Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 100
Dateline: 12 October 2019
Take a Break - For the Cup!
After 4 weeks of competitive league action it is time for the Club's teams to play out the 1st Round of the respective Divisional Cup competitions. Each Division of the Liverpool League has its own separate cup competition and all teams take part. The format is exactly the same as a league match, but the first team to win 5 sets stops the match and is the winner.
Three of our teams were fortunate enough to obtain a 'bye' in Round 1 (The B Team in Div 2, the D Team in Div 3 and the F Team in Div 4), so only 6 teams were in action. Here is a brief report on how they fared.
Readman Cup (Division 1)
Strangely enough both of the Club's division 1 teams were drawn against teams from Crosby High, and both were drawn away from home. Both were also involved in excellent matches. As the card opposite shows our 1st Team were no match for the top 2 players of Crosby High, but took all of the sets from the No.3 player leaving the match result as 5:3 in favour of Crosby High. It even looks as if there was a half chance in set 3 to take the match to a decider. A very good effort indeed against a very strong team. The A Team were however involved in a tremendous battle which went down to the wire! Matt Wilson was the man-of-the-match for the A Team taking all 3 of his singles. At 3:4 to the visitors, after Colin Turner had taken a vital win in set 2, it looked as if a steal might be possible. But neither Barry Davis nor Colin could cling on in the last two sets, giving the home side a very narrow 5:4 win.
Hyde Cup (Division 3)
With the D Team, also in Div 3, having a 'bye' in Round 1 of the Cup there was real pressure on the higher ranked C Team to progress through to the next round too. Drawn away from home to the talented Wavertree Labour D Team, currently standing on equal points with the C Team in the divisional table, the scene was set for a battle royal. And what a match it proved to be. The visitors were without team captain and No.1, Ian McElwee, but in vice-captain Dave Stoddern they found a real hero and undoubtedly the man-of-the-match. Euan Mason was called on first for the visitors, but struggled to get himself going, 1:0 to the home side. Dave McMahon then faced the inform Wavertree No.1 and put up a tremendous fight before loosing out in the 5th end. Dave S then started the fight back with a very effective win over the awkward Wavertree No.2 to get the BSM team on the score sheet. However another loss for Euan put the gap back to 2 sets, before a very patient display from Dave Mc pulled the BSM team back again, 3:2 to the home side. When Wavertree then went 4:2 up it looked as if there might be no joy for the visitors. But what a fight back by the Dave's! Including arguably the best match of the night with Dave Mc coming through 9:11 in the 5th to pull the match score back to 4:4. In the final set of the night 3 very close games all fell to Dave S giving the BSM team a tremendous 4:5 victory, and Dave S an unbeaten night. A great win.
To the right, the match card for Wavertree Lab D v BSM C. And above the BSM C Team, Dave McMahon, Euan Mason and Dave Stoddern, above them the BSM 1st Team of Clare Peers, Keith Williams & Dermot Tierney, and above them the match card for Crosby High Jnr v BSM 1st Team.
Forrest Cup (Division 4)
It will be just the F Team in Round 2 of the Forrest Cup after the E Team somehow managed to crash out of the competition, in a home tie with Waterloo A, without registering a score! It is still not clear how this happened in a match involving two fairly evenly matched sides. The score card tells it's own story, 0:5 in favour of the visitors!
Above, the match card for BSM E v Waterloo A; the BSM E Team - Andy Armstrong, Mark Benson, Keith Dudley & Colin Mitchell; then the conquering Waterloo A Team, Mark Brooks, Phil Cashmore, Nikolaj Primuk and Peter Roberts (front).
Stamp Cup (Division 5)
The Cup week both began and ended with the Club's teams in Division 5. Where there were contrasting fortunes. On Monday, G Team Captain, Keith Hardman, selected Tom Bell, Tony Rimmer, Ian Brownrigg and Jenny Givens for the visit of Sefton Park F to Marine. On this occasion the home side were no match for the visitors with the first 5 sets all being settled by 3 straight wins for the visitors. The week ended with the H Team also at Marine facing Wavertree Lab F. In this match it has to be said that the three juniors, Finn Mason, Eleanor Sinker and Keiron McEvoy played brilliantly. By far the teams best performance so far this season, and with each of the juniors involved in 1 win a-piece it enabled the team to take the match on the tie-breaker 9th set. A great way to end the week, and a particularly encouraging performance from our junior team
