Division Five Top 8 report
Published 01/05/2024 at 10:07:23 by Chris Welch; edited 2 times, last on 01/05/2024 at 11:08:07 by Chris Welch.
Courtesy of Tom Reddall:
The Division 5 Top 8 Finals were comprised of:Group 1
Hein Latt (Greenleys Knights) (1)
Todd Agnew (Mursley Strikers) (4)
Barry Agnew (Mursley Strikers) (5)
Agostinho Ung (Open University Explorers) (8)
Group 2
Andrea Crotti (Greenleys Knights) (2)
Marlon Fearon (Leighton Buzzard Buzzards) (3)
Kenneth Lo (Newport Pagnell Volante) (6)
Ed Bettison (Mursley Magpies) (7)
I arrived at the event a little late with Hein having beaten Todd, Andrea having beaten Kenneth, Agostinho winning vs Barry and Marlon winning vs Ed.
Kenneth played Marlon where Marlon came out victor while Todd and Barry played out a long match which went all the way to 5 sets with Todd eventually winning in the 5th.
Andrea played a close match with Ed and after being 2-0 down, eventually pulled through to win 3-2, Hein also struggled in his match vs Agostinho Ung also going 2-0 down, Hein fought back in the 3rd to make it 2-1, but Agostinho carried on to win the 4th and the match 3-1. Agostinho said he was lucky but really he had the more decisive attacking play.
I scored the match of Kenneth vs Ed, where Kenneth’s Guile came out on top against Ed’s fast attacking style.
Agostinho played another tight close match with Todd, eventually coming out on top, and having won all 3 matches, topped group 1 as 8th seed.
So then Andrea played Marlon and won reasonably comfortably to top group 2.
I scored the match of Hein vs Barry where Hein won 3-1 to finish 2nd in group 1.
The semi-finals were Marlon vs Agostinho on Table 2 and Hein vs Andrea on Table 1.
Marlon beat Agostinho while I scored the match of Andrea vs Hein.
The first set was very close and Andrea came out on top 13-11.
The second set was also close with Hein attacking hard and Andrea blocking and countering almost everything Hein could manage but Hein continued with more speed, placement and top spin to win 11-8.
After the second set the match flowed more in Hein’s favour with Andrea scoring fewer points in the last 2 games.
So the Final was comprised of Hein vs Marlon.
Hein continued with his usual attack loop and top spin, and also played some very tidy short back spin rallies. Marlon continued playing with his usual consistent style returning most of what Hein could produce. Marlon led 2-1 after the first 3 but Hein Stepped up his game in the 4th to win it 11-2. It looked like Hein would win in the 5th with a few times getting 2 or 3 points ahead but Marlon rallied. The final set made it to 10-10 before Hein took a quick breather, then 11-11, before Hein eventually saw out the match 11-13.
A great time was had by all I think, and some terrific table tennis with a deserved division 5 top 8 victor, Hein Latt.