Published 07/11/2024 20:54 by Martin Johnson.

Match Report  (courtesy of Martin Johnson)

MK Blades hosted Mursley Hawks, with both teams having lost in the opening week, however it was the visitors who just about took the spoils, as they won 6-4.

First up it was Brian Evans for Blades against Martin Johnson for Hawks, and after three closely fought 11-9 legs, Martin lead 2-1, which he turned into a four legs win. Tony Coomber evened up the scoreline for Blades with a relatively straighforward three legs win over Hawks' substitute, Andy Palmer, which included a purple patch of 19 points out of 20 for Tony (the one that got away was an attempted outrageous hit), although Andy narrowed the gap from 7-0 down in leg 3, to 9-8 at one stage, before Tony sealed the win. Hawks' 'supersub', Graham Butcher, was again the chief architect in his team's score, picking up the first of his three singles wins in a tight four legs contest against Mark Thomas, followed by teaming up with Martin to take the doubles against Brian and Tony, although from two legs up, Blades battled back to even up the set, only for Graham/Martin to put their foot down in leg five, to snuff out the comeback. Martin edged past Tony in another close contest over four legs, to put Hawks 4-1 up at the halfway point, and Graham extended the lead to 5-1, despite dropping the first leg to Brian, before settling into his game to take it in four legs. Mark pulled one back for Blades, beating Andy in straight legs, but Player of the Match, Graham, sealed the win for Hawks, despite going 2-1 down to Tony, but upping his game to eventually win in fairly comfortably in five. Blades made the match score more respectable, as Mark won a close four leg set versus Martin, and Brian finished the night by winning in four against Andy.