Division 2 Roundup - Week 8
Mosquitoes Maintain Lead
Week 8 in Division 2 was a repeat of Week 1 (with venues reversed), as the League season has entered it's second third! It featured the top four teams against the bottom four teams, and where the current top four all won in the opening week, there is maybe hope for the lower teams, as this week there were four very close results - three 6-4 wins and one 5-5 draw, with all four of those lower teams doing better than in Week 1.
Leaders, Woburn Sands Mosquitoes, secured a tight 6-4 victory on their visit to seventh placed Mursley Hawks (it was 8-2 last time). They went 4-1 up early on, but when Hawks pegged them back to 4-4, it could have gone either way, but James Molloy took a close three gamer against Ian Spanswick and Rob McPheat stormed through against Martin Johnson to complete the victory. Earlier, Rob had surprisingly lost twice versus David Bartlett and Ian, whilst James had come back from dropping the opening leg of the night against Martin, to then win his next 12 games, to complete a maximum, including the doubles with Rob, against David and Ian. David McGarragh was playing up from D3 for Mosquitoes and started well with a win against Ian in straight games, but then lost to David and Martin, each in four games. Despite the tight scoreline, Mosquitoes have extended their lead at the top to seven points, whilst Hawks remain in the relegation zone.
Second placed Leighton Buzzard Spitfires were held to a 5-5 draw by bottom placed Little Horwood Wooden Tops (it was 7-3 last time), as Wooden Tops finally avoided defeat for the first time this season! Earlier on it had looked ominous for Wooden Tops, at 4-1 down and 5-2 down, but they battled back with Paul Reynolds making it 5-3 in a close five setter against Graham Silversides to complete a good treble in singles, Andy Hooper then edged past Peter Dixon in five games and Bill Higgins took a close four gamer against Anshuman Pandit to secure the draw. Positions remained unchanged, although Wooden Tops edged a point up on seventh position.
Third placed Newport Pagnell Lagondas visited fifth placed Greenleys Moghuls and it was a 6-4 win for Moghuls, to reverse the Week 1 scoreline. Once again, young Marshall Domingo went the night unbeaten, including winning the doubles with Jose Blecua against Tony Ardis and Glen Davison, to secure yet another maximum. Tony and Michael Howard each managed to sneak just one leg at deuce against Marshall, but Marshall maintained his 100% singles record, and has not yet been extended beyond four games, this season! Jose addded the extra two points for Moghuls, both nail-biting wins, first up against Tony at 11-9 in the decider in set 1, then two 15-13 legs against Michael from 1-2 down, to complete the match win in set 10, but lost out in four games to Glen Davison. Glen, Tony and Michael each managed to beat Slava Volokha, to complete the scoring.
The final match of the week saw sixth placed Milton Keynes Powers score a 6-4 win over fourth placed Open University Shockwaves (it was 7-3 to Shockwaves, last time), as Powers edged a fraction closer to the top half of the table. No-one managed to win all their singles sets on the night, with two wins each for Powers by Peter Tillotson, Kareem Omar and Keith Carrington, whilst for Shockwaves, Charity Wong won twice, against Kareem and Keith, whilst Yi Cao won once against Peter, with Charity and Yi also claiming the doubles against Kareem and Peter. Shockwaves had Thomas Ung playing up from Division 4, and he unsurprisingly found the going tough, although did manage to win one leg against Peter.
Next week will see the top two teams play each other, as Mosquitoes (1st) host Spitfires (2nd), whilst Lagondas (3rd) entertain Powers (6th). The other two matches see Shockwaves (4th) at home to Hawks (7th) and Moghuls (5th) visiting Wooden Tops (8th).
Player of the Week: Marshall Domingo.
Team of the Week: Little Horwood Wooden Tops.