PREMIER DIV

MK Spinners are running away with the title at the moment and although Gary Jones had an indifferent night at Greenleys Kings this week, team-mates Tim Cheek and Jecu Aurelian were in splendid form to see Spinners to an 8-2 victory, Jecu conceding just 49 points in his straight game wins.  Besides losing to Iain Lindsay and Guy Sparrow, Gary was 2 games down to Jordan Moss before scraping home by two point margins in each of the last 3 games.

Potential challengers Greenleys Monarchs mirrored Spinners result with a good 8-2 victory themselves at Leighton Buzzard Van Hire.  A hat-trick by Ameya Phatak was well supported with two wins each from Martin Hall and Dave Tiplady with the doubles also going their way. For Van Hire, Biao Wang beat Dave and Paul Haigh beat Martin for his first win of the season. Fabrice Spelta was the other Van man.

MK Pumas looked to be on course for their first win since the opening week after they sped to a 3-1 lead against club-mates Sasaki.  However the former champions had other ideas and bounced back to take the next 5 sets and with them the match. The pick of the early encounters was Andy Smith’s win over Nicolas Wong.  Andy had 4 match points at 10-6 up in the 4th game only for Nicolas to hit a purple patch which took him on to a 5-2 advantage at change of ends in the decider. But then fortunes swung Andy’s way again as he ran out an 11-8 winner. Exciting viewing.  This proved to be Andy’s only singles win, though he took the doubles with Hakan Karaagac, who beat Michael Wilkins and William Kit Liang but lost to Nicolas in singles play.  Julie Snowdon was the other Puma in their pack.

Player of the week : Jecu Aurelian

DIVISION 1
SUPER-SUB DERICK STRIKES AGAIN

MK club super-sub Derick Rodrigues was drafted into another Div.1 fixture this week. Having already starred in a victory for leaders Phoenix earlier in the season the Div. 2 registered player returned this time to help out beleaguered Powers, and ended up winning half his side’s sets in a 6-4 defeat to my Topspin team.  I picked up a hard won hat-trick and Russell Penn a brace.  With a close doubles set also taken, the victory was ours to end Powers previously splendid 100% record. Powers’ regulars Clare Styles and Keith Carrington were both too good for Mervyn Kelly here.

With Powers and Topspin taking points off each other the way was clear for Phoenix to increase their lead at the top, but they were victims themselves of a smash and grab raid from visiting Avengers.  Only Mervyn Phillips overcame the Leighton Buzzard challengers, although battlin’ Bernie Raffe, always a good watch, certainly set the tone for the evening in the opening set by taking the cultured all rounder to 15-13 in the 5th before succumbing. Apart from the customary Mervyn treble, Phoenix only remaining joy came from the defensive skills of Gerald Ridgway against Richard Hardy. It was a blank night for Terry Lau while Avengers’ Alex Du Noyer joined Bernie on 2 wins and together they won the doubles.

Andy Tan kept us his fine form of late for Open University Primes with a hat-trick against bottom side Chackmore Hasbeens.  The prize scalp was, of course, that of Bub Burman, the former MK Spinner demolished in straight games along with Andy and Chris Whitehead.  Still, three sets is an above average return for Hasbeens, with two from Bub and the usual Bub/Andy doubles win. James Zeng and Charity Wong also played for Primes.

Finally the 6th and 7th placed sides Greenleys Glory and MK Hit ‘n’ Hope fought out a draw with Glory’s star man Jacob Midson logging his second hat-trick in a fortnight with wins over Ivor Howard, Paul Tompkins (14-12 in the 5th) and Marco Hahn. Scott Dixon and Christine Scaysbrook also beat Paul to complete Glory’s scoring leaving Ivor and Marco with a brace apiece.

Player of the week : Mervyn Phillips

DIVISION 2 

courtesy of Martin Johnson

With the League five weeks into the new season, the early leaders in Division 2 were Milton Keynes Sharks, maintaining a 100% winning record, a couple of points ahead of Woburn Sands Mosquitoes.  Newport Pagnell Lagondas held third spot, level with Mursley Hawks, but with a match in hand, whilst Leighton Buzzard Spitfires were just another two points back, also with a match in hand.  Completing Division 2 are Little Horwood Wooden Tops and Milton Keynes Shambles, with no eighth team this season.

Week 6 saw Sharks maintain their winning record, but they were pushed hard by Lagondas, who actually lead 2-0 early on, and had looked likely to snatch a draw in a see-saw final set.  Glen Davison got Lagondas off to a good start with a rare defeat for Rupert Greyling, with Chris Horn then coming from 2-0 down to beat Perdo Anastacio in five.  Sharks got into their stride as Derick Rodrigues beat Roy Read, then paired up with Rupert to comfortably win the doubles against Glen & Chris.  Pedro and Glen battled out the closest set of the night, with Glen just sneaking it a 12-10 in the decider, again from 2-0 down!  Rupert beat Roy, Derick beat Chris, Roy beat Pedro and Derick beat Glen, all in straight game, to leave Sharks 5-4 up.  The final set between Rupert and Chris swung one way then another, as Rupert went 1-0, only for Chris to forge ahead 2-1.  However, it was Rupert who finished the stronger, as Sharks finally won a fifth leg at the third bite to take the match 6-4, and maintain thier 100% record.

Mosquitoes closed the gap on the leaders to just one point, as they beat struggling Shambles 7-3.  Another maximum here for James Molloy, only
dropping a single game to Steve Jordan in the opener, to maintain his personal 100% record in the Division.  James was well backed up by Andy Jenkins with two wins, and Glenn Barcham with one win, whilst Andy joined James to win the doubles against Steve & Nick Markham.  Nick was Shambles’ top scorer, with wins over Andy & Glenn, whilst Steve scored one win against Jim Robinson, as Shambles closed to within a point of Wooden Tops at the foot of the table.

The final match of the week resulted in an 8-2 win to Hawks over Spitfires, somewhat masking the closeness of the match.  Hawks got off to a good start as Martin Johnson beat Filip Simek in four and Ian Spanswick beat Paul Baker, also in four.  Alan Chandler looked good to pull one back versus David Bartlett, but David upped his game and a real nail-biter ensued, with David just taking it in the decider.  The doubles was also incredibly close, as David / Ian somehow nicked the deciding leg against Alan / Paul, having been behind almsot all the way!  Filip finally got Spitfires on the scoresheet, as he powered to a straight games win over Ian. Alan again went ahead early against Martin, but eventually lost yet another close one.  He finally won yet another tight encounter, defeating Ian in five; having played a total of 19 legs out of a maximum possible of 20, and played 359 points on the night!  David & Martin won their remaining sets to make the final score 8-2, a win that pushes Hawks up to 3rd spot, for now, and leaves Spitfire in 5th place.

Player of the week : James Molloy