Milton Keynes Topspin 0-10 Greenleys Kings

League

Premier Division

Monday 27 January 2020

Set	Result	Games	Score	Match score
1	Russell Penn lost to Nick Howard	11-5, 5-11, 8-11, 11-9, 10-12	2-3	0-1
2	Mervyn Kelly lost to Guy Sparrow	7-11, 8-11, 5-11	0-3	0-2
3	Andy Smith lost to Matt Haynes	1-11, 1-11, 6-11	0-3	0-3
4	Mervyn Kelly & Russell Penn lost to Nick Howard & Matt Haynes	8-11, 6-11, 7-11	0-3	0-4
5	Mervyn Kelly lost to Nick Howard	3-11, 6-11, 9-11	0-3	0-5
6	Russell Penn lost to Matt Haynes	6-11, 4-11, 4-11	0-3	0-6
7	Andy Smith lost to Guy Sparrow	5-11, 11-6, 5-11, 12-10, 11-13	2-3	0-7
8	Mervyn Kelly lost to Matt Haynes	4-11, 1-11, 11-13	0-3	0-8
9	Andy Smith lost to Nick Howard	6-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11	2-3	0-9
10	Russell Penn lost to Guy Sparrow	9-11, 8-11, 9-11	0-3	0-10

Played on loan

Team summaries

Team	Games won	Games average (%)	Points won	Points average (%)
Milton Keynes Topspin	6	16.67	254	40.06
Greenleys Kings	30	83.33	380	59.94

Player summaries

Player	Sets played	Sets won	Games played	Games won	Games average (%)	Points played	Points won	Points average (%)
Milton Keynes Topspin
Russell Penn	3	0	11	2	18.18	199	85	42.71
Mervyn Kelly	3	0	9	0	0.00	155	54	34.84
Andy Smith	3	0	13	4	30.77	226	94	41.59
Greenleys Kings
Nick Howard	3	3	13	9	69.23	234	129	55.13
Guy Sparrow	3	3	11	9	81.82	207	117	56.52
Matt Haynes	3	3	9	9	100.00	139	101	72.66

Played on loan

Andy Smith played on loan from Milton Keynes Pumas in Division One.

Match details

Date	Monday 27 January 2020
Start time	19:30
Competition	League
Division	Premier Division
Venue	Milton Keynes Table Tennis Centre
Season	2019-2020
Games played	36
Points played	634

Report

Published 03/04/2025 07:10 by David Wackrill.

courtesy of Nick Howard

Kings topple TopSpin once more

The weird season continues, and that isn’t just in scheduling, but results as well!

For the second match in a row, TopSpin and the Kings met, although this time it was at the MK Centre in Kingston.

2 new faces joined the party, as Gary Smith (or as everyone apart from Russell calls him, Andy), replaced Dave Wackrill for the home team, alongside Melvyn Kelly and Russell Penn. Whilst Matt Haynes replaced Jordan Moss for the visitors to join Nick Howard and Guy Sparrow.

The last time these teams met, a whopping 5, 5 setters were on the cards, with the Kings taking 3 of them. No such luck tonight for a valiant TopSpin side.

Russell kicked things off against Nick, and showed off his well practiced speciality of sneaking some nets and edges. Andy noted after the match that he’d never seen so many in one match from one person - Just another weekday for Russell though!

It was nip and tuck through the whole match, but when Russell took a 5-0 lead in the 5th, the writing looked on the wall for the weary Kings captain. Unfortunately for Russell, the scoreline closed to 9-7 in his favour, before Howard clawed back to 10-10. 2 points later and the comeback was complete - A bitter pill to swallow for the stand in TopSpin skipper.

No such issues for Guy and Matt, as they saw off Mervyn and Andy in straight sets.

The next 3 matches were also over in a flash. Nick and Matt combined to beat Russell and Mervyn, before Nick took down Mervyn in 3 and Matt did the same to Russell.

Joint match of the night followed, as Andy had a prime opportunity to beat the in form Guy Sparrow. Another nail biter all the way through, as Andy pipped the 4th 12-10 to take it to a 5th, and had opportunities to win. Guy just about held his nerve to see him off 13-11 though!

Matt followed with another routine win against Mervyn, before Nick eeked out some more value from his night against Andy.

Topsy turvey sets through the first 4, resulted in a tight 5th set. A big lead at the crossover for Nick, but as was often the case on the night, the gap closed quickly, and Andy was level at 6-6. That was as good as it got for the stand in TopSpin, as Nick completed the treble with an 11-7 win.

Guy finished off the night with close 3-0 win against Russell.

Always enjoyable matches, and TopSpin will feel incredibly hard done by to only come away with 2 points from the 20.

8 five setters over the 2 matches - Incredible stuff.