Division 1 round-up - Week 5
MK Topspin and Greenleys Princes started their match level on points. After a hard-fought match, Topspin secured a 6-4 win. A 4th maximum in as many matches from Michael Benson formed the foundation for the win, and Michael teamed up with Mervyn Kelly to beat Ricky Jackson and Anand Keshav in the doubles. Mervyn lost to Ricky and Saravana Kumar but beat Anand in 5 games. Mal Hussain also beat Anand, who ended the evening without a win, but lost to the other two visitors. For the Princes, Ricky beat Mervyn in the evening’s opening set and then beat Mal in a 5-game set, while Saravana beat both Mal and Mervyn.
Chackmore Hasbeens, in 2nd place, were at home to the division’s leaders MK Phoenix, who benefitted from Ioan Constantin’s 4th consecutive treble. The visitors didn’t have things all their way, as Bub Burman beat both Alan Bolding and Gerald Ridgway, Barry Hammond beat Gerald and Andy Whitehead beat Alan. Ioan and Alan inflicted a first doubles defeat of the season on Bub and Andy, Gerald fought back from 1-2 to beat Andy in the 5th game and Alan beat Barry in set 9 to secure the win. Phoenix now have a 14- point lead over the Hasbeens.
Greenleys Crusaders had a strong 8-2 win over Leighton Buzzard Avengers, which moves them into 3rd place, just a point behind the Hasbeens. Sanav Sethi led the way for the Crusaders with a maximum against Richard Hardy, Steve Jordan and Andy King. Micky Shun Hang Lung for the home team lost the first set of the night to Richard but scored wins against the other two Avengers. Yevhenil Bohrieiev for the Crusaders had a busy night, beating Steve and Richard, as he was also drafted to fill a vacant spot in the Premier match on a neighbouring table. With Micky and Sanav beating Richard and Steve in the doubles, the result means that the visitors drop to 6th in the division.
The remaining match was between MK Pumas and MK Sharks. Despite extreme effort by the Pumas team of Andy Smith, Adam Snowdon and Julie Snowdon, they couldn’t prevent a maximum from Andy Pearson of the Sharks although he took 14 games in those 3 sets to achieve the feat. Julie beat the other Sharks, Rupert Greyling and Derick Rodrigues, while Andy S won the final set of the night, against Derick. For the Sharks, Rupert beat Adam and Andy S and Derick beat Adam. Andy P and Rupert had earlier won the doubles against Adam and Julie. The result means that the Sharks move up to 4th, on 24 points, while the Pumas stay in 8th place, still looking for their first win of the season.
Team of the Week: Greenleys Crusdaers
Player of the week: Sanav Sethi