PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 14 PLUS
Published 15/01/2024 at 14:14:26 by David Wackrill; edited 2 times, last on 17/01/2024 at 13:31:02 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERTITANS TOPPLED AT LONG LAST
Two of the postponed matches were played off during the winter break, both providing tight finishes. This still leaves 4 matches outstanding though.
Leaders MK Titans were beaten for the first time this season, losing 6-4 to close rivals Greenleys Monarchs, which keeps the title race nicely wide open. Alex Meade was the star of the night with a sparkling hat-trick in this one and Tomek Nowakowski chipped in with a brace, just missing out on a treble himself when losing 12-10 in the 5th to Titan skipper Nick Howard. Dave Beddall was winless in singles but paired up with Tomek to take the vital doubles set. Titan Nick was in good form with a decent brace of victories for his side and Craig Brown and Guy Sparrow had wins over Dave. The result leaves Titans just 2 points clear of MK Spinners, but still with a game in hand. Monarchs are 11 points further behind but with 2 matches outstanding.
A fascinating aside to Titans visit to Greenleys school on that fateful night was that they were in exceptonally good company when it came to Milton Keynes League teams losing 'for the first time this season' as they were joined by Division 5's Mursley Strikers in tasting their first defeat of the season (albeit in a Cup match!!). Furthermore, unbeaten Mursley Hawks from Div 2 were also scheduled to play in the Cup at Greenleys that night but their opponents did not turn up.
The other match finished all square between MK Sasaki and Greenleys Warriors. 7th placed Sasaki lost 9-1 to mid-table Warriors first time round so put on a much better showing this time. Clare Styles continued her impressive form this season, securing the draw in the last set when beating Ameya Phatak over 5 games for her 2nd win of the night . Michael Wilkins also got a brace and together they won the doubles. Minesh Pitamber also played. Ameya bagged a brace himself for Warriors, as did Ricky Taiwo with Div 1 sub Saish Prabhu beating Minesh.
We kick off again with the last round of (7) matches beginning this week and yet another meeting between Sasaki and Warriors.
DIVISION 1
VAN HIRE CLIMB OFF THE BOTTOM
Leighton Buzzard Van Hire, a Premier outfit last term, used the Christmas break to play off their two outstanding fixtures, both of which were against fellow relegation strugglers.
First off was a 7-3 win over Greenleys Princes which took the Van men off the bottom rung at the expense of their opponents. Iko Jacob hit a useful hat-trick here with Mateusz Browarnik chipping in with a brace and Dave Broome one. For the Princes, Mayuresh Gokhale replied with a brace of his own and Saish Prabhu one. Gary Viner also played. But Princes were close to a draw with two of the Van Hire winning sets going to deuce in the 5th. Another interesting feature here, at least to me, was a meeting between the two players with the longest names in the Division (sharing 31 letters between them). Now we just need Iko to play against Open University Primes’ Ning He next month for a clash between the players with the shortest names in this Division!
Next up came Milton Keyes Pumas, also a recent Premier side, where another big win would take the Van men clear of the relegation zone. But it was not to be as the Pumas put on a united front to thwart Van Hire’s ambitions and run out 7-3 victors themselves with 2 wins each from Andy Smith, Adam Snowdon and Chris Belton plus a rare doubles win. Andy S. extended his own personal winning streak to 14 sets when beating Andy Fiske but his record run fell at the next attempt when losing to Fabrice Spelta. Fabrice also beat Adam for a handy double with Andy F. taking the other Van Hire set. Sarah Story also played.
In one respect these matches were a mirror image of each other in that Van Hire lost two sets at deuce in the 5th themselves the second time around in a match that otherwise might have been a draw. But on such fine margins are promotion and relegation issues so often settled though.
So, all to play for as we start the final round of matches with, coincidentally, Van Hire due to play Princes yet again. It’s tight at the bottom but even tighter at the top where, incidentally, the leading pair, Topspin and Primes. are the only teams to have won more than half their matches!