Division 2 Roundup - Week 15 (+ Cup R1)

Hawks Flying High

The first week of League matches of the New Year saw Mursley Hawks lose the leadership of Division 2, but then regain it, whilst Milton Keynes Pioneers pulled themselves off the bottom of the table.  However, the biggest win of the week went to Newport Pagnell Lagondas.

Leighton Buzzard Spitfires, who have lead the Division for many weeks, but lost that lead just after New Year when losing out to Mursley Hawks, had the chance to get themselves back into strong title contention with a match against fifth-placed Milton Keynes Powers, whilst Hawks had a tough fixture versus third-placed Woburn Sands Mosquitoes.  Powers had not read the script, though, and in a hard-fought encounter in which four of the first five sets went to a fifth leg, handed Spitfires a third defeat in four matches, with Powers continuing their recent good form with a 7-3 win.  Individual honours went to Andy Pearson with his three singles wins, and he was well backed-up by both Keith Carrington and reserve, Chris Welch, with two wins each.  Graham Silversides was the mainstay for Spitfires, with two wins and pushed Andy to five games, plus he and Filip Simek snatched the doubles 14-12 in the decider from Andy and Keith, whilst Syed Ali took Chris to five games, but could not convert in the decider.  The three points were enough to put Spitfires top again by a point (for a day), whilst Powers remain fifth, but edged closer to the top three.

Unbeaten Mursley Hawks took on third-placed Woburn Sands Mosquitoes the next night, in a match that also featured the top two players in the Averages.  Mosquitoes went 1-0 up as James Molloy came through in four games against Martin Johnson, but Hawks hit back with the next four sets, as Mick O'Mahony beat Glen Barcham and Ian Spanswick outlasted Andy Jenkins in five.  Mick and Martin made it 15 doubles wins from 15 for Hawks, in beating James and Glen, and then Martin came back from 2-0 down to Glen, to snatch it in the decider.  Sets largely went to form after that, although Andy almost staged a great fightback against Martin from 2-0 down, but Martin just grabbed a close fifth leg.  Cue the big singles encounter, with Mick against James, with James the only player to have beaten Mick this season.  It looked like Mick might get the win this time, but from 2-0 down, James turned up the power to take it in five legs in a very high-quality set, to complete a clean sweep of singles wins against Hawks.  The final score of 6-4 to Hawks moved them back top of the table, now with a five-point cushion over Spitfires, and 11 points clear of third place, and it was also their ninth win in a row, after four draws in their first six matches.  It leaves them as one of just two unbeaten teams in the League, along with Mursley Strikers in Division 5.  Mosquitoes stay third, and have edged to with six points of second-placed Spitfires.

Fourth-placed Newport Lagondas scored the biggest win of the week, and their third big win in a row, with a 9-1 scoreline against seventh-placed Greenleys Valiants, in a closer match than the final score suggests.  Four sets went the distance, with another five going to four legs, and nine legs going to deuce, in a match of almost 800 points.  Tony Ardis and Glen Davison were the only players to score a maximum in the Division, this week, as they each won their three singles, and combined to take the doubles against Peter Carr and Slava Volokha (the only player in the Division to have played every match for this team).  The consolation set came when reserve Orrin Edwards took a close deciding leg against Chris Horn, whilst Chris was also taken to five by Peter, but this time just nicked it 12-10.  Lagondas have now moved to within four points of third place, but the loss for Valiants. combined with other results, has dropped them to the bottom of the table, three points behind the two joint sixth-placed teams.

The final match of the week was between sixth-placed Greenleys Sultans of Spin and eighth-placed Milton Keynes Pioneers.  Pioneers seem to excel against Sultans of Spin, as their only previous win this season was against them, and they repeated the dose this week, scoring a 7-3 victory.  Kareem Omar scored a treble for Pioneers, backed up by two wins each for Andy Frearson and Terry Lau.  Ricky Jackson and Daniel Carter each won one singles for the Sultans, plus they also combined to take the doubles against Andy and Terry, leaving Robert Anderson without a win on the night, despite taking Terry close in five.  The win pulled Pioneers off the bottom of table, to sixth place, jointly with Sultans of Spin, condemning Valiants to the bottom of the table by three points.

Last week was the first round of the Knockout Cup, but it was largely unsuccessful for Division 2 teams.  With Mosquitoes not entering the Cup, the remaining seven teams were due to play their first round Cup matches, although three teams (Hawks, Pioneers and Powers) ended up with walkovers, as their opponents pulled out.  The four teams that did play all lost, however, with Spitfires going the closest as they lost out by just three points against OU Primes from D1.  Elsewhere, two more teams lost out to D1 opponents, as Valiants went down by 14 points to Chackmore Hasbeens and Sultans of Spin lost out by just six points against MK Pumas.  Lagondas faced D3 opponents, but also lost out, by 40 points to Greenleys Moghuls.

Next week is the second round of the Cup, so it will need some good performances to maintain a good D2 presence into the knockout rounds of the Cup.

The following week, it's back to League action, with the top two teams each taking on a team in a run of form, as Hawks take on Powers, whilst Spitfires face Lagondas.  In the other two matches, Pioneers will take on Mosquitoes, leaving a 'basement battle' between Valiants and Sultans of Spin.

Player(s) of the Week : James Molloy and Andy Pearson

 
 

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