In Depth Annual Championships Report

This year’s Worksop and District Annual Closed Championships had it’s latest finish in recent history with the last ball being hit at 8.12pm on Sunday evening!
56 Players entered this years tournament battling it out in 16 different competitions which saw some great table tennis played over 11 gruelling hours.
The Open Singles threw up a couple of surprises in the second round as Mick Bell knocked out Orestas Riauba with even bigger surprises coming when Alan Wilson from Division Two played really well to beat Steve Johnson from Division One 3-1 as did Mark Sansom, again from Division Two in beating Division One’s Steve Lyon by the same scoreline. But there were to be no more surprises as the Open Singles competition unfolded with Ernest Mpundu defeating Helmuth Osborne to go through to the final where he will meet Valentinas Riauba who beat Jack Kirkland in the other semi final match.
The biggest surprise in the Open Doubles came in the way Kartik Lakhani and Steve Elkin progressed to the semi final stages defeating more illustrious opponents. They knocked out Andy Lee and Kurt Hutson in the 2^nd round before raising their game again to beat Steve Lyon and Jeff Reay at the quarter final stage. In the early stages of their semi final match against Valentinas and Orestas Riauba they had the chance to take a 1-0 lead before fading away to eventually lose 3-0. In the final the Riauba brothers will meet the eventual winners of one of the matches of the whole championships which was between Chris Cattell & Farrell Anthony and the pre-tournament favourites in Rick Harris & Ernest Mpundu. The match ebbed and flowed one way and then the other before Cattell & Farrell upset the form book and booked their spot on Finals Night eventually winning it 3-2.
Another competition that threw up a bit of an early surprise was the Division Two Singles where second seed Mark Sansom went out at the first hurdle losing 3-0 to George Makrakis. Makrakis then defeated Alan Wilson in the quarter finals before having his run halted in the semi-finals by Rob Vaughan who beat him 3-1. In the other half of the draw Pete Hodgson had little trouble in making his way through to the final without dropping a single game in wins over Chris Tilstone, Ben Crapper and Erlands Skels.
Vaughan and Hodgson will also meet in the final of the Division Two doubles with their respective partners after Hodgson and Nigel Stent knocked out Father and Daughter paring in Alan and Kay Wilson in the quarters before then coming from 1-0 down to beat Tony Swain and Jim Westwood 3-1 in the semi-finals. In their quarter final match Vaughan and Steve Elkin also had to come from 1-0 down as they knocked out George Makrakis and Mitchell Radford in a close match before having a more comfortable time of it in the semis when they beat Mark Sansom and Chris Tilstone 3-0.
Both players who made the final of the Division Three Singles had to overcome some tough opponents before booking their place in the final. Neil Penny beat Graham Stent 3-2, then Paul Linfield, again 3-2 before knocking out Dean Marsh in the semis 3-1. His opponent in the final will be Luke Barraclough who also came through some tough matches and certainly earnt his place in the final by defeating Jerry Collins, Graham Stent, Dan Saul and finally Derek Piper in the semi-finals.
Neither Neil Penny or Luke Barraclough could repeat their feat in the Division Three Doubles as neither could make it through to the final. Adam Pinches and Roman Rosser knocked out the number one seeds in Derek Piper and Perry Bradford in the semi finals with Neil Penny and Mick Potter losing out to Dean Marsh and Dan Saul who played well to beat them 3-1 at the same stage of the competition.
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. In the semi-final Fox was up against Tom Wendon from Division Three who was awarded a sizeable handicap, but it wasn’t quite enough as Fox chipped away at it before eventually winning 21-17. Dave Marsh was up against Pete Hodgson from Division Two who would didn’t have such a large handicap but proved to be a tough nut to crack but crack him he did as Marsh won a close match 21-19.
With Martynas Riauba pulling out of the championships due to illness it opened up one half of the draw in the Junior Singles competition and George Makrakis grasped his opportunity with both hands beating Adam Pinches in the quarter finals before defeating Michael Candy in the semis to book his place in the final. In the other half of the draw it was always going to be a battle of the other two Riauba brothers in Valentinas and Orestas and so it proved to be with Valentinas just managing to edge out his brother 3-2 in a fabulous attacking game in the other semi-final.
The Cadet Singles only had three entries this year so one player would receive a bye straight into the final and that player was Roman Rosser. In the semi final that was played it was Michael Candy that came through it as he beat his club colleague Tom Ogley 3-0 to reach his first ever final.
Chris Cattell followed up his good results in the Open Doubles by making it through to two more finals as he reached both the Over 40’s Singles and Over 50’s Singles finals without dropping a single game. In the Over 40’s he will be up against Ernest Mpundu who had a fairly untroubled path to the final and in the Over 50’s he will play Peter Eyre who played really well to get through to the latter stage of the competition.
A familiar face to finals night will yet again grace a veterans singles final as Steve Lyon made the final of the Over 60’s Singles where he will meet Helmuth Osborne who had a great tournament himself and enjoyed a good win in the semis beating Steve Fox 3-1.
Mick Bell and Alan Wilson will meet in the first ever Over 70’s Singles competition held in the Worksop League after overcoming their semi-final opponents. Bell beat Graham Stent 3-0 whilst Wilson also enjoyed the same result over Derek Piper.
Also a first for the League was the 18-40’s Singles Competition and in his first ever season in the Worksop League, Ben Crapper fought his way through capping a good competition for him by defeating Erlands Skels 3-1 at the semi final stage. Crapper will met Terry Emmerson who also played well, comfortably beating Mitchell Radford 3-0 in the other semi-final.
The final of the Plate Singles competition which is for players that lose their first match in the Open Singles, was most likely going to feature one of the three players that were surprisingly knocked out of the Open Singles at the first stage and so it proved to be as Orestas Riauba eased his way through to the final without dropping a single game. He will meet Pete Hodgson who also enjoyed an untroubled passage to the final as he also didn’t drop a game on is way to his forth final.
The last competition of the day was the Draw Doubles were players are drawn out of a hat after each round to leave four players to contest the final which again will be drawn out a random. The four players that battled their way through to Finals Night were Kartik Lakhani, Pete Hodgson, Helmuth Osborne and Ernest Mpundu.