Match Report  (courtesy of Martin Johnson)

   Adeyfield B   7 - 3   Crown & Sceptre B 

The top of Division 2 seems to have changed hands regularly over the last few rounds of matches, and this fixture had a certain extra piquancy, given that Crown & Sceptre B had just re-taken the lead from Adeyfield B, the previous week, and held a two point advantage going into the final third of the League programme.

The visitors featured Dave Easey, Alan Jones and Aidan Walsh, whilst the home team were the 3Ms, namely Martyn Ford, Mariusz Puczynski and myself (Martin Johnson).  I started against Dave, and although I just took the opening two legs, Dave steadied his game to take the next three legs, to put C&S B 1-0 ahead.  Alan extended C&S B's lead with a straight games win against Mariusz.  Martyn then started the home fightback, winning in four legs, doing just enough to stem a comeback from two legs down by Aidan.  It was much the same story for Aidan against myself, in set 5, as from two legs down, it got much closer, but I just held on to take the win in four legs.  Meanwhile, Mariusz had put in a great counterattacking performance against Dave, to take set 4 in three games of 11-9, to level the score at 2-2, with my win putting Adeyfield B ahead for the first time.  Next up was Martyn versus Alan, and probably the set of the night.  Martyn took game 1 fairly comfortably, but Alan hit back to take game 2 at deuce, then game 3 more easily, only for Martyn to just snatch game 4 in another deuce.  In the decider, Martyn managed to contained Alan's big shots better, to take it in five, for a 4-2 home lead.  Aidan managed to reduced the deficit in set 7, with a steady performance, to nullify Maruisz's big hitting.  Martyn against Dave was another thriller, with Dave taking leg 1, Martyn just shading legs 2 and 3, only for Dave inevitably taking it to the decider.  Once again, it was Martyn who finished the stronger, completing his maximum by just taking game 5, so giving the home team a 5-3 lead.  The final singles was myself playing Alan, which last time had gone to 18-16 in the 5th, but despite three very close legs which saw me 2-1 up, this time I ended up winning in four legs, to give Adeyfield B a 6-3 lead, and ensure we leap-frogged back above Crown & Sceptre B.  The icing on the cake for the home team was to also grab the doubles, in a very tight four gamer, although perhaps more of a gritty win than high quality!?  So, Adeyfield B were 7-3 winners, and back to the top of the table, three points ahead of Crown & Sceptre B, with Flamstead A, Adeyfield C (8-2 winners on the adjacent table) and McAlpine all still in with a shout, in what is proving to be a very close division.  Deserved Player of the Match was Martyn Ford, contributing an excellent maximum.