PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 15
Published 22/01/2024 at 13:28:25 by David Wackrill.
PREMIERTITANS BOUNCE BACK TO BEAT GLORY BOYS
After a rare defeat last time out MK Titans returned to winning ways this week with a hard fought victory over Greenleys Glory to regain the leadership of the Division. Skipper Nick Howard stepped up to the mark to notch good hat-trick in a 7-3 win and take the doubles with Matthew Horrocks in a close 11-9 in the 5th encounter. Matthew was in fine form in his singles too, hitting a brace. Ian Mead replied with a brace of his own for Glory with Ian Brown notching up a win over Guy Sparrow, Zero for Jacob Midson on this occasion. The 3 sets to go the distance all fell to the League front-runners.
MK Spinners, now down to second spot, played out a draw at Leighton Buzzard Generations. Usual hat-trick from Alan Cherry and a brace this time from Jecu Aurelian. Zero for Gary Jones against the Hakan Karaagac, Tim Cheek and Ben Rolfe trio. Hakan picked up the other single success for Generations and shared an 11-9 in the 5th game doubles win with Ben.
Greenleys Monarchs, still handily placed with 2 games in hand, closed the gap at the top following a 9-1 victory over bottom placed MK Phoenix. The one set to elude them was a Mervyn Phillips success against Dave Beddall. Hat-tricks here for Martin Hall and Alex Meade. Zeros for Gerald Ridgway and Div 1 sub Ruoert Greyling. This was the 25th time this season that a lower div sub has ‘played up’ in the top flight. That’s a lot of substitutions already used for this time of year.
Only 3 matches this week as beleaguered MK Sasaki conceded against Greenleys Warriors. For the League table that converts to a 7-0 result for Warriors.
Player of the week : Nick Howard
DIVISION 1
TOP DOGS BROUGHT TO HEEL
Wow, what a busy week to kick off the New Year! A quartet of close 6-4 results, the top two teams both beaten and a new name at the helm in the individual averages.
My top of the table MK Topspin side crashed to a third defeat in a row when losing to Chackmore Hasbeens, whose Bub Burman was in irresistible form with a hat-trick and his customary doubles success with Andy Whitehead. Single wins from Andy and Sam Willett were all that was needed to get the Hasbeens over the line. Jit Pitamber got a couple for Topspin and Russell Penn and myself one each.
This latest Topspin tumble left the door wide open for title chasers Open University Primes to cash in and claim top spot as they only needed a draw in their match with MK Sharks. And they were more than halfway there too when racing into a 3-0 lead following the opening exchanges, but were thwarted by a fantastic comeback by the Sharks trio of Rupert Greyling (2 wins), Sarah Hudson (2) and Derick Rodrigues (1) plus the doubles. It went to the wire, of course, and in the final set Patrick Wong stood at 10-10 in the deciding 5th game with Sarah, just 2 points away from taking Primes to the top, before succumbing. The win would also have given Patrick a hat-trick, but he had to settle for a brace with team-mates Andy Tan and James Zeng one each.
Both the other matches concerned the teams in the bottom half of the table. 5th placed Leighton Buzzard Avengers consolidated their position over 6th placed MK Pumas with their 6-4 win, and likewise for L.B. team-mates Van Hire over bottom side Greenleys Princes.
The first of these matches brought together the current front runners in the individual averages, Andy Smith for Pumas and Alex Du Noyer for Avengers, with a deciding 5th game needed before Alex won to clinch both a hat-trick on the night and take over top spot from Andy. Avengers other sets came from Bernie Raffe (2) and Steve Jordan (1). Chris Belton picked up a single for Pumas and won the doubles with Andy. Adam Snowdon also played.
Fabrice Spelta scored a maximum in Van Hire’s win, with Mateusz Browarnik (2) and Iko Jacob (1). Princes’ Mayuresh Gokhale hit a brace with one from Saravana Kumar. Sash Prabhu remained winless but In the final set led Fabrice by 2 games and only lost the 3rd at deuce before losing in 5 games.
Player of the week : Bub Burman