Division 2 Roundup - Week 5
The only significant result in week 5 saw MK Powers achieve a resounding win which propelled them in to a strong third place in the division, 6 points clear of Greenleys Valiants in 4th place.
Division leaders Newport Pagnell Lagondas welcomed bottom team OU Shockwave to their newly refurbished Lovat Hall venue, but can consider themselves fortunate to end up with a 6-4 win. Mike Howard won his 3 singles but had to work hard against Yi Cao and later to recover after losing the first two games easily to Charles Tien, winning 14-12 in the final game. Tony Ardis had an off night for the home team, losing to Charles and Yifan Liu, but picked up his final singles against Yi. Yongwang Tian lost his first singles to Yifan but won the other two. Mike/Tony could not find past form as a doubles pair against Yifan/Charles, who won easily. The final singles between Mike and Yifan decided who would end the night with a maximum and Mike won in 4 games to secure victory for the home team. Shockwave can consider themselves extremely unfortunate, as the match statistics show that each team won 19 games and 340 points on the night. Shockwave remain 8th.
On the next night, MK Powers in 4th place played Greenleys Valiants in 3rd, with both teams on 21 points, 5 points shy of second place. Andy Pearson for Powers continued his strong early season form, winning all his singles without losing a game, to stay on top of the averages with 11 wins out of 12. Peter Tillotson lost to Ricky Jackson of Valiants in 5 games, but beat Slava Volokha in 3 and pipped young James Carter in 5 games to give him 2 wins on the night. The star of the match was Keith Carrington who, boosted by his first two wins of the season last week, played his best table tennis for some time, beating all 3 opponents in 3 games. The doubles set was played at the end of the match, when Ricky/James came through against Andy/Peter in 5 very close games to give them only their 2nd win of the night after Rickyâs singles win against Peter early on.
Greenleys Valiants seemed to be heading for a draw against Woburn Sands Mosquitoes when Saravana Kumar took a 2 games to 1 lead against Rob McPheat in the final set of the match, only for Rob to find his range and take the last two games to clinch the match victory and his second win of the night, leaving team captain Saravana without a win. Richard Bailey for the home team scored a good maximum against the second placed Mosquitoes, beating Rob, James Molloy and Andy Jenkins. Anand Keshav won the remaining singles for Valiants, beating Andy Jenkins, whose sole win of the night came against Saravana, with Rob and James each winning 2 sets. Andy/Rob had also teamed up to beat Anand/Keshav in the doubles. The result leaves Mosquitoes one point behind Lagondas.
The weekâs final match, between Leighton Buzzard Van Hire and Little Horwood Wooden Tops, resulted in a draw. The match started well for the home team, with Richard Hardy beating Andy Hooper and Bernie Raffe beating Bill Higgins. Paul Reynolds got the visiting team onto the scoreboard with a 5-game win against Donnie MacDonald and Andy/Bill beat Richard/Bernie in the doubles, also in 5 games, to level the match. As the evening progressed, Bernie beat Andy but lost to Paul, who also beat Bill for a well-earned treble. Bill managed a win against Donnie, who beat Andy with Richard finishing off the match with a tough 3-game win against Bill to even the match as a draw. Richard and Bernie each won 2 singles, while the visiting captain Andy was left without a win. The result leaves Van Hire in 6th place with Wooden Tops in 7th, two points behind them.
Next week sees a clash between the divisionâs top two when NP Lagondas visit WS Mosquitoes; LH Wooden Tops entertain Gr. Princes; OU Shockwave will play Gr. Valiants and LB Van Hire play MK Powers.
Performances of the week: Keith Carrington and Paul Reynolds