Pairs Competition Gets Off To A Cracking Start

This season's Carnation Cup got off to a fabulous start with some great table tennis by all the players involved. The early stages of the competition were spread across two nights with the first night kicking  off with one Preliminary Round match in which Mitchell Radford and Farhad Saiepour dispatched Adrian Smith and Dean Marsh 4-1 despite Radford losing to Marsh in the opening game.
In the First Round they went on to comfortably raced into an unassailable 3-0 lead against George Makrakis and Kyle Moore which meant that they didn't actually have to play all of the 5 scheduled games as they were already through.
Ben Swain and Connor Bettley had what looked on paper a resounding 5-0 win over Andy Lee and Sam McFarland in what ironically had some of the closest games scores of the first round. Lee who had to give 14 start to Bettley lost 21-19, 18-21, 18-21 in the first singles match with Swain then beating McFarland 18-21, 23-21, 21-18 having also had to give 14 points start. The doubles went the way of Swain and Bettley 21-18, 21-19 before Bettley defeated McFarland 26-24, 21-18 with Swain rounding off a great win by beating Lee 21-17, 21-11 having been given 10 start.
Another pairing who enjoyed a 5-0 whitewash were Nigel Stent and Jeff Reay who knocked out Helmuth Osborne and Nick Sievewright but on this occasion it really was a comfortable win as both Reay and Stent had little trouble in making it through to the next round.
The last match on the first nights play was between Jim Westwood & Daniel Saul and Tony Swain & Neil Fisher with Swain & Fisher sweeping their opponents aside 4-1 which saw them win all four of the singles matches and it was only losing the doubles set 15-21,17-21 spoiling a perfect night for them.
If the first night saw some comfortable looking scorelines then the second night was anything but as there was only one match out of the four that didn't end 3-2. James Wormwell and Mick Potter both won their opening singles games to race into a 2-0 lead but then Adam Hamilton and Jordan Potter hit back to win the doubles before Jordan Potter beat his Dad Mick in the next singles to level the match at 2-2 which meant the match hinged on the last singles game between Wormwell and Hamilton. Due to the handicapping system Wormwell had to give Hamilton a 2 point lead in each game but it didn't stop him beating Hamilton 21-11, 21-19 to send himself and Mick Potter through to the quarter finals.
Another match that ended 3-2 was between the pairings of Mark Sansom & Kay Wilson and Mark Fisher & Chris Tilstone but on this occasion it didn't have to go to the deciding set as Sansom and Wilson raced into a 3-0 lead as Sansom beat Tilstone, Wilson defeated Fisher before they added the doubles in straight sets. To their credit Tilstone and Fisher didn't stop trying and their efforts gained them some consolation  as they both won the reverse singles with Tilstone enjoying a 2-0 win over Wilson and Fisher followed that up by beating Sansom by the same 2-0 scoreline.
Another match that went right down to the wire was between Rob Vaughan & Scott Lee and Derek Piper & Jonno Blood with young Scott Lee having a great night as he beat Blood 2-1 before losing to Piper by the same score. Lee also played an integral part of the doubles and despite being a division below his opponents across the table he and Vaughan very nearly pulled off an unlikely doubles win losing in the deciding set 24-22. Despite the doubles loss Vaughan managed to narrowly beat Piper 2-1 in the first game of the match and then enjoyed a 2-0 win over Blood in the crucial deciding 5th game of the match despite his opponent playing some solid table tennis.
The last match of the evening featured one of last year's winners Peter Eyre. This year because of the seeding structure he was paired with Neil Penny and Eyre got the defence of his title off to a good start beating Graham Stent in straight sets before Stents partner Jack Kirkland hit back to beat Penny and level the match at 1-1. Unfortunately for Stent and Kirkland this was to be the only set they won as they then lost the doubles and the match was lost when Stent lost to Penny with Eyre sealing the 4-1 victory with a 2-0 win over Kirkland.
Mike Tunningley Shield First Round Results: Real North Notts 'B' 415 Manton Sports 378, Sparken Hill Hawks 477 Manton Misfits 378