PREMIER DIV ROUND-UP WEEK 7
TITANS SEE OFF CLOSEST RIVALS WITH NARROW VICTOR
The final week of the first of 3 cycles of matches brought together the top two in a much-anticipated clash. The unbeaten league leaders MK Titans came through a tough test 6-4 thanks to a good team effort with a brace a-piece from Nick Howard and Craig Brown and one from Ricky Taiwo plus the crucial doubles from the ever-reliable Howard/Brown duo. Warriors' Sri Lankan star Chandupa Alahakoon took the individual honours though with a treble against the current champions that included ending Craig's 13 set winning streak. Darren Ward took his side's other point with a narrow win over Ricky Taiwo who, this time last year, was his own skipper in the Warriors line-up!! Winless Saravana Kumar from div 2 again filled in for a depleted Warriors team. A close match throughout with a dozen games decided by just 2-point margins.
In a tight Greenleys derby Ian Mead excelled for his Gory side when forcing 3rd placed Monarchs to a well fought draw. Ian beat Tomek Nowakowski, Dave Beddall and Martin Hall and took the doubles alongside Saish Prabhu, who secured a share of the spoils with a good win over Dave. Iain Lindsay was the other Glory boy in a match where only 3 sets were settled in straight games.
After a poor a start to the season, MK Spinners have now registered back-to-back whitewash scores. This week they trounced Open University Primes with hat-tricks from Alan Cherry, Jecu Aurelian and Adebola Odetayo, although Ade was taken to 11-9 in the 5th by James Zeng. Patrick Wong and Andy Tan were the other Primes on duty.
In the Friday match at Wing, the Leighton Buzzard Generations trio of Alex Du Noyer, Ben Rolfe and Biao Wang beat bottom placed MK Topspin 9-1 with Mervyn Kelly beating Ben 11-9 in the 5th for Topspin's consolation win. Jiten Pitamber and Mal Husain were the other Topspinners here.
Both Primes and Topspin, last season's promoted teams, have struggled this year so far and, alas, have already been tailed off at the foot of the table this time round. Even at this early stage it looks like they will be replaced by last year's bottom pair, club MK's Sasaki and Phoenix, who are riding high at the top of Division 1. Such is the gap in standard between the 2 Divisions.
Player of the week : Chandupa Alahakoon