Davies Completes Double

In his first ever season in the Worksop & District Table Tennis League, Clowne ‘A’s John Davies completed an impressive double as he took the Open Doubles title to go with his Open Singles title he won at the end of February. On the second of the League’s Finals nights held at Stanley Street Club, Davis and his partner Richard Element were slight favourites to take the Doubles title before the night began. Davies and Element soon ran into a two games to love lead winning 11-9, 11-6 but their opponents Rick Harris and Ernest Mpundu hit bac to take the third 11-7 but couldn’t sustain the fightback and ended up losing the decisive fourth game 12-10 which gave Davies and Element victory. Davies now has an unprecedented treble in his sights as he aims to win the Worksop Masters at the end of April.
Kathy McIntyre is the new name on the Ladies Singles trophy as she enjoyed a straight sets win over Isabela Saul to clinch the title. McIntyre took a one sided first game 11-2 before stretching her lead by taking the second game 11-4 but credit where credit is due as Saul who is in her first season in the league kept fighting and only lost the 3^rd and final game 11-7 which was a good effort.
The Over 50’s Singles final featured Chris Cattell who was attempting to defend the title the won 12 months ago. This year he was up against Kalpesh Bhatt who had aspirations of his own, but he soon found himself a game down losing it 11-4 and one game down soon became two as Cattell took the second game 11-8. Cattell wrapped up the match by winning the third game 11-6 and in doing so took the title yet again.
The final of the Over 60’s Singles saw last year’s runner-up Helmuth Osborne attempting to go one better this year. Osborne was up against Dave Marsh and a close encounter was expected and so it proved to be as Marsh took the first game 13-11 and then followed that up by winning the second game 15-13 to take a 2-0 lead. Osborne didn’t take being behind lying down and he hit back to take the third and fourth games 11-7, 11-8 to level the contest and take it into a deciding game which Osborne took 11-8 to be crowned Over 60’s Singles Champion for the first time.
Roman Rosser and Adam Pinches who both play for DTH Redlands Rovers had to put the fact that they are team mates to one side as they met in the final of the Cadet Singles. Rosser took the first game 11-6 and started to build up some momentum as he followed that up by taking the second 11-4 and he carried that momentum forward into the third game as he also took that as well 11-6 to take the Cadet Singles title for the second year in succession.
After their battle in the Cadet Singles final, Pinches and Rosser then joined forces to contest the final of the Division Three Doubles final against Lewis Linacre and Derek Piper. In a close game Pinches and Rosser got their noses in front taking the first game 11-8 and then they followed that up by taking the next 11-6 to take a 2-0 lead. Linacre and Piper upped their game in the third and made a fight of it but couldn’t quite do enough to stop Pinches and Rosser claiming the title as they lost the third game 13-11.
Lewis Linacre didn’t have too much time to fret about losing the Third Division Doubles final as he was soon in action again in his second final of the night, this time the final of the Division Three Singles where he was up against Paul Wendon who’s had some good wins in the earlier rounds in getting to the final. Wendon carried that good form though to the final and soon raced into a 2-0 lead as he won the first game 11-7 and the second game 11-9. Going 2-0 down stung Linacre into action and he hit back by taking the third and fourth games 11-5 and 11-8 to take the match into a deciding game. Linacre completed his comeback by winning the decider 11-6 and with it the Division Three Singles title.
Another player to make it to two finals on the same night was Mark Sansom. His first final was the Plate Singles where he was up against Ben Swain and Sansom soon raced into the lead by taking the first game 11-4 and he followed that up by taking the second, again 11-4. Swain got into his stride and took the third game 11-6 which gave him a glimmer of hope but Sansom soon extinguished any hope Swain had by winning the fourth game 11-6 to seal victory.
Next up for Sansom was the final of the Handicap Singles where his opponent was Dave Marsh who was also playing in his second final of the night. The final was best of three games up to 21 with Sansom given a 6-point start in each game via the handicap points system and Sansom managed to draw first blood by winning the first game 21-18. In an even closer second game which could have gone either way Sansom again managed to come out on top winning it 21-19 to take his second title of the night.
Back to league matters now, Stanley Street ‘B’ ended their Division Two league campaign with a convincing 9-1 win away at Manton Tigers to put the icing on the cake of a successful season culminating in promotion to Division One. The Stanley Street outfit who had sealed the runners-up spot a few weeks ago finished the league season in some style in their match with Manton Tigers with hat-tricks for both Dave Hodgkin and Mark Sansom set them on their way and they were well supported by Ralph Rodda who added two wins against Steve Beeston and Phil Hall but losing out to Ron Firth. Hodgkin and Sansom also took the doubles against Firth and Beeston to seal a terrific 9-1 victory.