Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 171
Dateline: 17 February 2024
The path to the Final!
Four of the club's teams have been involved this week in terrific battles for a place in the finals of the respective Divisional Cup competitions in the Liverpool & District League. The Divisional Cup is a knock-out competition for teams in a specific division of the Liverpool League, with each division having its own competition. As you might expect, the teams at the top of the division are quite likely to reach the final of the cup, as each match is a straight knockout! So, the semi-finals played this week have typically featured some of the best teams in each division! Here is how our teams got on.
1st and A Teams (Division 1 - The Readman Cup)
Unusually both of our 1st Division teams were in semi-final action this week. The first match of the week was a quite sensational one! There is excellent video coverage of it on the Liverpool League Facebook page. The match, played at Marine, pitted our A Team (Lawrence Kenwright, Matty Wilson & Colin Turner) against one of their keenest rivals in the 1st Division, Jaguar Land Rover. The A Team came to this match fresh off of individual appearances in the Southport Closed Championships the night before. So, they were well prepared. There was some top class table tennis played by both sides, with the first 4 sets being shared. The BSM boys then moved ahead, only to be pegged back so that after 8 sets honours were even. The last singles of the night would decide the outcome, Lawrence versus Andy Taylor for JLR. Andy had lost his previous set to Matty, but he looked far more comfortable against Lawrence's style of play. This was a great set to finish an excellent evening of table tennis, the only downside being that the result fell the wrong way for the BSM boys! Andy took the final set 1:3, thus JLR prevailed 4:5. What a match!
The week ended with the 1st Team visiting the home of top team, Crosby High. Unbeaten in the League so far this season with a record of 12 straight wins going into this cup tie no-one was going to bet against the Crosby side for this one. The match started evenly, with both teams winning a set. After that it was a one-way street, with the home team reeling off wins in the next four sets for a clear victory 5:1. A good match with the final score reflecting the difference in position in the division.
Above: Top left, the BSM 1st Team, Dermot Tierney, Steve Green and Clare Peers, and alongside the match card for Crosby High v BSM 1st.
Next the BSM A Team of Lawrence Kenwright, Colin Turner & Matty Wilson. Followed by the Jaguar Land Rover Team, Terry Turner, Andy Taylor & Liu Kin Nam. And on this line to the left, the match card BSM A v JLR.
E Team (Division 4 - The Forrest Cup)
Just Andy Armstrong's E Team remained in the Div 4 Divisional Cup of the club's three teams in this division. And they faced a tricky visit to Crosby High to face the Crosby High E (Jnr) team. Being forced to play two substitutes didn't help either but nevertheless this looked like a potentially very even match. The Crosby High team had a clear advantage at the top of the order but the BSM team should have had an edge in the bottom half of the order. However, somehow the match didn't quite go to plan! The youngest player of both sides, Oliver Glowacki, had other ideas about the outcome. His win meant that the BSM team weren't fully able to test out the resilience of the bottom half of the Crosby High team. Ivan Maksym pulled of one win for the visitors, but it just wasn't enough the juniors of Crosby High going on to take the match and a place in the final 5:1. A very good performance by the juniors of the home team.
Above the BSM E: Scott French, Steve Rees, Keith Dudley, and Ivan Maksym.
Above right, the Crosby High E (Jnr) Team with Manager Rafal Glowacki (centre), Jakub & Oliver Glowacki and Liam & Jayden Chau.
Followed by the match card for Crosby High E (Jnr) v BSM E.
H Team (Division 5 - The Stamp Cup)
The midweek match found Captain, Keith Hardman's H Team at Marine entertaining the top team from the fifth division, Arriva B. The bus boys had already beaten the BSM team convincingly in the league, so started off with high confidence. The first two sets saw each team open their account, Darren Harrison winning for Arriva before Alan Hale equalised for the home side. But then 3 wins without reply looked to have put the bus boys on the winning line. But not over it! Fighting displays, first from Stuart Reid then a great win by Alan Hale over Tony Harrison followed by an excellent win by Steve McCormick over the visiting No.1 had the BSM team right back in the match, 4 sets each! A deciding doubles was needed to separate the teams. For this the bus men brought on their most experienced pairing, The Harrison Brothers! The BSM pair of Steve and Stuart, just couldn't match them, the set ran away and with it the tie! After such a fight back, captain Keith was 'gutted' for his boys! A terrific match though and the narrowest of wins for the top side.
Above left, the H Team, Stuart Reid, Steve McCormick, Alan Hale and Richard Woodley. And on the right the match card.
To the left, the Arriva B team, Tony Harrison, Paul Heslin, Darren Harrison and Colin Williams, with their team mascot Jack Heslin.
And in conclusion.......
Some very good matches this week in the cup, but sadly the club will have no teams in the finals. We will have to try again next season.