02/03/08

Burnham & District League Table Tennis Tournament

Day One

The day started with the Fambridge Trophy event for division three players and the first upset came when young Stefan Oliverio from Woodham beat number three seed Bill Puxley (Maldon U3A) to win the group which led to Bill meeting number one seed John Skuse (Maldon U3A) in the quarter finals and making his exit from the event. The other seeds progressed as expected to the semi-finals, John Skuse beat number four seed Roy Davis (Woodham) to secure his place in the final, and Stefan again provided an upset when he beat the experienced John Fell (Maldon U3A) to earn his place in the final. The final proved to be a game too far for Stefan as John Skuse recorded a straight sets victory.

The cadets singles was won by Mark Richardson (Woodham) beat Hannah Butcher in four sets. The other junior events were dominated by Jack Fisher and James Anderson both of Cold Norton, firstly they teamed up to take the junior doubles beating brothers Mark and Daniel Richardson (Woodham) in a five set thriller 6-11,13-11,7-11,11-7,11-8, then they met in the singles final when Jack upset the form book by overcoming number one seed James in another five setter with Jack recovering from two sets to one down to eventually take the fifth set 11-4. The junior girl’s singles was won for the fourth year in a row by Emma Dadswell (Woodham) and once again she beat Stephanie Davies (Woodham) in the final.

The restricted singles (open to all divisions except division one) was a particularly closely fought event with the only surprise from the group stage coming when eighth seed Graham Briggs (Woodham) failed to progress with John Mulley (Maldon U3A) and Barnaby Howes (Woodham) coming through from that group, otherwise the seeds took their predicted places in the draw. The first upset in the knockout stages came when Terry Hyland (Cold Norton) seeded six upset number three seed Tim Pulham (Stow Maries) at the quarter final stage to set up a meeting with number two seed Norman Hayes (Maldon U3A) which turned out to be a real thriller with Terry coming out on top 11-9,11-9, 4-11, 10-12,11-6 to progress to the final where he met, number one seed, David Knights (Stow Maries) who comfortably beat Alan Dadswell (Woodham) in the other semi final. Terry then completed a superb run by beating David in four sets for a well deserved victory having beaten the top three seeds on the day.

The Handicap events provided much entertainment and interest with the lower ranked players taking full advantage of their handicaps in the semi finals Emma Dadswell (+14) beat Roy Davis (+5) and Mitch Davies (+3) beat Alan Dadswell (-6) all four players coming from the Woodham club, in the final the 11 point start that Emma had proved to much for Mitch and she recorded her second success of the day. In the handicap doubles Dave Hancox and Barnaby Howes (Woodham) (+1) beat Alan Dadswell and Russell Hyland (-2).

The mixed open event sprung a major surprise when division two player Peter Mynard (West Maldon) knocked out the experienced Nigel Lamb (Mapledene) in five sets. Holder Dave Calleja (Mapledene) came through from the top half of the draw beating Lin Murray (Mapledene) in the semi final while Glen Johnson (Mapledene) came through from the rather tougher bottom half having to beat three tough opponents in Babul McLeod (Mapledene), John Cleasby (Maldon) and finally Peter Hance (Stow Maries) in the semi to reach the final. Given that warm up it was not surprising that Glen overcame Dave in the final in straight sets.

Day 2

The day got off to a start with the under 25’s event where Lee McHugh of Woodham did well to progress through his group to meet favourite David Knights in the semi final where the difference in class showed as David progressed to his second final of the weekend. Peter Mynard (West Maldon) beat Adam Morrison (Woodham) in the other semi final but then lost out to David in the final.

The mixed doubles threw up a surprise when Dave Calleja (Mapledene) and Janet Pannell (Cold Norton) beat number two seeds Peter Ballard and Val Board (Fambridge) at the semi final stage, however they found number one seeds George Reeves and Lin Murray just too strong in the final.

In the ladies events as expected the top two seeds Val board and Lin Murray came through to the final where Val upset the seeding as she beat Lin with a fine display of attacking table tennis. The pair of them then duly took the Ladies Doubles event at the expense of Diane King (Woodham) and Janet Pannell.

The over 50’s singles event proceeded as seeded until the semi-finals where Peter Ballard cruised past John Cleasby in straight sets, but number two seed Peter Saunders (Fambridge) was just edged out by Glen Johnson at 12-10 in the fifth set, this was a superb effort from Peter as he had suffered severe cramp during the fifth set but continued to play following treatment and pushed Glen all the way. In the final Peter Ballard’s many years of experience saw him home in four sets. Earlier in the day Peter Saunders pulled off one of the major shocks of the day when he beat George Reeves in the semi final of the Veterans (over 40’s) singles to set up a final meeting with team-mate Peter Ballard who once again triumphed in a final although it must be said that the his previous exertions were by then telling on Peter Saunders. The veterans doubles proved to be an interesting event we firstly had the unfortunate situation of Keith Shepherd pulling out due to illness which left Andrew Halling seeded number one without a partner however this did not deter Andrew and after questioning every likely suspect in the building managed to find Herbie Smith amongst the spectators and pressed him into service despite a lack of suitable footwear and kit although fortunately his bat was in his car. With all that effort it seemed like Andrew deserved to progress but unfortunately the scratch pair went out at the first hurdle to Craig Foster and Chris Crooks (Fambridge) who then took advantage of the draw to proceed to the semi finals where they were well beaten by number four seeds George Reeves and Bill Smith (Mapledene). In the other half of the draw Eric Green (Stow Maries) and Dave Calleja  won through to the final at the expense of Glen Johnson and Richard Hiskey (Mapledene). In a closely fought final it was George Reeves and Bill Smith who came out victorious in five sets, this was a thoroughly deserved moment of glory for Bill Smith who runs the Mapledene club virtually single handedly and still finds time to organise the league dinner and dance. (Tickets available for Friday 11^th May contact Bill on 01702 230536).

The Men’s doubles produced some excellent table tennis with the unseeded pairing of Paul Grant and Babul McLeod (both Mapledene) producing some great form to remove Graeme Hurry and George Reeves and set up a semi final clash with top seeds Kevin Read and Andrew Halling (both Mapledene) which will be long remembered as a great display of attacking doubles play from both pairs and could really have gone either way but Kevin and Andrew just came out on top 8-11,11-8,11-6, 11-13, 13-11. Due to Peter Saunders cramp he and his partner John Cleasby had to concede their semi final to Peter Ballard and Eric Green. The final was again  a super match this time the attack of Kevin and Andrew against the more defensive Ballard /Green pair, Eric and Peter seemed to be on the way to victory as they won the first two sets but Kevin and Andrew came storming back to take the last three 7,7,8 and become worthy champions.

The blue riband event the Men’s singles went pretty much with seeding as the top two seeds Kevin Read and George Reeves both progressed to the final although George was pushed all the way particularly by Paul Grant in the quarter-final. The final was all about who could get their big attacking shots in first and it proved to be George as he won in four sets 9-11,11-6,11-6,11-9.

The two days saw about 22 hours of table tennis and this does not just happen without a lot of work behind the scenes by a number of people so lets be thankful to those people for the work they put in. Lighting by Craig Foster and his son Lee (who does not play but still does more than 90% of the people who do play!). Tables put up (and removed) by a team including Dave Goody, Brian Ellis, Trevor Williams, Martin Knights, Peter Ballard supervised by Keith Mays. Refreshments by June Knights with help from Bob and Marina Partridge plus others for cooking various items. Val Board for organising a raffle to extract extra cash from all. Finally for spending 22 hours at the control table and many more than that planning the event Keith Mays without whom the event would not run so well. Thank you to all the players who turned up on time (that does not include you Janet) especially considering that the clocks went forward over the weekend and thank you to all for making Keith’s job a little easier by doing your umpiring when requested.

And Finally

Before someone else does it I had better see how my predictions got on (I will only include the definite predictions made in my preview) –

Junior Boys prediction James Anderson result runner-up

Junior girls Emma Dadswell, winner

Handicap Singles – Brian Ellis, Dave Goody, Richard Hiskey – Brian and Dave were both knocked out early and Richard scratched from the event so a total failure!

Handicap Doubles - Paul Grant and Roy Davis knocked out in the first round by some bloke called Dadswell and his partner Russell Hyland……Oops

Under 25’s - David Knights, winner.

Mixed Doubles - Peter Ballard and Val Board, semi finalists.

Ladies Singles – Lin Murray, runner up.

Ladies Doubles – Val Board and Lin Murray, winners.

Over 50’s – Peter Ballard, winner.

Veterans – George Reeves, semi finalist

Men’s Doubles – Kevin Read and Andrew Halling, winners.

Men’s Singles – George Reeves, winner

Not too bad if you think you could do better then remember to try next year!