PREMIER DIVISION
The ever popular ‘pistol’ Pete made a welcome return to MK action as a Kingpins debutant after a 3 year absence, and how we’ve missed his lively banter. He was thumped by Phoenix’ top man Alan Bolding in the opening set but recovered well to see off Terry Lau and Gerald Ridgway. Alan continued his good form when shooting into a 2 game lead against Dave Allison before the evening fell apart for him with the loss of the next 6 games which also took in the defeat by Craig Brown. So, hat-tricks for Dave and Craig in a 9-1 win as Mark Purcell missed his first Kingpins match for over 5 years, a record run of consecutive appearances this millennium.
Greenleys Warriors skipper Ricky Taiwo ploughed a lone furrow this week as he needed to bring in 2 reserves for his team to make up the numbers against club-mates Monarchs. His last match against Monarchs proved to be his season’s best as he beat not only Ian Johnston, but also Dave Tiplady, two huge scalps. No Dave this time round but Monarchs picked Ian for the match and he duly took his revenge against Ricky on the way to a maximum, also shared by Tomek Nowakowski. Warriors solitary point came at the expense of Martin Hall. Christine Scaysbrook (div 1) and Gary Viner (div 3) were the Warriors’ reserves.
‘Routine win’ said Greenleys Kings’ captain Nick Howard in his post match comments after Greenleys Kings latest triumph, an 8-2 victory over MK Powers, who managed to field a full compliment this week. Good result for Powers, I reckon, with both Minesh Pitamber and Colin Munford beating Jordan Moss. A rare Premier win for Colin here and a lively Minesh also held a match point against Guy Sparrow before losing 13-11 in the 5th. No problems for Nick and no success for Pete Tillotson.
Another routine win was the only whitewash of the week with lowly MK Topspin winning just a single game in the (mis)match with MK Spinners. Hat-tricks for Alan Cherry, Tim Cheek and Gary Jones. Blanks for Russell Penn, Mike Ainsworth (playing up from div 2) and myself.
Player of the week is Pete Bannister.
DIVISION 1
Woburn Sands Data beat Chackmore Hasbeens 7-3 with hat-tricks from both James Molloy and Dave McGarragh, Dave coming back from 10-5 down in the 5th against Bub Burman to sneak the win at 12-10 while James was showing his true form again with all straight game wins. Darren Ward lodged his first win for 33 years, a 4 game triumph over Chris Whitehead, to finalise the scoring for Data. Andy Whitehead completed the Hasbeens line-up, narrowly losing to Darren 15-13 in the decider himself.
A trip to Greenleys Eagles can be a dangerous assignment without your top man, but MK Pumas survived on Wednesday night with Andy Smith down the road at the MK Dons/Liverpool football match. Of course the absence of Eagles’ regular Barry Bishop helped their cause but as Julie Snowdon and Chris Belton were in fine form, with hat-tricks to their names, Pumas may have won anyway. Dave Plumb and Geoff Callaway picked up a singles each and combined to win the doubles in the 7-3 scoreline. Andres Lopez played up from div 3 for Eagles and Keith Carrington appeared for Pumas.
Following on from her doubles heroics of last week, Newport Pagnell Vantage’s Sue Lewis was back in harness with the more familiar Tony Ardis and, despite losing the match 7-3 to Greenleys Glory, they continued their successful partnership from last season. Mike Howard had good wins for Vantage against Ian Brown and Danny Sedgwick, but couldn’t get past hat-trick man Jacob Midson. Half the sets, including all of Vantage’s successes, went to a deciding game. Having earlier beaten Tony Ardis 13-11 in the 5th, Ian Brown lost the last set of the night 12-10 in the 4th to Mike Howard.
After three 7-3 results this week, Thursday night at the Open University saw a different scoreline as visitors St. Christopher Van Hire romped home against promoted team Primes. Maximums here for David Broome and Fabrice Spelta, who also combined for the doubles, and a single from Jez Wilcox. Consolation wins for Patrick Wong and James Zeng, although the home side improved throughout the evening with the last 4 sets going the distance. Charity Wong made up the Primes compliment.
Player of the week is Chris Belton.
DIVISION 2
(courtesy of Martin Johnson)
The new season sees Division 2 remain at eight teams, whilst the two Divisions above have both also become Division of eight teams, having previously been differently sized. From last season, the top two teams (OU Primes and Chackmore Hasbeens) were promoted, Mursley Swallows have dropped down into Division 3, Greenleys Cardinals have dropped out, three teams were promoted from last season’s Division 3 (Woburn Sands Mosquitoes, MK Cavaliers & MK Shambles) and a new team, St. Christophers Spitfires, have also joined the Division. As such the Division has six Milton Keynes teams!
After the first week, the joint early leaders are MK Classics and Newport Pagnell Lagondas, who each won 8-2, followed by promoted Woburn Sands Mosquitoes after their 7-3 win, then in joint fourth place are MK Tornadoes and new team, St. Christophers Spitfires, following their 6-4 wins.
MK Classics started the season in fine fashion, winning 8-2 against clubmates, MK Shambles. Both Dylan Cox and Masoud Nassor won three, whilst Nick Markham won twice, only losing out to MK Shambles’ reserve, Kareem Omar, however Dave Burrill and Steve Jordan, despite no singles wins, claimed the doubles against Dylan & Masoud, as everyone got a win of sorts under their belt.
NP Lagondas finished ahead of MK Blades last season, and beat them 8-2 in their opening encounter, with Chris Horn firing in a maximum, plus two wins apiece from Glen Davison and Roy Read, whilst Chris & Glen combined in the doubles to beat Brian Evans and Mark Thomas, with Brian winning one singles against Glen and Mark doing likewise versus Roy. Andy Phillips completed the Blades line-up, but despite some close games, could not quite manage a win on the night.
Two of the promoted trio faced each other, and last season’s order prevailed as Woburn Sands Mosquitoes defeated MK Cavaliers 7-3. Paul Hamer’s defence prevailed as he won all three, also combining with Glenn Barcham to take the doubles, whilst Glenn picked up two wins and Andy Jenkins gained their other win. For Cavaliers, there was one win each for Chris Welch, Chris Paddon and John Bradley, with the two Chris’s beating Andy and John defeating Glenn.
MK Tornadoes are the team who finished highest last season (3rd in D2), and they started their season with a 6-4 win at Mursley Hawks. Nicolas Wong won a maximum, also teaming up with Tanmay Tijare to win the doubles. New player Matthew Curley produced some great shots, but could not quite convert any of his close games into wins. For Hawks, reserve Graham Butcher gained two wins, whilst Frank Beck and Martin Johnson won one each.
St. Christophers Spitfires produced a good 6-4 win against MK Hit ‘n’ Hope, in their first match, with last season’s Hawks man, Andy King, collecting a fine maximum, plus teaming up with Graham Silversides for a doubles win. Graham also collected one singles win, as did Bernie Raffe, whilst for Hit ‘n’ Hope, Ivor Howard claimed two wins, backed up by Marco Hahn and Paul Tomkins with one win apiece. Paul’s win against Bernie featured an amazing 25-23 scoreline in leg 4, and Paul duly completed the comeback win at 11-5 in the decider!
Player of the Week : Andy King.