PREMIER ROUND-UP WEEK 4
CHANGING OF THE GUARD?
For most of this century MK Spinners and Greenleys Monarchs have ruled the roost with one or other sides, usually both, finishing in the top two Premier positions. This year could well be different though with an ambitious pair of relatively new teams, MK Titans and Greenleys Warriors, currently dominating the table. As fate would have it, on Wednesday this week the new blood met the old guard and blew them right away.
MK Titans took on club-mates Spinners in a twice postponed fixture and posted an incredible whitewash win. A match well worth waiting for, if you're a Titan follower. Congratulations go to Nick Howard, Craig Brown and Ricky Taiwo. Commiserations to Alan Cherry, Jecu Aurelian and debutant Ade Odetayo (ironically picked up on a late free transfer from Warriors while already boasting a 100% record this season !). For the statisticians, Spinners have only ever lost 10-0 once before (to Monarchs in January 2019), and Alan Cherry has only ever lost all 3 in the Premier on one previous occasion (to Monarchs, in October 2016).
Titan's epic victory wasn't enough though to shift the obdurate Warriors outfit from top spot, where they remain by virtue of 'matches won' with the pair level on 34 points. Warriors themselves saw off club-mates Monarchs 7-3 this week. Just the one hat-trick this time, from Chandupa Alahakoon, but with good support provided by Adrian Piotrowski with a brace and a shared doubles win. Monarchs' Tomek Nowakowski beat Adrian and both Tomek and Colin Luscombe were too good for Warriors third man Shrishlal Basant Rai. Martin Hall was the other Monarch and he withdrew from the evening's final set, giving opponent Shrishlal a walk-over.
Meanwhile on the same night, Greenleys Glory logged a 9-1 success over MK Topspin, currently propping up the Division. Jit Pitamber saved the whitewash with a 5-game win over Jacob Midson, whose team-mates Ian Mead and Scott Dixon went home with well won trebles. Mal Hussain and Mervyn Kelly were the other Topspinners in action.
Spinners kept the same side for their scheduled match of the week at Leighton Buzzard Generations and came away from Wing on Friday with a share of the spoils. Generations' gave a debut to Ian Musk, who hasn't competed in the League for many a long year and still remains a considerable force in the local game. Ian hit a hat-trick and shared the doubles win with Alex Du Noyer, who also picked up a vital singles win. For Spinners, Alan Cherry and Ade Odetayo took a brace a-piece and Jecu Aurelian one. Tim Cheek, a former Spinner himself, was the winless Generation man against his old team.
Player of the week : Ricky Taiwo