PREMIER / DIV 1 ROUND-UP WEEK 21 AND FINAL
Published 01/04/2024 at 14:12:06 by David Wackrill.
PREMIER TITANS TITLE TRIUMPH
Congratulations to MK Titans on winning the Premiership at the first attempt. Last year Nick Howard, Guy Sparrow and Craig Brown were the leading lights for now disbanded 2023 champions Greenleys Kings, but a wind of change in the Summer blew the likely lads trio across the A509 to Kingston. It may have been a change of club and a change of team but it was the same old drive and determination as before which propelled them to another deserved title triumph.
Depending on results elsewhere the Titans needed just 3 points to guarantee success and they wasted no time in acquiring them as they raced to a 10-0 victory over club-mates Sasaki. Usual maximums for the Titan trio while Sasaki, a beleaguered team this year with multiple personnel problems, were represented by Michael Wilkins, William Kit Liang and Div 1 sub Abhay Tijare. Sasaki finish 7th.
Championship hopefuls Greenleys Monarchs needed a big result and a lot of luck to overcome Titans but got neither as they struggled to a 6-4 win over Leighton Buzzard Generations. Maximums here for Tomek Nowakowski and Dave Tiplady while Dave Beddall failed to score. A win a-piece for Generations’ Hakan Karaagac, Tim Cheek and Div 1 sub Alex Du Noyer. While the Monarchs finish as runners-up by 7 points, Generations finish 6th.
MK Spinners played out a shortened match with Greenleys Glory as, unfortunately, both teams were missing a third player on the night. Spinners won 3-2 (the un-played sets do not count) with wins from Alan Cherry (2) and Jecu Aurelian (1). Glory were represented by Alex Mead (1 win) and Jacob Midson, who together pulled off a win in the doubles. Alan Cherry remained the only player in the Division to represent his own team in every match this season and topped the individual averages by a huge margin. Spinners finish 3rd while Glory, only promoted last season. finish a very respectable with 5th.
In the final match played this week Greenleys Warriors beat MK Phoenix 7-3 with hat-tricks posted by Ricky Taiwo and Darren Ward who also took the doubles between them. Warriors brought in Div 2 sub Lewis Copp for this one, beaten on the night by Ioan Constantin, Gerald Ridgway and Ivor Howard, Ivor’s last set played giving him his only win this season. Warriors finish 4th and Phoenix rock bottom.
Their is one remaining fixture to complete the season Generations still to play Warriors but this will not affect the league positions.
Player of the season : Alan Cherry
DIVISION 1
TOPSPIN DULY DELIVER MK CLUB DOUBLE
bMK Topspin made it a title winning club double on Wednesday and comparisons with our Premier champions Titan pals are just too hard to resist. Playing on adjacent tables both teams needed just a handful of points on the night (3 for Titans, 4 for Topspin) to ensure the capture of their respective titles and both goals were achieved in the opening exchanges (Titans went 3-0 up, Topspin went 4-1 up). It’s been a rocky road for Topspin to travel, despite leading the table since October 4th, Topspin were pushed all the way to the line by this week’s final opponents Open University Primes. Fortunately, Russell Penn and Jit Pitamber brought their best form along to post hat-tricks (Russell’s first in 2024) in a 7-3 victory over the 2nd placed team, with one win for Mervyn Kelly. Primes sets came from Andy Tan (1), Patrick Wong (1) and the doubles. James Zeng also played.
Hats off to the Fixture Secretary for ‘arranging’ such a close finish to decide 6 of the places in this Division, as not only were the top pair in opposition, but also those in 4th/5th and 6th/7th spots – and in every instance all of the lower placed teams had the opportunity to leap-frog their opponents with a sound victory for themselves (though none did!).
There were club derbies too, both at MK and Wing. At MK the Sharks sealed 4th spot when beating Pumas 6-4. Wins here for Derick Rodrigues (2), Rupert Greyling (2) and Abhay Tijare (1) for Sharks and Andy Smith (3) and Adam Snowdon (1) for Pumas. Chris Belton also played. While on Good Friday over at the Leighton Buzzard club Avengers held off Van Hire for 6th position with a draw. Avengers sets were provided by Alex Du Noyer (2), Cristi Hulpan (2) and Richard Hardy (1). Van Hire winners were Fabrice Spelta (3) and Dave Broome (1). Andy Fiske also played.
The remaining fixture saw last year’s promoted teams from Division 2 in conflict and was a fair reflection of their contrasting fortunes. High flying Chackmore Hasbeens beat bottom side Greenleys Princes 8-2 to finish in 3rd place with hat-tricks from Bub Burman and Sam Willett, plus one from Andy Whitehead and their mandatory doubles success. Bub was the only player in the Division to represent his team in every match, weel done. Princes scorers were Saravana Kumar (1) and Mayuresh Gokhale (1). Gary Viner also played.
Player of the week : (title winning skipper) Russell Penn