Division 2 Roundup - Week 16+ (Cup R3)

Published 13/02/2024 at 22:49:29 by Martin Johnson; edited 3 times, last on 14/02/2024 at 10:50:11 by Martin Johnson.

The final week of the Group matches in the Handicap Challenge Cup took place last week, with two Division 2 teams already qualified, whilst another three were still in contention going into their final Group matches.

Milton Keynes Powers were already qualified as one of the top two in their Group, but faced D1's Milton Keynes Pumas to see who would top the Group, and it was Powers who edged through by 12 points, so qualifying top of Group 14.

Mursley Hawks, due to their points advantage, had the luxury that they could even have lost by a few points, and still qualified, or even topped the Group, but left things in no doubt as they scored a 69 point win over Greenleys Vanquish in their final Group 10 match, to comfortably top their Group.

Newport Pagnell Lagondas needed to win their final Group 9 match, but came unstuck by a big 117 point margin against D1's Leighton Buzzard Van Hire, to scupper their hopes of making the knockout stages.

Greenleys Valiants were in a fairly similar position to Lagondas in Group 12, but had to play Group leaders, Milton Keynes Cavaliers, and they needed to do better than Chackmore Hasbeens, to go through second in the Group.  Unfortunately, they lost out to Cavaliers by a big 129 point margin, whilst in any case Hasbeens won (by an even bigger margin of 151 points), all of which meant that Valiants finished third in their Group and thus did not qualify.

For completeness, although not playing in the third Group week, Milton Keynes Pioneers had already won Group 11 by a good margin, but both Greenleys Sultans of Spin (Group 14) and Leighton Buzzard Spitfires (Group 13) were already eliminated.

So, in summary, three of the seven D2 teams competing made it through the Group stages, and into the last 32 (knockout stages) - Pioneers, Powers and Hawks - with all three remaining unbeaten and topping their Groups.  The draw for the next round sees the three teams having very different level opponents.  Pioneers face Greenleys Knights from D5, Powers take on Leighton Buzzard Globetrotters from D7, whilst Hawks play Milton Keynes Pumas from D1.

League action resumes this week, with leaders Hawks taking on Lagondas (4th), Pioneers (6th) and Powers (5th) hosting Valiants (8th) and Mosquitoes (3rd), respectively, with the final fixture being second-placed Spitfires against seventh-placed Sultans of Spin.  With just five weeks of League matches to go, it very much appears to be two from the top three (Hawks, Spitfires & Mosquitoes) battling for the two promotion spots, whilst it is also looking like two from the bottom three (Pioneers, Sultans of Spin & Valiants) to finish in the two relegation spots, but with just two points separating these three teams at this stage, this battle could go down to the wire.