PREMIER

It was top v bottom this week as we conclude the 2nd cycle (of 4) of the premier fixtures with MK Sasaki dispatching club-mates Kingpins 7-3. A victory against Jamie Hendy is fast becoming a precious commodity these days so credit to Dave Allison for a top scalp in this match. Kingpins’ other wins came at the expense of James George, who fell to Craig Brown and Mark Purcell. Hat-trick here for Matt Evans and a close shave for Jamie’s dad Wayne when Craig’s discarded bat whizzed past his head following the Jamie defeat.

2nd placed Greenleys Kings saw skipper Nick Howard in fine form with a maximum himself against MK Spinners in another 7-3 win. Gary Deakin was back in the side after his impressive debut a fortnight ago and joined Guy Sparrow with a brace, but the usually reliable Howard/Sparrow doubles combo failed on this occasion. Guy took Alan Cherry to deuce in the 5th, coming back from 10-6 down before losing. Gary Jones and Neil Massa were winless for Spinners.

Mid-table Greenleys Monarchs drew with club-mates Warriors, predictable as these well matches sides started the week on the same number of points. Half the sets went the distance too. Warriors star man Colin Huang got his usual maximum with single wins support coming from Ricky Taiwo and Ollie Horswell, who sealed the draw with a final set victory over Iain Dummett after losing to Martin Hall and Tomak Nowakowski. Tomak came close to a maximum himself, just falling to Colin at deuce in the decider in his last outing,

Player of the week is Nick Howard.

DIVISION 1

My MK Topspin crashed to another defeat, this time to an MK Powers side for whom the Pitamber boys ran riot when taking all 7 set wins between them. The nearest we got to halting the landslide was when I held 3 match points against Minesh. Brother Jit was particularly outstanding. Russell Penn and Mervyn Kelly played for Topspin as always and Iain Willcocks appeared for Powers, who now sit joint 2nd with an identical record to MK Phoenix.

With Topspin failing again Phoenix wasted a golden opportunity, which might not come again, of claiming the top spot by sending an under-strength side to St.Christopher Van Hire. They needed an 8-2 or better scoreline to do so but drew the match with a 2-man side. Terry Lau got a hat-trick and Division 2 substitute Masoud Nassor one, also taking the doubles between them. For Van Hire Paul Haigh and David Broome beat Masoud with Jez Wilcox completing their team.

4th placed Pumas saw off the challenge of Woburn Sands Data 6-4 with a maximum from Andy Smith, a brace from Chris Belton and the doubles between them. James Molloy was too good for Chris while Glenn Barcham, playing up from division 3, scored a notable success in beating Keith Carrington, winless on the night. Dave McGarragh was the third Data player.

Mike Howard got Newport Pagnell Vantage off to a terrific start against Greenleys Eagles by beating Geoff Callaway over 5 games, his final points in his 3 winning games all coming with nets and edges. But the Vantage side could only add the doubles win from Sue Lewis and Tony Ardis to their total in an 8-2 defeat.  Although Barry Bishop and Dave Plumb both hit hat-tricks, this was Dave’s match though as he scored his first wins of the season, and against the players who had beaten him on the opening day to start off his losing sequence.

Player of the week is Jit Pitamber