PREMIER ROUND-UP WEEK 15
CRAIG RESCUES CHAMPS IN THRILLER
Greenleys Warriors took the opportunity of playing off their outstanding home fixture with MK Titans at the MKTTC venue during the winter break in what proved to be the latest contender for 'match of the season', losing out 6-4 n a cracking contest against the league leaders on a cold January night last week. Titans' hero was Craig Brown with a stunning hat-trick that included a pulsating 15-13, 9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 15-13 victory to inflict a first League defeat for Warrior star man Andras Bayer and partnering Nick Howard to a vital doubles win. Nick and Ricky Taiwo picked up the remaining points with victories over Darren Ward, leaving Warriors' Adrian Piotrowski with a decent brace himself over the champions.
In their scheduled match for this week Warriors turned out with just 2 players again against MK Topspin (that's twice now and a particular ‘pet hate’ of mine when enacted by the ‘big’ clubs). Nevertheless it gave the Topspinners a good chance of closing the gap, considerable though it is, on their 6th placed opponents just above them. But it was not to be as Warriors ground out a draw when taking 5 of the 7 sets played on the table. Good wins by Jiten Pitamber and Mervyn Kelly over Shrishlal Basant Rai gave Topspin a share of the points, although beating Adrian P. proved to be a step too far. Russell Penn was the other Topspinner in action.
Meanwhile MK Spinners were keeping a firm grip on 2nd spot in the table with a comprehensive 8-2 victory over Greenleys Glory with hat-tricks from Alan Cherry and Jecu Aurelian plus a brace by Adebola Odetayo. For the Glory boys, just the solitary singles win this week from Ian Mead when beating Ade but a good doubles success for Ian with Jacob Midson to end a 10 match winning streak by the formidable Cherry/Aurelian combo. Div 2 sub Anand Keshav made up the numbers the Glory team.
Finally, a rare away win for Leighton Buzzard Generations on their visit to bottom of the table Open University Primes, and a whitewash win at that to start the new year in fine style! Hat-tricks all round for Tim Cheek, Alex Du Noyer and Ming Fuk Liu while blanks for Ning He, Andy Tan and Patrick Wong.
The Greenleys Monarchs / MK Titans clash due this week has been postponed.
Player of the week : Craig Brown