p.m. and just played a nominal point in his last set of the night.
Hopefully next week’s fixtures will provide more competitive matches for everyone concerned. Certainly the Monarchs/Spinners clash looks to be the pick of the bunch.
Player of the week : Hakan Karaagac
DIVISION 1
LAST UNBEATEN TEAM GOES WEST
A busy few days for Leighton Buzzard Van Hire and Chackmore Hasbeens as they both played twice after bringing forward their fixture against each other scheduled for next week. Van Hire brought in Iko Jacob for the match and he was instrumental in seeing his side home to a 6-4 success with a hat-trick. The only previous match Iko had played this season has been against Hasbeens too! Fabrice Spelta (2) and Dave Broome (1) completed the Van men’s scoring. Bub Burman got a brace for Chackmore, Sam Willett one and the Bub/Andy duo took their customary doubles success.
Mixed fortunes though in their scheduled matches for the week as Hasbeens ended the unbeaten run of League leaders MK Topspin with a 6-4 win of their own while Van Hire crashed 9-1 to bottom side Greenleys Princes. The Princes gave a debut to Mayuresh Gokhale, who looks a sparkling prospect with 3 straight-game wins here. Regulars Saravana Kumar and Gary Viner made up the Princes team with Gary losing to Andy Fiske. Sophie Storey and Div 4 sub Jimmy Marshall were the other Van Hire players.
While Van Hire had changed their team completely Chackmore kept faith with the same side and were duly rewarded with their best result of the season when beating Topspin. Bub (2), Sam (2), Andy (1) plus the doubles secured the victory. For Topspin the points came courtesy of Russell Penn (2), Mervyn Kelly (1) and myself (1).
2nd placed MK Sharks were unable to take advantage as they themselves lost 6-4 to Open University Primes. Patrick Wong was the Primes’ hero with a splendid hat-trick (following on from his blank last week against Topspin!)). Ning He (2) and Andy Tan (1) were his side’s other scorers. Derick Rodrigues hit a brace for Sharks and Rupert Greyling one, plus the doubles together. Div 2 sub Paul Tompkins was the third Shark.
In the last match, a 2-man MK Pumas side lost out to Leighton Buzzard Avengers 8-2 with Andy Smith beating Cristi Hulpan and Bernie Raffe. Alex Du Noyer remaining unbeaten for the Avengers while Chris Belton was the other Puma.
Player of the week : Patrick Wong