LEAGUE SUPPLEMENTARY CHAMPIONSHIPS (PLAYED ON 20 NOV) SUMMARY
Published 23/11/2022 at 13:31:41 by David Wackrill.
EVENTS : HANDICAP SINGLES, ‘POT LUCK’ DOUBLES, HARD BAT SINGLES, LOWER DIVISION SINGLES & ‘POT LUCK’ DOUBLESEntry has remained consistent now for a few years, 36 initially this time with a few drop-out on the day. A smattering of players from all Divisions represented though with Div 5 supplying the most with 6 and Divs 1 & 4 the least with 2 each. Quite a few contestants were venturing into tournament table tennis for the first time and I hope they enjoyed the day and will be back. It was certainly nice to see players from different Divisions mingling and chatting together off court. There were 4 events as usual with the welcome return of my particular favourite, the Hard Bat Singles, omitted from last season’s competitions because of time constraints.
HANDICAP SINGLES
Format : best of 3 games up to 15 points with handicap range from -12 to +9
Competitors were divided into 8 groups of 3 or 4 with 2 going through from each group to the last 16, with play continuing on a knock-out basis. No major shocks at the group stage with Abhay Tijare from Div 1 being the highest ranked player eliminated. But then some big names fell in the first round proper with Alan Cherry, on highest handicap, the only survivor from the top 2 divisions at the quarter-final stage.
Ageless Jim Brogan, from Div 3, had a great run to the semi with wins at deuce in the deciding game against Prem’s Darren Ward and defending champion Saravana Kumar, who not only won this event last year but the other two events held as well! Jim met his match in the semi, however, going down tamely to Muhammad Hamza. Alan meanwhile had come through the other half of the draw without dropping a game.
It proved to be a terrific final, with Muhmmad hitting strongly off his handicap of +3 with the opening two games shared. All to play for now and the title looked certain to be Muhammad’s when he held 6 match points after taking a commanding 14-8 lead in the decider. But then he missed a few shots and opted for a more conservative approach which played right into Alan’s hands, the Premier man sweeping up the next 8 points and, along with them, his 9th MK Handicap Singles title.
HARD BAT SINGLES
For the uninitiated, hard bats without rubber were the norm until a rule change in the 1960s allowed the use of rubber on the racket surface after which the sport was changed forever. These bats then mostly disappeared for a while but in the last 20 years or so there has been a revival of interest in them.
There were 16 entries for this competition and, it’s fair to say, the 4 Prem Div players involved reached the semi-final stage without difficulty. That was probably to be expected from Alan Cherry, Craig Brown and myself as we all have cabinets full of ‘Hard bat’ trophies, and we were joined by Darren Ward. Despite Darren having never held a hard bat in his hand before, he easily adjusted his usual style to cope with the change of technique required.
Darren went on to give Craig a good game in the semi-final too, losing over 4 games. With Alan beating me in the other half of the draw the scene was set for another Alan v Craig final, which have been commonplace in past years. While this one never reached the dizzy heights of some previous battles between these two excellent exponents of the form, it was still a pretty good ‘watch’ for spectators with Alan moving onto his 7th title in this format.
LOWER DIVISION SINGLES (AKA NICK WARTON TROPHY)
The trophy was named after the late Nick Warton, a much-missed former League stalwart.
Eligibility was restricted to players from Division 2 and below. with initial groups of 4 whittled down to 16 survivors where the knock-out stage began. The competition had been held on 10 previous occasions resulting in 10 different winners, a pattern that was broken this time with last year’s champion Saravana Kumar successfully defending his title.
The losing semi-finalists were James Carter, who had to see off Simon Green at deuce in the 5th at the quarters-final stage before going out to Mohammad Hamza, and William Pengchong. In a repeat of last year’s final Mohammad raced into a 2-1 game lead before Saravana fought back strongly, his excellent trademark backhand shots in full flow, to take the crown once again.
‘POT LUCK’ DOUBLES
There were 16 pairings here with partners drawn for, although the top players were kept apart for fairness.
.It’s often said that one of the great attractions of our sport is that people of all ages can compete against each other on a level playing field. This truism was well illustrated here when 12 year old James Carter (and me) were drawn to play against 82 years young Jim Brogan and his partner Afra Tian.
Generally, all the pairings were well balanced, as intended, and this resulted in some terrific contests throughout, climaxing in a final between Craig Brown/Chitra Balakrishna and Clare Styles/Slava Volokha with Craig/Chitra pulling through to take the title.
Finally, many thanks to League chairman Mike Howard for organising the competitions and acting as tournament referee. That was a lot of hard work and everything ran smoothly on the day.