PREMIER DIV ROUND-UP WEEK 18
DOWN BUT FAR FROM OUT
The bottom two may be down to Div 1 as far as relegation matters are concerned, without even a mathematical chance now of avoiding the drop, but they are far from 'out' and still showing a terrific competitive spirit, as demonstrated in their matches this week.
Bottom of the table Open University Primes hosted champions-elect MK Titans this week and set off like a house on fire when taking the opening set after a fine win by Ning He over the highly rated Ricky Taiwo. Unfortunately, this was their only success on the night despite some more fine performances when Andy Tan took the first 2 games against Ricky before losing in 5 and Ning, that man again, took Titan skipper Nick Howard all the way to 13-11 in the 5th before capitulating. No problems for Titan in-chief Craig Brown though, with a straight-forward treble. James Zeng also played for Primes.
Meantime 7th placed MK Topspin took on Greenleys Glory, just one place above them in the table, and fought out a magnificent draw from half-time 4-1 deficit. Hero of the piece was Jit Pitamber who added another hat-trick to go with last week's effort (and now boasting a handsome post-Christmas average of 73%). Mervyn Kelly started the revival from 2 games down to Saish Prabhu in the 6th set of the evening, recovering to win in 5 games before another 5-game success in the final set against Scott Dixon. Iain Lindsay hit a brace for Glory with one each from Saish and Scott. Russell Penn was the other Topspinner.
The mid-table Greenleys derby went to Monarchs with a 6-4 win over Warriors. Tomek Nowakowski and Martin Hall hit a brace each and combined for the vital doubles win with Dave Beddall completing their scoring. Adrian Piotrowski and Darren Ward also had 2 wins a-piece for Warriors, who featured their Div 2 super-sub Ricky Jackson, alas winless, once again here.
And a great match to end the week on Friday at Wing between the teams vying for League runners-up honours with Leighton Buzzard Generations coming out on top with a 7-3 victory to put them 14 points ahead of rivals MK Spinners. Ian Musk was taken close by Jecu Aurelian in the opening set before moving on to his usual hat-trick. Antonina Bohach chipped in with a brace, losing to Alan Cherry. And in a match where both sides fielded Div 1 subs Fabrice Spelta came out on top against William Kit Liang, to complete the Generations dominance in a tight contest, at 11-8 in the 5th. Spinners were left with just the two wins from Alan and one from Jecu, although he lost both his other sets at 11-9 in the 5th.
Player of the week : Ning He