Division 2 Roundup - Week 3
Week 3 started off with Woburn Sands Mosquitoes visiting Little Horwood Wooden Tops. Andy Jenkins made his seasonâs debut with a 3-1 win over John Sharp. Home player Paul Reynolds managed to overturn the form book, beating previously unbeaten James Molloy in 5 games. Andy Hooper of Wooden Tops has continued to play, despite injuries, but lost out to Glenn Barcham 3-0. Despite that loss, Andy teamed up with Paul in the doubles to play James and Glenn, and a 3-2 win put the home side on the scoreboard. Paul then lost to Andy J and John beat Glenn, both in 4 games, before James beat Andy H 3-0 to give the away team the lead again at 4-3. Paul next played Glenn and won the first two games, before the Mosquitoesâ captain rallied to take the third and then the fourth, by 11-9. The final game was another struggle, Glenn winning it 12-10. Andy J then won the battle of the Andys and James defeated John, both in 3 games, to give the away team a 7-3 win.
Tuesday saw MK Powers entertain leaders Newport Pagnell Lagondas. Paul Tompkins and Mike Howard played out a 5-game set, Paul winning the final leg 11-9. Keith Carrington took on Tony Ardis, Keithâs struggles this season continuing as Tony won in 4 games. Kareem Omar and Chris Horn played out a set featuring spectacular shots from both players, with Chris winning 3-1. Keith and Paul took on Tony and Chris in what was a straightforward 3-game doubles win for the away team. Keith and Mike played next. After each won a game by 14-12, Mike found his range and took the next two games fairly easily, for a team 4-1 lead. In the next two sets Chris beat Paul and Tony beat Kareem, both in 4 games with near-identical scores. Chris next played Keith, winning in 3 games, although two went to deuce, to complete a maximum. Things looked better for the home team when Kareem won the first two legs against Mike, conceding only 5 points. Mike salvaged some pride with an 11-9 win in the third. The fourth leg saw Mike come back from 10-6 down, only for Kareem to make some stunning returns of smash to win the game 15-13. The final set, between Paul and Tony, ended in an unusual and unfortunate way, with Tony then 2-1 up. Tony had won several successive points with ânetsâ in the 3rd game and a recurrence in the 4th led to Paul conceding the set with the score poised at 8-8. Lagondas therefore completed an 8-2 win.
The two Greenleys teams, Princes and Valiants, played out a 5-5 draw in a match over 44 games, 6 of which went to a final leg, with Princes scoring just 2 more points overall than Valiants. John Stamp played his first match for the Princes, losing to Tom Davey, playing his first of the season, in a tough 5-game set with a 9-11 final game. Saravana Kumar then secured a tough 4-game set against Ricky Jackson. Anand Keshav found sub Chris Shamuyarira, playing up from div. 3 side Crusaders, too hot to handle and lost in 3 games. The match was levelled up when Anand and Saravana combined for the doubles against Ricky and Tom, winning 3-0. In set 5, Saravana beat Tom by 3-1. The last 5 sets all went the distance. John beat Chris; Anand lost to Ricky, the final game being 10-12; Saravana lost to Chris after recovering from losing the first two games to force the decider; Tom beat Anand 13-11 in the final game and the evening ended in the match draw when John managed to beat Ricky 11-9.
The Friday night match featured relegated Leighton Buzzard Van Hire and promoted OU Shockwave. Christi Hulpan beat Yifan Liu in 3 straightforward games. Team captains Bernie Raffe and Charity Wong then played. Bernie must have been relieved after a two game lead, eventually winning 13-11, 11 -5, 10-12, 10-12, 11-9. Donnie Macdonald went two games up against Charles Tien, only for Charles to take the set to a successful final game. In the doubles, Cristi and Bernie defeated Yifan and Charles in 3 games, before Bernie continued the trend by beating Yifan 3-0. In set 6, Cristi lost the first two games to Charles by 9-11, before finding a way past Charles to secure a 5-game win. Charity then beat Donnie 3-0 to give the OU team a second point at 5-2. Charles faced off against Bernie in set 8 and played his third full set of the night, but Bernie took the honours. Donnie and Yifan played the fifth 5-game match of the night, with Donnie finally securing his first win of the season in this league. The final set was more straightforward, with Cristi beating Charity 11-6, 11-9,11-9 for an 8-2 result, the Van Hireâs first win.
Next week Woodentops play Powers, Valiants play Lagondas (both unbeaten so far), Mosquitoes play Van Hire and Shockwave plays Princes.
Performance of the week: Andy Jenkins