Leighton Buzzard Van Hire 7-3 Milton Keynes Topspin
League
Premier Division
Friday 30 September 2022
| Game | Result | Score | Match score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dave Broome lost to Russell Penn (1-3) | 6-11, 4-11, 11-9, 4-11 | 0-1 |
| 2 | Biao Wang beat David Wackrill (3-0) | 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 | 1-1 |
| 3 | Marc Lyons beat Mervyn Kelly (3-0) | 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 | 2-1 |
| 4 | Dave Broome & Biao Wang beat Mervyn Kelly & Russell Penn (3-2) | 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6 | 3-1 |
| 5 | Biao Wang beat Russell Penn (3-0) | 11-4, 11-9, 11-5 | 4-1 |
| 6 | Dave Broome lost to Mervyn Kelly (0-3) | 8-11, 9-11, 6-11 | 4-2 |
| 7 | Marc Lyons beat David Wackrill (3-0) | 11-2, 11-1, 11-4 | 5-2 |
| 8 | Biao Wang beat Mervyn Kelly (3-2) | 11-6, 12-14, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9 | 6-2 |
| 9 | Marc Lyons beat Russell Penn (3-0) | 11-7, 11-4, 11-9 | 7-2 |
| 10 | Dave Broome lost to David Wackrill (2-3) | 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 2-11 | 7-3 |
| Team | Legs won | Legs average (%) | Points won | Points average (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leighton Buzzard Van Hire | 24 | 64.86 | 353 | 54.22 |
| Milton Keynes Topspin | 13 | 35.14 | 298 | 45.78 |
| Team | Player | Games played | Games won | Legs played | Legs won | Legs average (%) | Points played | Points won | Points average (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leighton Buzzard Van Hire | Dave Broome | 3 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 25.00 | 211 | 86 | 40.76 |
| Leighton Buzzard Van Hire | Biao Wang | 3 | 3 | 11 | 9 | 81.82 | 200 | 118 | 59.00 |
| Leighton Buzzard Van Hire | Marc Lyons | 3 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 100.00 | 144 | 99 | 68.75 |
| Milton Keynes Topspin | Russell Penn | 3 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 30.00 | 171 | 80 | 46.78 |
| Milton Keynes Topspin | David Wackrill | 3 | 1 | 11 | 3 | 27.27 | 175 | 71 | 40.57 |
| Milton Keynes Topspin | Mervyn Kelly | 3 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 45.45 | 209 | 101 | 48.33 |
| Date | Friday 30 September 2022 |
|---|---|
| Start time | 19:30 |
| Competition | League |
| Division | Premier Division |
| Venue | Wing Village Hall |
| Season | 2022-2023 |
| Legs played | 37 |
| Points played | 651 |
Published 22/12/2024 01:44 by David Wackrill.
ALL CHANGE AT WING AS VAN HIRE WIN AGAIN
This was MK Topspin’s first trip to the progressive Leighton Buzzard club’s new venue, a brightly lit Wing Village Hall. A far cry from the dungeon basement of the old Forster Institute building, and very nice too.
As for the match, home side Van Hire ditched the table topping trio from their last home match a fortnight ago to make way for another set of players, Marc Lyons, David Broome and club chairman Biao Wang. Luton legend Marc was on a club debut here following previous spells with MK club sides Kingpins and Rovers. Van Hire’s astonishing depth of talent made visiting skipper Russell Penn green with envy as he continues, fruitlessly at present, to scour the country for suitable additions to our own ‘bare bones’ 3-man squad. At least we had all our regulars available for this one with Russell and myself joined by Mervyn Kelly for the first time this season, the recently retired Mervyn back from a holiday jaunt in Greece (and not Australia as previously reported – that’s still to come!}. The break has certainly done him a power of good as he was scintillating for this match, in top form throughout.
As we all managed to get the better of David Broome on the night the prospect of a draw, or better, loomed as a distinct possibility. Regretfully it was not to be and we were forced to settle for a 3-7 defeat. Two sets stand out though as valiant Topspin failures that might have turned the match on another day, both involving Mervyn. Firstly the doubles,set as this was the best I’ve seen the Russell/Mervyn combo perform in years with some brilliant hitting from the boys taking them to a 2-1 lead in the decider, which was as good as it got with Van Hire taking the next 9 points and certain victory. Then again when Mervyn played Biao in the set of the night with both players trading hits in some superb rallies. Mervyn came within a knat’s whisker of beating Biao, not for the first time either, when a long fast serve at game point in the 3rd missed the end edge of the table by a millimetre. Undaunted he took the 4th with ease and the tussle stood at 9-9 in the 5th before Biao sealed the deal with two good hits of his own. Afterwards Biao was seen with his little red book of ‘how to play specific opponents’ to add even more prolific notes to an already cramped page bearing Mervyn’s name at the top in English and the famous ‘notes’ themselves below in mandarin.
A great match and many thanks to our genial hosts.
Man of the match : Marc Lyons (all 9 sets won in straight games and only 45 points conceded). Awesome!