Division 2 Roundup - Conclusion / Top Eight

Promotion Places Confirmed / Top Eight Results / Cup Defeats

Another season has ended, and the final League match confirmed the Division 2 Runners-Up, whilst the Top Eight event saw the top eight individuals (who were available) play a knock-out event to determine the season's Top Eight winner and runner-up.  The final two Division 2 teams left in the Challenge Cup both went down to defeat in the quarter-finals, as they were unable to overcome the handicaps, with Little Horwood Wooden Tops losing by 38 points against Division 1's Milton Keynes Topspin, despite having a 110 point start, whilst Mursley Hawks faced a 250 point handicap against Division 6's Great Brickhill Badgers, and lost out by 12 points.

The one outstanding League match saw fifth-placed Mursley Hawks take on second-placed Leighton Buzzard Van Hire.  Contrary to my “Week 21” Report, Van Hire had actually clinched runners-up spot the week before, as even a 0-10 defeat would see them stay ahead of Little Horwood Wooden Tops, based on more wins.  However, they soon made that irrelevant, as in set 1, Van Hire's Cristi Hulpan inflicted a rare singles defeat on Mark Dixon at 13-11 in the decider, and Van Hire moved 3-0 ahead, before Mark & Ian Spanswick got one back for Hawks in the doubles against Cristi and doubles specialist, Bernie Raffe.  Although Mark won his other two singles, that was all that Hawks could muster, as Cristi completed his treble of singles win, backed up by two wins apiece for Donnie McDonald and Nathan Fry, whilst neither Ian nor David Bartlett were able to grab a win, and Donnie almost made it 8-2, instead of the final 7-3 result, as he pushed Mark to 11-9 in the decider.  The result saw Van Hire clear in second place by seven points ahead of Wooden Tops, though some 25 points behind Greenleys Princes.  Hawks overtook Woburn Sands Mosquitoes for fourth place by one point, leaving Open University Shockwaves in sixth and Milton Keynes Cavaliers in seventh, in what has been a very competitive Division, with Princes' consistency and strength in depth proving to be the main difference.

The Division 2 Top Eight took place on Monday 14th April, and with three of the actual top eight in the Averages unable to play (James Molloy, Rob McPheat and Cristi Hulpan), meant the players in positions 9, 10 and 11 got a chance.  The players were divided into two groups of four players each, with the top two from each group going on to semi-finals.  Group 1 saw Mark Dixon (seeded 1) take on Anand Keshav (4), Saravana Kumar (5) and Bill Higgins (7), whilst in Group 2, it was Ricky Jackson (2) playing Paul Reynolds (3), Charity Wong (6) and Donnie McDonald (8).

Mark headed a tight Group 1, winning his three sets, although he was pushed very close by Anand, who just lost out 11-9 in the decider, having lead 2-1 in legs.  Bill picked up two good wins against Anand and Saravana in straight games, to place second in the group, whilst the inter-Princes battle saw Saravana edge past Anand for third and fourth spots.

Group 2 also saw an outright winner as Ricky won all three of his matches, being pushed closest by Paul, who took him to 11-9 in leg four.  The three others each won one set, to leave a three-way tie, as Paul beat Charity, Charity beat Donnie and Donnie beat Paul.  Ironically, Paul had already left early, thinking he was out after winning just once, but on countback it turned out he was second on games difference, ahead of Charity and then Donnie!  Luckily, Paul had not got far and was called back for the semi-final.

The two semi-finals again saw the top two seeds go through, with Ricky beating Bill in four games and Mark doing likewise against Paul.  The final was yet another close set, as were most on the night, but it was Mark who justified his top seeding with a narrow four games win over Ricky.  Well done to all for getting into the Top Eight in the first place, and by all accounts it was a very competitive evening, with the Final being the last match of the night, with the Premiewr and Division 1 Top Eights having already completed earlier.

Player of the Season : Mark Dixon.
Team of the Season : Greenleys Princes.