W/C 21/09/26
Div One:
Due to club building works, two player Crafthole A (Iain Oxenham, Shirley Luckhurst) played their match against Molyneux Associates B (Alper Eroglu, Russ Keith and Steve Hil) at the league headquarters at Desborough Lane, St Judes. The extra travel might have disrupted Luckhurst as she lost all her matches but battled hard losing two matches in five games and one in four games. Eroglo took another maximum for his team and also the doubles to secure an 8-2 victory for Molyneux.
The Miss Hits (Kai Fowler and Mo Arsal), were totally thankful to stand-in Jan Walaszkowski for talking all of their three points whilst playing Molyneux Associates C (Toby Spencer, Steve Garlick and Steve Tyler). One of the closest matches saw Spencer take a 2-1 lead over Arsal (6-11, 11-7, 11-9) only for Arsal to level in the fourth end 11-9. It was then Spencer who went on to win the final end 11-5.
Shopfitting by SWS A could only field two players against Molyneux Associates A and lost 4-6 but Mark Weymouth managed to secure a maximum for SWS.
Div Two:
There was a close encounter when Shopfitting by SWS E (Chris Tucker, Tony Powlesland and Les Cole) hosted Lee Mill (Mark Chapman, Ann Warren and Wendy Quick) but it was Tucker, securing yet another perfect maximum, who stole the show. The outstanding match saw a topsy-turvy match between Powlesland and Warren. Warren took a 2-1 lead but lost the fourth end on a 10-12 tie-break only to win the final end convincingly 11-2. The final score saw SWS win 6-4.
Woodland Fort B (Graham Cooksley 3) began their season with a narrow 6-4 win over Astor A, with six of the ten games going tie-break fifth ends. Lucas Deves playing up from Division Three for Woodland Fort pushed his experienced opponents to fifth ends in all of his games and picked a valuable point by beating Steve Harvey 6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5 and an epic 17-15 decider. The matches were so close, only one point separated the teams with Fort edging it 418-417 throughout the evening.
Shopfitting by SWS C (John Sherlock, John Palmer and Trevor Mole) could only draw with Burrington Way Garage (Abel Hernandez, John Goodfield and Norman Hall) with Mole taking a hat-trick of points, only losing one end to Hernandez. The draw was a fair result seeing seven ends were decided on tie-breaks.
A match postponed from last week saw Shopfitting by SWS D (Steve Foster, Rob Barnes and Bryn Ford) play their Club mates from the C team (Trevor Mole, John Sherlock and John Palmer) with the result going 7-3 in favour of the D team thanks to a perfect straight games maximum for Barnes. The combined age of the players amounted to 432 years, showing age is nothing in this great sport.
Div Three:
Horrabridge (Isa Puente, Crispin Jordan and Dave Vanstone) came away with an 8-2 victory when they played Molyneux Associates D (Jeremy Willcox, Alan Spencer and Pete Andrews) and look like true contenders for promotion. The match of the evening saw Vanstone take a two-game lead over Andrews 12-14, 7-11, only for Andrews to level the match winning 11-8, 11-9, the fifth and final end was a nail bitter with Vanstone eventually winning 14-16.
Young 13-year-old Jack Swain played his first ever match in the league for Astor B and enjoyed his evening and the experience will put him in good stead for the future despite losing to John Dodd who had 60 years more experience! Astor were however white washed by Fitness At Home who are also vying for the promotion spots.
Molyneux Associates E (Shuan Hughes, Jamie Canning and Fraser Scott) could only draw with Woodland Fort C (Mike Willis, Lucas Deves and Richard Searle) despite the great effort from Hughes winning a maximum.
W/C 14/09/26
The Plymouth & District Table Tennis Club, started their new league season this week and were excited to play on their new World Championship tables at their Headquarters at Desborough Lane, St Judes, Plymouth.
Div One:
Molyneux Associates B (Alper Eroglu, Russ Keith and Ben Sanbury), got off to a good start beating a new team The Miss Hits 9-1 (Johnny Hill, Kai Fowler and Mo Arsal), Newcomer to the league, Fowler managing to save the whitewash.
Toby Spencer of Molyneux Associates C (Steve Garlick and Mike Briggs) played his first ever games in the top flight and came away with an incredible maximum against Crafthole A (Iain Oxenham, Shirley Luckhurst and Mike Cookson), requiring four ends to achieve it in every set. Crafthole’s Luckhurst took a point along with the doubles with Cookson but lost 2-8.
Div Two:
Burrington Way Garage (Jonathan Goodfield, Abel Hernandez and Norman Hall), who used to be Woodland Fort A, secured a 7-3 win over visitors Crafthole B (Antony Shapland, John Cumbers and Martin Wilcox) with Hernandez taking a maximum for the Garage. The tightest match saw Jon Goodfield win over Wilcox. Goodfield took the first two end on tie-breaks 13-11 but then lost the third end 13-15 but went on to secure the team point winning the next end 11-4. Crafthole’s newcomer Cumbers managed his first ever win by beating Norman Hall.
Chris Tucker of Shopfitting by SWS E (Keith James and Tony Powlesland) secured a perfect maximum and in a league of his own over Astor A (Nigel Aston, Steve Harvey and Andy Watmore) by not losing an end. This helped his team to a 6-4 victory. The toughest match saw Watmore jump into a two-nil lead over James, only for James to level the match at 2-a-piece. Watmore then upped his game to win the fifth end 11-4.
Div Three:
Unfortunately, Molyneux Associates D (Alan Spencer and Pete Andrews) could only field two player but Spencer and Andrews both won braces when facing Fitness At Home (Chris Dodd, Mike Chapple, and John Dodd). Spencer was unlucky not to secure a maximum after losing 5-11 to Chapple in the fifth end. The final score favoured Fitness at Home 6-4.
Horrabridge (Isa Puente, Crispin Jordan and Max Jordan) whitewashed Astor A (Steve Nolan, Jewel Vittle and stand-in Jamie Canning) with only three sets going to a fourth end and Horrabridge winning 70% of the individual match points. Canning did his utmost to win a set and was unlucky losing both of his tie-break games. Astor’s Steve Nolan was playing his first ever match in the league and will improve with more coaching and practice.
