PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 18
Published 26/02/2024 at 16:36:25 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER
THE I’S HAVE IT AS THREE IANS GLORY IN GREENLEYS WIN
It’s happened at last! For the very first time Greenleys Glory paraded their all Ian team. and to good effect too as they wrapped up an 8-2 win to sent opponents MK Phoenix tumbling out of the Premier, the first side to be demoted this season. Congratulations to Ian Mead, with yet another hat-trick to add to his tally, Ian Brown (2 wins) and Iain Lindsay (2). Commiserations to Phoenix’ Ioan Constantin (2 wins), Mervyn Phillips and Div 1 sub Abhay Tijare.
MK Sasaki look to be the most likely team to join Phoenix in Div 1 next season. They were beaten 6-4 this week by Leighton Buzzard Generations in a match where all players lodged one or two wins. Generations’ Tim Cheek and Hakan Karaagac (2 each plus the doubles) with Div 1 sub Iko Jacob chipping in with one. Michael Wilkins responded with a brace for Sasaki with Minesh Pitamber and Clare Styles one a-piece. Notably, Minesh lost to Iko after beating Hakan.
At the top end of the table, results favoured League leaders MK Titans, who saw off a tough challenge from 3rd placed MK Spinners 6-4 while the Greenleys derby featuring 2nd placed Monarchs and mid-table Warriors ended all square.
Craig Brown was the chief Titan with a splendid hat-trick and a deuce in the 5th doubles success Nick Howard. Singles wins by Nick and Guy Sparrow swung a tight match in their favour. Only a brace this time for ace defender Alan Cherry with one each from Jecu Aurelian (beat Guy) and Gary Jones (beat Nick).
Meanwhile, over at Greenleys, Warriors were holding Monarchs to a draw. Both sides drafted in Div 1 substitutes from bottom of the table Princes who were playing their own scheduled League match on an adjacent table, Saravana Kumar for Warriors and Saish Prabhu for Monarchs. Although Saish lost that team-mate encounter, he did manage to beat Warriors’ Ameya Phatak, so both ‘reserves’ went home happy with a win each on the night. A great hat-trick here for Warriors Darren Ward with Ameya still contributing a singles win in the match, thus enabling Warriors to share the points. Monarchs other victories came from Tomek Nowakowski (2) and Martin Hall plus the doubles.
Player of the week : Craig Brown
DIVISION 1
BUSY TIMES FOR PRINCES
As stated above the Princes players were kept busy on Wednesday night at Greenleys with 4 of their 6-man squad involved in 2 matches on adjacent tables. While Saravana Kumar and Saish Prabhu were in opposition as subs in a Premier derby match, Saravana was also joined by John Stamp and Gary Viner as bottom placed Princes hosted table toppers MK Topspin. Princes went down 8-2 with John claiming good scalps when taking out Russell Penn and Mervyn Kelly, both in 5 games. Hat-trick here for Jit Pitamber. Sweet Consolation for Saravana though, as he triumphed over Saish in their Premiership clash!
Topspin's title challengers Open University Primes fared less well when dropping 4 sets to the other relegation strugglers, Leighton Buzzard Van Hire. Fabrice Spelta and Mateusz Browarnik bagged a brace a-piece for the Van men as did Andy Tan and James Zeng for Primes, who also took the doubles and added a singles from Patrick Wong. Dave Broome was the other Van man.
MK Pumas are pulling themselves out of demotion danger and this week posted one of best results of the year when beating high flying Chackmore Hasbeens 7-3. Hat-trick here for Andy Smith with support from Chris Belton (2 wins) and Adam Snowdon (1) plus an impressive doubles win from former League Championship doubles semi-finalists Andy & Chris. Hasbeens replied with a Bub Burman brace and a single from Sam Willett. Andy Whitehead was the other Hasbeen.
In the remaining match MK Sharks beat Leighton Buzzard Avengers 6-4 despite Avengers star man Alex Du Noyer hitting his customary hat-trick. But Avengers could only add one more set to their total with a Steve Jordan win over Abhay Tijare. Richard Hardy was the third Avenger and Sarah Hudson (2 wins) and Derick Rodrigues (1) completed the Sharks line-up.
Player of the week : Alex Du Noyer