Match Report  (courtesy of Martin Johnson)

   McAlpine   5 - 5   Adeyfield B

Division 2 leaders, Adeyfield B, were held to a 5-5 draw, largely thanks to the fine efforts of McAlpine's latest signing, Vijay Kumar, who hit a maximum, to counter doubles from Martyn Ford & Martin Johnson, whilst XinJun Wang, for McAlpine, and Trevor McFarlane, for Adeyfield B, collected one win each.

Martyn started proceedings with a three games win over Youguang Pan, running away with the third game, after the first two were close. However, any thoughts that Adeyfield B would run away with a big win were soon scotched, as first XinJun made quick work of Trevor, to even things up, and then Vijay came through a tight set to beat Martin Johnson over three close games. Martyn pulled the visitors level at 2-2, with a measured display of control and timely attacking to beat XinJun in three competitive legs, and then Martin put Adeyfield B back into the lead, with a comfortable straight games win against Youguang. Next up, Vijay found himself one game all with Trevor, as they exchanged 11-9 games, before Vijay started to find his range a bit better, to come through over four games, and level the match score at 3-3. The teams then swapped wins, as Martin came back from losing the opening game at deuce against XinJun to take the next three, whilst Vijay completed his treble, in a tough encounter with Martyn, but once he took the third game, 11-9, to go 2-1 ahead, he upped his play to take the fourth game more easily. Trevor quickly took the first game against Youguang, but from then on neither seemed to be able to gain the ascendancy, and three consecutive deuce games saw it go to the decider, which was close, yet again, with Trevor just sneaking over the line, with his 11-9 win in game five. However, the McAlpine pairing of XinJun/Vijay completed the draw, with a tight doubles win, over five games, against Martyn/Martin.

The result sees Adeyfield B take an eight point lead at the top, but having played a match more than Crown & Sceptre B, whose game with Flamstead A was postponed this week. McAlpine draw level on points with third placed Adeyfield C, but have played one match more, whilst Flamstead A are a further seven points back, but with matches in hand. It remains a five way tussle for the top of division 2, with five more League weeks to go, and things seem destined to go to the last few matches before two of the five grab the promotion spots.