Division 2 Roundup -Week 2
This weekâs matches were all close, with two 6-4 wins and two draws.
Newport Pagnell Lagondas switched venue to the Kingston TTC for their match against Greenleys Princes. Chris Horn and Tony Ardis played their opening matches for the home team, alongside Yongwang Tian. Princes fielded Richard Bailey and Anand Keshav and brought in last seasonâs Division 2 Top 8 winner Lewis Copp, who has moved from Greenleys Valiants. In the opening set, Chris Hornâs attack saw off Richard Bailey in 4 games, before Lewis Copp opened his seasonâs account by beating Tony Ardis in 4 close games, of which 3 were scored 11-9. Yongwang Tian also needed 4 close games before beating Anand Keshav. In the doubles, Tony and Yongwang teamed up for the first time, to beat Richard and Anand in 3 games. Tony and Richard stayed on the table to play their singles set, won by Tony in 4 games, to give Lagondas a 4-1 lead halfway through the match. Anand started a recovery for Princes, beating Chris in 4 games. Yongwang and Lewis then played a marathon, eventually won by the home player 13-11 in the fifth game, with both players giving everything in a see-saw set. Things calmed down a bit in the next set, in which Anand beat Tony, again in 4 close games. Arguably the surprise of the evening occurred in set 9, when Richard beat Yongwang 12-10, 11-9, 11-9 to secure his first win this season, and see the match poised at 5-4. The final set, between Chris and Lewis, proved to be another marathon match. Lewis won the first two games fairly easily, but Chris fought back to take the next two by 12-10 and 18-16 to take the set to a final game. A match draw seemed inevitable when Lewis raced into a lead of 8-1, before Chris pegged it back. At 10-6 Lewis still seemed to be in control, but Chris kept going and eventually won 15-13 to give the home team a 6-4 victory.
Greenleys Valiants took on Leighton Buzzard Van Hire. The Valiants were Ricky Jackson and brothers Daniel and James Carter, who were playing in the same league team for the first time, having last season been in opposition in the now defunct Sultan of Spin team and Valiants respectively. Richard Hardy, Donnie Macdonald and overall team captain Bernie Raffe played for Van Hire. The match started well for Valiants, who went into a 3-0 lead after the first round of singles, with Ricky beating Richard, James beating Donnie and Daniel beating Bernie. James and Ricky teamed up for the doubles against Richard and Bernie, who did better than on their only doubles set last season by winning in 4 games, to give the away side a start. Bernieâs experience then came to the fore when he played Ricky, winning a crucial final game by 11-9. James then restored a two-set lead for Valiants by beating Richard in four games, the final one being 12-10. Daniel and Donnie had a good battle, with the games alternating before Daniel emerged victorious by 11-7 in the fifth. Bernieâs experience then provided him with a good platform against James, winning in 3 games. Daniel then had another topsy-turvy set, this time against Richard, but this time his luck ran out as Richard took the final game by 11-9 to take the match score to 5-4 to Valiants. In the final set, Rickyâs variations proved too much for Donnie and he won in 3 games, to give the home side a 6-4 win.
On the same night as the other two matches, MK Powers, consisting of Andy Pearson, Keith Carrington and Kareem Omar, faced a Woburn Sands Mosquitoes team of James Molloy, Glenn Barcham and sub Alan Bradbury. Andy and James played the first of 4 tough five-game sets during the evening, all of which were won by the away team. After exchanging games, James secured a win over Andy by 11-5 in the fifth. Keith was next up, against Glenn. The set see-sawed before Glenn scored a second point for the Mosquitoes by winning the final game by 11-8. Kareem settled the home sideâs nerves by beating Alan in 3 games. An untried pairing of Kareem and Andy teamed up in the doubles against James and Glenn, the less experienced pair winning in four games, to level the match. James then easily beat Keith and Andy beat Alan, each in 3 games, to keep the score level at 3-3. Kareem played Glenn, winning in three tough games, before Alan surprised the experienced Keith in 5 games, taking the fourth 11-9 and the final game by 11-8 to keep the match score level. Kareem and James then played probably the match of the evening, with Kareem coming back to force a deciding game, which was won by James to give himself a personal maximum and his team the match lead for the first time. However, Andy secured the match draw by beating Alan in 3 games.
The weekâs final match pitted last seasonâs promoted teams OU Shockwave and Little Horwood Wooden Tops against each other. Charity Wong and John Sharp opened the match with a 5-game match, won by Charity. Yifan Liu must have expected a straightforward win against Andy Hooper after gaining a two-game lead, only to be pegged back before gaining a 12-10 winning the final game. Paul Reynolds scored the first point for the Wooden Tops, beating Yi Cao in 3 games. In the doubles, Charity and Yifan lost a tight first game by 16-18 to Paul and John, before taking the second. This was not enough and Paul and John won the next two to level the match. John continued winning ways for the away side, beating Yifan in three games, before Charity restored home equilibrium by beating Paul in the same manner. Andy then beat Yi in 3 games to give the away team the advantage, which was doubled by Paul, who beat Yifan in 4 games to ensure that the Wooden tops couldnât lose the match. Yi next played John, winning a close fifth game by 11-9, leaving the match poised 4-5 to the visitors. Finally Charity managed to beat Andy in 4 games, to force a draw and complete a personal maximum.
Performance of the week: Charity Wong