Leighton Buzzard Avengers 5-5 Milton Keynes Topspin
League
Division One
Friday 24 November 2023
| Date | Friday 24 November 2023 |
|---|---|
| Start time | 19:30 |
| Competition | League |
| Division | Division One |
| Venue | Wing Village Hall |
| Season | 2023-2024 |
| Games played | 42 |
| Points played | 795 |
Published 26/04/2025 14:50 by David Wackrill.
JIT TO THE RESCUE AGAIN IN CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Another tight match for my Topspin team, this draw following a sequence of four 6-4 results (both for and against). On the one hand it makes for great competition and exciting contests. On the other, however, it’s hardly championship form as, week by week, Open University Primes close the gap at the top, now down to 3 points.
Our genial hosts at Wing on Friday elected for wholesale change in personnel from the side they fielded against us a month ago. Out went Steve Jordan, Richard Hardy and Dwight Edwards to be replaced by Cristi Hulpan, Bernie Raffe and Alex Du Noyer. We came with Russell Penn, Jit Pitamber and myself. This made for a close encounter with half the sets going the distance and neither side more than one set ahead at any stage. It might have been different though had Russell taken any one of his 3 match points against Alex in the second set following my scratchy win over Cristi in the opener. Russell played well for those points too, driving Alex back to the wall and forcing him to defend with two dozen or more topspin returns of his own during that spell, any one of which missing the table would have given Russell a deserved victory.
Jit then beat Bernie, who was handicapped by a nose-bleed, the first of 3 vital wins captured on video as Jit filmed his match on his smart phone. But Avengers equalised again when taking the doubles with Cristi outstanding, much in contrast to his erratic singles form. And so the match continued in a similar glorious vein with neither side dominating. On a late and frosty night we finished on two tables with, aptly, 2 more 5-game sets. While battlin’ Bernie was beating me, Russell was struggling to victory over Cristi, fighting back from 2 games down and saving a match point in the 4th. I was always confident of a Russell win, however, as he has the endearing habit of coming good at the last when losing his first two sets in a match.
Thank goodness for Jit’s hat-trick though and I look forward to seeing the video. Perhaps he might even consider posting a highlights package (for starters there was a block shot cum drive against Cristi that was world class!).
Man of the match : Jit Pitamber
Another tight match for my Topspin team, this draw following a sequence of four 6-4 results (both for and against). On the one hand it makes for great competition and exciting contests. On the other, however, it’s hardly championship form as, week by week, Open University Primes close the gap at the top, now down to 3 points.
Our genial hosts at Wing on Friday elected for wholesale change in personnel from the side they fielded against us a month ago. Out went Steve Jordan, Richard Hardy and Dwight Edwards to be replaced by Cristi Hulpan, Bernie Raffe and Alex Du Noyer. We came with Russell Penn, Jit Pitamber and myself. This made for a close encounter with half the sets going the distance and neither side more than one set ahead at any stage. It might have been different though had Russell taken any one of his 3 match points against Alex in the second set following my scratchy win over Cristi in the opener. Russell played well for those points too, driving Alex back to the wall and forcing him to defend with two dozen or more topspin returns of his own during that spell, any one of which missing the table would have given Russell a deserved victory.
Jit then beat Bernie, who was handicapped by a nose-bleed, the first of 3 vital wins captured on video as Jit filmed his match on his smart phone. But Avengers equalised again when taking the doubles with Cristi outstanding, much in contrast to his erratic singles form. And so the match continued in a similar glorious vein with neither side dominating. On a late and frosty night we finished on two tables with, aptly, 2 more 5-game sets. While battlin’ Bernie was beating me, Russell was struggling to victory over Cristi, fighting back from 2 games down and saving a match point in the 4th. I was always confident of a Russell win, however, as he has the endearing habit of coming good at the last when losing his first two sets in a match.
Thank goodness for Jit’s hat-trick though and I look forward to seeing the video. Perhaps he might even consider posting a highlights package (for starters there was a block shot cum drive against Cristi that was world class!).
Man of the match : Jit Pitamber