211126 | bsmttc

News Release - BSMTTC News 129

Dateline: 26 November 2021

Cup Round 2!

Four of the club's teams were in action in Round 2 of the respective Liverpool Table Tennis League's Divisional Cup competitions, with mixed outcomes and some quite interesting matches!

The Rumjahn Cup - Division 2

The week began and ended with the A & B Teams in action in the Division 2 cup.

First up was the A Team on Monday, with a visit to QVC, playing in 'freezing' conditions at Sefton Park. Captain, Brian Crolley, fielded a good side with his No.1 Barry Davis, Colin Mitchell and himself. Once more Barry proved his quality at this level taking all 3 of his singles, even though he had to fight all the way in his encounter with Panchu Xavier. But the match didn't start well with Brian and Colin dropping the first two sets. However, each had a chance to redeem themselves in their next sets. Brian took a two game lead in his next set, but somehow allowed his lead to slip away, losing out in the fifth. Then exactly the same happened to Colin, a two game lead slipped away. And for Colin worse was to follow, when in set 8 another very close set slipped away in the fifth end. With three sets slipping away deep in the fifth there was no back up for Barry's wins, allowing QVC to take the match 5:3

The second match in the Division 2 cup featured the B Team at home to CADWA. With the advantage of a 3:0 start, due to the visitors being a player short, and two fairly evenly matched teams, one might have expected the home team to progress to the next round. Dave Noden took over the team captaincy in the absence of normal team captain Dave Stoddern. Freddie Bainbridge came out of retirement to fill the gap left by injury to Dave McMahon and line up with Dave and 17 year old Euan Mason. In recent weeks Euan has been one of the unluckiest players in the club, featuring in some titanic battles and narrowly loosing out in 5 game matches. Regrettably this run of form continued in this match, with Euan losing both singles deep in the fifth.Captain Dave fared little better, and by the time Freddie won the club's only success of the night in another five game struggle, it was too late! CADWA had already won the match! As set No.7 was played as set 9 to give the visiting player a break between sets! Some really good, close table tennis, but it just didn't go the way of the home team!

At the back, the BSM B team of Fred Bainbridge, Dave Noden & Euan Mason.
At the front, the CADWA team of Alan French and Ian Burrows.

The Stamp Cup - Division 5

Having shown a big improvement in recent weeks, Keith Hardman's E Team faced the might of Crosby High D at Crosby High on Tuesday. With the match to be played over 2 tables with one table being shared with another parallel match it was at times difficult to keep track of what was happening! The home side put out their strongest line-up for this match, and it showed right from the start as the Crosby side raced through the first 5 sets to give an emphatic victory, despite some very good play from the BSM team.

The BSM E Team - Steve McCormick, Tony Rimmer, Stuart Reid and Dave Aimson.

The Forrest Cup - Division 4

There is no doubt though that match of the week has to go to the clash between BSM C and Bootle YMCA C in the Division 4 Cup. There is lots that one could say about this match! Suffice it to say that it was a tremendous team effort, with victory being snatched from the jaws of defeat by a heroic effort from Keith Dudley in set 8 when the team were 3:4 down. Having clawed back to 4:4 the match went to a deciding doubles which Sam Pierce and Captain Andrew Armstrong won with seeming ease compared to some of the earlier sets! A great night, hopefully the picture video below tells its own story!

And in conclusion.......

Just 1 team left in these divisional ciup competitions with the next round of matches not until February!