Great Turnout For Annual Championships

56 players entered this year's Worksop and District Annual Closed Championships with some great table tennis being played from start to a very late finish at 8.12pm!
The players who entered this years tournament battled it out in 16 different competitions which saw some fabulous matched played over 11 gruelling hours.
This year’s Open Singles Final will be contested by Ernest Mpundu and Valentinas Riauba who both played well to book their place in the final.
Kartik Lakhani and Steve Elkin did well to progress to the semi-finals of the Open Doubles before eventually falling to Valentinas and Orestas Riauba who will play Chris Cattell & Farrell Anthony who beat Rick Harris & Ernest Mpundu in the other semi-final.
Second seed Mark Sansom was dumped out of the Division Two Singles competition by George Makrakis who made it to the semi-finals before losing to Rob Vaughan who will play Pete Hodgson in the Final.
Vaughan and Hodgson will also meet in the final of the Division Two doubles with their relative partners where Vaughan and Steve Elkin will be up against Hodgson and Nigel Stent.
Neil Penny and Luke Barraclough will battle it out to see who will be crowned Division Three Singles champion after both players overcame some tough opponents on their way to the final.
In Division Three Doubles competition Adam Pinches and Roman Rosser knocked out the number one seeds to earn their place in the final where they will meet Dean Marsh and Dan Saul.
The final of the Handicap Singles this year will feature two Division One players in Dave Marsh and Steve Fox who both battled through a long competition to earn their place in the final
The Junior Singles competition saw George Makrakis make up for his disappointment of losing in the Division Two Singles semi-finals to book his place in the final against pre-tournament favourite  Valentinas Riauba.
Despite the Cadet Singles having a low number of entries Michael Candy made it through to his first ever final where he will meet Roman Rosser.
Chris Cattell made it through to two more finals reaching both the Over 40’s Singles and Over 50’s Singles finals where he will play Ernest Mpundu in the Over 40’s and Peter Eyre in the Over 50’s.
Steve Lyon once again made a veteran’s final where he will be up against Helmuth Osborne in the Over 60’s.
Mick Bell and Alan Wilson will meet in the first ever Over 70’s Singles competition after both coming through their respective semi-final matches.
Also a first for the League was the 18-40’s Singles Competition and the two players that will contest the final will be Ben Crapper and Terry Emmerson.
The final of the Plate Singles competition which is for players that lose their first match in the Open Singles will feature Orestas Riauba and Pete Hodgson who reached four final in all.
The Draw Doubles were players are drawn out of a hat after each round to leave four players to contest the final will be between Kartik Lakhani, Pete Hodgson, Helmuth Osborne and Ernest Mpundu.
This week also saw the Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield reach the semi-final stage with two Division Three teams making it through to the final. DTH Redlands Demolition Men overcame Stanley Street ‘B’ from Division Two by a winning score of 414 to 371. The Demolition Men’s side of Derek Piper, Ethan Shevill and Perry Bradford scored 234 points on the table and then were awarded a further 180 points which gave them their win by 43 points.
The other semi-final was between two Third Division teams with Sparken Hill Hawks getting a well-earned win over Worksop Welfare Harriers ‘B’. Paul Wendon, Tom Wendon and Scott Lee all played well in a 404 points to 369 win. The Hawks earnt 249points on the table coupled with 155 handicap points meant that they had just a bit too much for their opponents on this occasion.
In a re-arranged league game this week DTH Redlands Monsters charge towards the title spectacularly came unstuck against relegation battlers Sparken Hill Starlings. Both Kurt Hutson and Helmuth Osborne won two games each for the Starlings with Andy Lee and Hutson taking the doubles to earn them a share of the spoils. Martynas and Valentinas both enjoyed tow wins each with Orestas only winning one against Lee.