Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub

Fun Doubles

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The day began with the ‘Fun Doubles’. The ‘fun’ is finding out who you are playing with! And then trying to play with a partner you have probably never played with before. With 4 doubles groups and 8 tables, it was possible for every player in the tournament to be on the tables playing right from the start. As a result of the last moment withdrawals and the new entrant a few hasty changes had to be made to the doubles pairs, but in no time at all play was under way. There were 3 groups of 4 pairs and one group of 3 pairs.

 

Group 1 surprisingly gave six very clear cut 2:0 results in the best of 3 game sets. The group included 3 players playing in a club tournament for the first time, and it was one of those, Billy Smith, who proved to be the difference between the teams. So much so, that it was two non-league table tennis players, Billy with his partner Mark Evans, who prevailed, sailing through their 3 matches seemingly with room to spare! Second division player, Dave McMahon, with his partner, junior, Ellis Haskell – also playing in his first club tournament, took second spot in the group with 2 wins. This left Bobby Vint & Rick Peak and Bob Wolstenholme & Stephen Riley to fight it out for the group wooden spoon! One thing is for certain there was some great entertainment in this group!

 

Group 2 contained the reigning doubles champions, Julian Quirk with his partner Sue Kirkwood. Very surprisingly this group also gave six very clear cut 2:0 results! Perhaps not so surprising as Julian & Sue were the only pair who had ever played together before! The group also had 3 players playing in a club tournament for the first time, and it was two of those players, James Haskell and his partner, junior Keshav Harave, who took the second spot with two wins. Scott French & Tony Mitchell and Ian Brownrigg and Hayden Thompson had to be content with fighting it out to avoid the bottom spot!

 

Group 3 probably had some of the closest matches in this first round of doubles with 4 out of the 6 sets needing the third game decider. It is still not clear now which team actually won the group! But somehow Marcin Bytnar with his partner Eva Abernethy were awarded top spot with their 2 wins. It has been suggested that it was Marcin who was working out the group placings! In the head-to-head with Kai Morgan & Sue Young it was Kai & Sue who narrowly prevailed 11:9 in the third, so arguably they had a good claim for a recount on the top spot! Also with 2 wins was Dave Aimson & Myles Ambrose. Each of their 3 sets was a 2:1 leaving them by just 1 game in third spot. Club Secretary, Graham Turner, with his partner Doreen Smith – also playing her first tournament – were left to hold up the group but still gave a very good account of themselves and won 1 game. It was great to see 3 junior players, Eva, Kai & Myles, performing particularly well in this group.

 

The final group, Group 4, was just 3 pairs but laden with quality and two juniors playing their first club tournament and boy, did they contribute to some excellent matches. The first set saw the No.1 seed in the singles, Colin Turner, join forces with new junior member 16-year-old James Gillbanks. They faced Keith Dudley with his 16-year-old partner, another newcomer to the club, Shamal Harave. The surprise here was how well Shamal played supporting Keith to give his team a clear 2:0 win. Colin & James returned to the table for set two this time taking on Mark Benson & Jenny Givens. And what a set this proved to be, with Colin & James just edging 13:11 in the third. And so, to the group decider. On paper this should have been a very even encounter, but Shamal again produced an excellent performance to give Keith and himself a clear 2:0 win and the group top spot.

 

The first semi-final, played later in the afternoon, saw reigning doubles champions Julian & Sue face the outsiders Mark Evans & Billy Smith. Two amazing games followed, and how Mark & Billy won them I still don’t know! But win them they did, with both games being a deuce finish. It couldn’t have been closer, some amazing and fearless ‘go for broke’ play from Billy saw them over the line and the reigning champions out.

 

The second semi-final featured what seemed two very evenly matched pairs. Marcin & 16-year-old Eva, facing Keith & Shamal. But the result was decisive. Keith & Shamal continuing their unbeaten run with a straight 2:0 victory even though the margin between the two teams was very narrow. Shamal seemed to be on fire!

 

What a match the Final was! Played as the very last set of the day with a good and appreciative crowd of spectators still at the arena. This one needed all three sets to decide the outcome. Keith & Shamal made a racing start, taking the first end 2:11. Mark & Billy fought back taking game two 11:8. Every point was keenly contested in the first half of the third game, but the change at 5 seemed to favour Keith & Shamal who forged ahead to take the game 7:11 and thus the set and match! New champions for the Fun Doubles, Keith Dudley & Shamal Harave.

The Main Event

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After the first round of the doubles everyone was back on the tables for the first round of the main event, The Ron Georgeson Memorial Shield Handicap Singles. All 8 tables were used with a group of either 3 or 4 players on each table. All five games were played in every set with the winner decided on points scored taking into account the difference in handicap between the two players. Each group had at least one seeded player, so that players of every level competed in each group.

 

In Group 1, junior Kai Morgan became the seeded player following the withdrawal of Lawrence Kenwright, who would have been the top seed in the tournament. Kai faced really tough opposition from Bob Wolstenholme, Sue Young and Doreen Smith having to give away points in every set. In a nail biting finale Kai just got the better of Bob Wolstenholme, for although Bob won the set 47pts to 44 to bring him even with Kai on 154 points Kai had overall the much bigger difference in total points won and lost to give him the top spot by the narrowest of margins.

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In Group 2, as the seeded player, James Haskell sailed through against Steve Riley and Sue Kirkwood to take an emphatic 15-point group win in this three person group.

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In Group 3, two senior players, Graham Turner and Keith Dudley, faced two juniors Shamal Harave and Eva Abernethy. The surprise package in this group was Shamal who made very good use of his handicap advantage to beat Keith but couldn’t repeat his performance when he faced Graham. With Graham winning 14 out of his 15 games, Keith being the only player to take a game from him, he was just able to edge the top spot by 3 points over Shamal. 

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Group 4 provided the biggest surprise of the first round when the 4th seed, Dave McMahon, was knocked out by junior Scott French. In their head-to-head group decider Dave won by 3 games to 2, but those two games plus Scott’s 14-point handicap advantage were enough to give him top spot by 8 points after he took all 5 games against each of the other two players in the group, Tony Mitchell and Ellis Haskell. A fabulously competitive group.

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In the second half of the draw, Group 5 featured the No.3 seed Julian Quirk. He faced strong opposition and a big handicap difference from Bobby Vint, Rick Peak and James Gillbanks. But in the end had just too much ammunition taking the group by a 26-point margin.

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Mark Benson was the seeded player in Group 6, where he faced Ian Brownrigg and Jenny Givens. In both sets Mark was able to overcome the handicap disadvantage to nudge ahead of his opponents, ending the group 10 points clear.

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In Group 7, the seeded Dave Aimson faced fierce opposition from Marcin Bytnar, Myles Ambrose and Hayden Thompson. It was the head-to-head between Dave and Marcin though that decided the group. Dave winning that by just 4 points in a 2:3 thriller that Marcin won on games but lost on points! It was those 4 points that were enough to secure top spot for Dave.

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In the final group, Group 8, the new top seed, Colin Turner faced a significant handicap disadvantage and tough opposition from Mark Evans, Billy Smith and Keshav Harave. But they simply didn’t have enough even with the handicaps to put the seed at risk. Colin taking the group by 24 points. 

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The first of the Quarter Finals was the closest of them all. The underdog Kai Morgan facing his coach James Haskell. With the handicap in his favour Kai put up a tremendous fight, but in the end fell just 3 points short. Lapses in games 3 and 4 allowed James to recover the handicap disadvantage.

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The second quarter final also saw upcoming junior Scott French facing coach Graham Turner. Scott was able to take one game by a single point but fell fowl to errors in returning basic back spin chop in other games to allow Graham through by 14 points.

The No.3 seed, Julian Quirk, continued his march in the third quarter final disposing of Mark Benson with some margin to spare by 18 points.

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In the fourth quarter final, Dave Aimson proved no match for Colin Turner even with a 15-point handicap advantage, the quality of the higher ranked player shining through.

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In the first semi-final two very evenly matched players James Haskell and Graham Turner faced each other. Surprisingly in this, James simply couldn’t get his more attack minded game going allowing Graham to take all five games and so the set. An unexpected finalist.

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The second semi-final would have made a worthy final, with the No.3 seed Julian Quirk facing the No.2 seed Colin Turner. Just 2 points separated them on handicap. Just 1 point was the difference between them in the first two games, but somehow Colin lost his way in sets 3 and 4. The final game was neck and neck, but Colin simply couldn’t pull back the points lost in the previous two games. Julian taking the match 4 games to 1, and 56 points to 43. 

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Compared to the second semi-final, the actual final was a slight anti-climax, Graham simply didn’t have the power or consistency to match his higher ranked opponent. Graham’s handicap advantage did place Julian under a little pressure, but not enough. Julian running out winner by 8 points.  A new club champion was crowned.