Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub

Bootle YM 1 v BSM 3

The all 1st Division BSM 3 team, of Dermot Tierney (Captain), Claire Peers and Colin Turner, faced a trip to Bootle. This is the first season these players have actually played together in this competition, and what a run they have had so far! They faced a mixed standard team of division 2/3 players in the form of Eddie Preston, Aleks Charcenko and Bert Rivers (Captain), and also a handicap disadvantage of 78 points! This could have been a real banana skin match as the opponents are tough, experienced, players. But in the end the quality of the division 1 players shone through and they made the match look comparatively easy, winning 17 out of 18 of the games played. As a contest the match was over by the fifth set, with the handicap advantage gone the only hope left for the Bootle players was to try and match the higher ranked players on the table. Aleks Charcenko did his best to do this, taking 1 game from Colin Turner but even that was not enough to add to the Bootle teams score as Colin more than made up for the narrow loss in the next game, turning up the heat! By the end the Bath Street team were 101 points ahead (after adjusting the small arithmetical error on the score card!). A job well done. So, how will they fare in the final....... ??

On the left: The Bootle YM 1 team of Aleks Charcenko, Bert Rivers and Eddie Preston
On the right: The BSM 3 team of Colin Turner, Claire Peers and Dermot Tierney.
And below the match score card. Claire was the outstanding player of the match.

BSM 4 v Crosby High 1

Andrew Armstrong has been all the way to the Vets Cup Final before with this team, and won it! Can history repeat itself? The route to the final however meant that the BSM team would first have to overcome a very strong team from Crosby High 1. Both teams involved quite a mixed line-up. The home team, BSM 3, comprising Andrew Armstrong (Captain), Keith Williams and Keith Dudley. A combination of division 1 and division 4 players with the stand out quality being Keith Williams. The Crosby team also had a mixed line-up, Roger Neal (Captain), Gemma Grant, and Tony Bramham. A combination of divisions 2, 1 and 5! Bringing in Tony spiced up the handicaps giving the visitors a 34 point start, but it seemed unlikely that he would be able to win any games in the context of the match. But, could Andrew and Keith hold out against the stronger Crosby players of Gemma (div 1) and Roger (div 2)? Some excellent table tennis was witnessed by the small crowd who had gathered to watch, with both sides winning games. But after 6 sets the home side had eroded the handicap and looked to be in a good position. If the Crosby side were to have any chance Tony Bramham would have to at least match Keith Dudley, he couldn't, and when Keith Williams then polished off Roger Neal after a very competitive first game the contest was over. Gemma won the last set for the visitors but it wasn't enough. The Bath Street team had turned a 34 point deficit into a 33 point win. Once again Keith Williams was the hero for the home side. But the fact that both Andrew and Keith D kept their accounts just about even were major factors in ensuring the win. A great team effort.

So, the scene is set for an all Bath Street Final. You can expect a crowd in for that!