Greenleys Kings 9-1 Milton Keynes Phoenix

courtesy of Nick Howard

Lau brings the “wow”, but Phoenix fall well short.

Newly promoted Phoenix visited the high flying Kings on a cold night at Greenleys.

The Kings had taken the decision to drop Matt Haynes after a string of poor performances, although speculation has it that the real reason he was dropped was due to his love of Fig rolls on match nights……

So it was Nick Howard, Guy Sparrow and Gary Deakin, facing off against Gerald Ridgway, Merv Phillips and Terry Lau.

This looked one sided on paper, but we didn’t have a straight 3-0 until match 5!

Deakin lost the first set to Lau, before finding some rhythm to win the next 3 comfortably.

Nick went 2-0 up against Gerald, to be pegged back at 2-1 before sealing the victory in 4. Whilst Guy was very hot and very cold again Merv, going the full 5 sets before winning a comfortable fifth 11-2.

Nick and Guy faced Gerald and Merv in the doubles, and it looked like it could be a close one at 1 a piece. But the Kings pairing turned on the afterburners to race through 3 and 4 for the comfortable win.

Terry came out firing against Nick, but couldn’t manage a set in the first (and only 1 of 2), 3-0’s of the night.

Deakin lost a close 2nd set against Merv, but was in control for the other three, before the most entertaining of the nights matches between Sparrow and Ridgway. Perfect symmetry as Guy lost the first 9-11 before winning 11-6, 11-6 and losing the 4th 9-11. At 5-1 up in the 5th, it looked game over, but before we knew it, the scores were tied at 9-9! Guy, getting full value for money on the night, just about did enough to secure the win, in a tough, tough match.

Nick and Merv played out another entertaining match next, although this one only lasted the 3 sets. Merv with some great retrievals, but ultimately couldn’t match the power of the Kings captain.

So, at 8-0 down with two to play, it looked like the Kings might get their first 10-0 of the year.

Up steps Terry “super” Lau to face an out of form Sparrow. The first 2 sets were complete opposites. Terry winning to 5, before Guy won to 3. The next 2 were closer, with Guy edging 2-1 ahead, before Lau took it to 5, and if truth be known, Terry always looked comfortable in the 5th, securing a very fine win for the Phoenix superstar.

Gary and Gerald finished the night off with a 3-1 win for Deakin.

Some great games on the night.