November Tournament Report
Published 29/12/2023 at 19:14:37 by Martin Johnson; edited 1 times, last on 30/12/2023 at 14:33:25 by Martin Johnson.
November Tournament ReportTwenty-eight competitors braved a fairly cold Kingston Table Tennis Centre for the League’s end of November jamboree – featuring four events, namely Handicap Singles, Pot Luck Doubles, Nick Warton Trophy and the Hard Bat Singles - with the event organizer being Mike Howard. Division 5 was best represented, with seven entrants, followed by five from Division 4, then four each from Divisions 2 and 7, followed by three each from the Premier and Division 3, and finally one each from Divisions 1 and 6.
Handicap Singles
Play got underway shortly after 9:30pm, with just a couple of players awaited, but who duly turned up in good time to take part in one of seven groups of four players in the Handicap Singles event. Handicaps ranged from -11 for top of the Premier Division, all the way up to +9, in a slightly unusual format of best of three games (in the groups), with each game the first up to 15 points, and with serves in sets of five, rather than two. Everyone soon got their heads around the different format (mostly), and play got going in the first six groups of four, with group seven to go on once the first group finished. Qualification for the last 16 was to be top or runner-up in a group (in which each player played the other three in the group), along with the two best third placers from all of the seven groups.
Group 1 saw Nick Howard win his three sets, dropping just one leg to Ian Grainger, who also took Nick to 15-11 in the decider, with Ian winning his other two sets to grab runners-up spot, although it took 15-13 in the third to dispatch Frances Gander, who came third, in turn just ahead of Orrin Edwards, courtesy of the closest set of the day, at 20-18 in the third!
Group 2 saw the closest group of all, with James Carter, Nick London and Darren Ward each winning twice, ahead of Anna Malahova. On countback, Darren finished third on games difference, whilst James and Nick were level on games difference, but with James taking top spot as he’d beaten Nick.
Group 3 also required countback, as Liz Dreyer, Ian Bell and Sarah Hudson each won twice, ahead of John Bradbury, and, with all three having the same games difference, it went down to points, where Liz took it by seven points, ahead of Ian, to leave Sarah third.
Group 4 had a clear winner in Lewis Copp, although he dropped one leg to Simon Green, whilst Eugene Butan took second, only just ahead of Marlon Fearon, courtesy of a 17-15 in the third victory.
Group 5 also had a clear winner, with Muhammed Hamza taking top spot ahead of Martin Johnson, after they’d both ensured progression with two wins, before they met in the final group match. Stefan Swift had earlier pushed Muhammed very close, but just lost out 13-15, 20-18, 13-15.
Group 6 was won by Kareem Omar, ahead of Chris Shamuyarira, after defeating Chris in a decider in the final match of the group. Clive Wilmer edged out Bernard Green for third, courtesy of a 15-11 win in the deciding leg of their match.
Group 7 eventually got underway, and Jim Brogan topped this one, just ahead of Hein Myo Latt and then Craig Brown, in another group that needed countback, with Jim taking top spot from Hein by five points.
The knockouts featured the seven group winners and seven runners-up, joined by Sarah Hudson and Darren Ward as the best third placers, just edging out Craig Brown. Darren took advantage of making it through, getting as far as the semi-finals without losing any games, where he, in turn, lost out in straight games to Lewis Copp, who had been pushed to three games by Nick London in the quarters. In the other half of the draw, Nick Howard also progressed to the semis, despite a close one against Hein Myo Latt, where he faced James Carter, who had battled through two close games against Ian Bell and Muhammad Hamza. James came through with flying colours, in straight games, to set up a final of James Carter versus Lewis Copp. It was James who maintained his great form to comfortably take the final in two straight games, to become Handicap Singles champion. Well done, James.
Pot Luck Doubles
Fourteen pairings contested the Pot Luck Doubles, which was straight knockout, and back to standard scoring of best of five games up to 11 points, with service alternating every two points. In the opening round, Jim Brogan and Orrin Edwards put out the all ladies team of Sarah Hudson and Anna Malahova in a very tight five games, Muhammad Hamza and Marlon Fearon also needed five to oust James Carter and Marion Fisher, and a third to go the distance was Clive Wilmer and Mike Howard (who’d stepped in to replace Kareem Omar, who’d had to leave early) against Simon Green and Ian Grainger, with Clive & Mike taking it at 11-9 in the fifth. Others through, all in straight games, were Ian Bell / Orrin Edwards, Darren Ward / Hein Myo Latt and Liz Dreyer / Chris Shamuyarira, plus Craig Brown / Frances Gander and Nick Howard / Tom Reddall, who’d received the two first round Byes. The closest quarter-final saw Nick / Tom come through 11-7 in the fifth to beat Clive / Mike, where they faced Darren / Hein who’d needed four games to beat Liz / Chris. In the other half of the draw, it was straight games wins for Muhammad / Marlon against Craig / Frances and for Orrin / Ian B against Jim / Bernard. Both semi-finals needed five games, though, with Muhammad / Marlon defeating Orrin / Ian, and Darren / Hein squeaking through at 12-10 in the fifth against Nick / Tom.
The final was another nail-biter, with fortunes ebbing to / fro, but in the fifth game it was Muhammad Hamza and Marlon Fearon who took it 11-9, to defeat Darren Ward and Hein Myo Latt, and thus provide the Pot Luck Doubles champions. Congratulations to Muhammad and Marlon.
Nick Warton Trophy
The Nick Warton Trophy is an event for players from Divisions 2 and below, only, and was again run as a straight knockout event, with standard scoring, which started alongside the Pot Luck Doubles, and there were 24 entries for this competition. The first round saw eight matches, and were mostly comfortable wins, with no real surprises, and the closest being Tom Reddall beating Frances Gander 11-6 in the fifth. Matches were getting a bit closer in the last sixteen, in particular Ian Grainger beating team mate Chris Shamuyarira 11-8 in the fifth, Orrin Edwards edging Liz Dreyer at 11-9 in the fifth and Simon Green with a 12-10 in the decider win over Jim Brogan. At the quarter-finals stage, the four Division 2 players in the field backed up their higher Division status, all going through, although Lewis Copp dropped one leg to Simon Green, as did Kareem Omar against Orrin Edwards, whilst James Carter had the closest call, squeaking through a five game thriller against Muhammad Hamza at 11-8 in the fifth, to join Martin Johnson who’d come through in straight games against a tired Ian Grainger.
Unfortunately, Kareem Omar had to leave early for work having made the quarters, leaving Lewis Copp with a walkover through to the final, where he ended up playing Martin Johnson, who came through four tight games against James Carter in the other semi-final. Martin started the stronger to take the first leg, but the next two legs were nip and tuck, each taking one at deuce, but Martin again got away in the next, to take the Nick Wharton Trophy title in four legs. Well done me!
Hard Bat Singles
The final event of the day saw most of the players to try playing with a hard bat bemoaning their ability to hit the ball with any pace *and* keep it on the table, although after much amusing practice, a few managed with varying elements of success. Again it was standard scoring, i.e. best of five games to 11.
There were a total of 18 entries, and many of the early matches saw straight games wins, with no real surprises, with the closest last 16 match seeing Martin Johnson squeak through 11-9 in the fifth against Orrin Edwards, whilst favourite, Craig Brown, was pushed to deuce in the fourth by Ian Grainger, and Lewis Copp dropping one leg against Stefan Swift. The last eight featured the four Premier / Division 1 players, and the seeding committee were proved right as all four made it into the semi-finals, although Darren Ward needed a deciding game against Martin Johnson, and Craig Brown also needed a fifth game to shake off Lewis Copp, with Chris Shamuyarira and Bernard Green the other vanquished quarter-finalists. The semi-finals were thus the four top-ranked players. Two wins in straight games saw Craig Brown defeat Sarah Hudson and Nick Howard ease past Darren Ward, to set up a Craig v Nick battle between team mates. In the final, it was Craig who was able to attack more effectively, and he came through comfortably to become Hard Bat Singles champion, so continuing a successful season for him thus far, and also to take the team bragging rights! Well done, Craig.
Many thanks to Mike Howard for all of his organizing and refereeing, and for getting through all the events during a very busy day.
[ Apologies to Mike for the slightly delayed report. ]