Review Of The Season

The first trophy to be won in the 2014/15 season was way back in November when Clive Eden and John Hallgarth defeated Kartik Lakhani and Andy Kirkland to lift the DTH Senior Doubles Trophy, it was especially sweet for Hallgarth as he successfully defended the title he won the previous year.
As the league season progressed DTH Redlands Roosters were the surprise early front runners in Division One with their club colleagues The Fluffy Toys right on their tails and it wasn't long after the turn of the New Year that the Fluffy Toys had not only caught the Roosters but had built a lead at the top of the division, a lead that they wouldn't let slip as they went on to win their sixth Division One title in a row. At the other end of the table DTH Redlands Joggers and Manton Tigers ended the season in the bottom two and were relegated back down into Division Two after coming up last year which is no disgrace as nearly all the teams that get promoted up into the top division struggle to stay there.
After the Christmas break Ryton Park Eagles and Manton Nomads were neck and neck at the top of Division Two and had built a substantial gap between themselves and the rest of the teams in the division and it soon became clear that the winners of Division Two would come from these two sides. Whilst the Eagles were struggling to field their best team each week and dropping points the Nomads went on a fabulous run of results winning eight and drawing one of their last nine matches of the league season to eventually secure the Division Two title by a massive 13 points.
As in Division One the two teams that came up last year occupied the two relegation spots and despite all their best efforts both Ryton Park Cougars and DTH Redlands Rookies will spend next season in Division Three but the experience will have done them no harm at all.
On the subject of Division Three, the title and promotion race was one of the most fascinating for years as four teams battled week in week out to try and get into the top two places. Right up until the last two weeks of the league season Stanley Street Rascals, Stanley Street 'D', Stanley Street Cypriots  and DTH Redlands Tarr Babies all had a chance of not only promotion but also the title to go with it and in an incredible twist of fate all four teams were playing a match against one of their rivals in their last match of the season!
Cypriots drew with the Rascals to occupy top spot which meant that the winners of the match between Street 'D' and the Tarr Babies would decide the destiny of where the title went and the final promotion place. Street 'D' went on to win the match 6-4 and clinch the Division Three title which meant The Tarr Babies finished outside the promotion places and allowed the Cypriots to claim 2nd spot by just a single point.
The Divisional Handicap Cups gave teams a respite from title chasing and relegation battling with the David Hooton Trophy for Division One sides being won by Stanley Street 'A', The Reg Wilcox Trophy in Division Two being won by Manton Sports whilst in Division Three DTH Redlands Tarr Babies made up for missing out on promotion by defeating On-Line Elks in the final of the MBE Trophy.
The final of The Mike Tunningley Handicap Shield which all league teams are entered for and is the Leagues flagship knockout trophy was eventually contested by Stanley Street Cypriots and On-Line Elks and despite their efforts to make up for finishing Runners Up in the MBE Trophy the Elks couldn't quite do enough to stop The Cypriots capping a fine season by winning the final 367 points to 313.
After trying for nearly 30 years to win the Carnation Cup Andy Lee finally managed to get his hands on the trophy winning the competition with his partner George Makrakis. In the final they were up against Jeff Reay and Orestas Riauba and after winning their semi-final over Clive Eden and Valentinas Riauba by their skin of their teeth 3-2 Lee and Makrakis had a much easier time of it in the final by comfortably winning in straight sets.
Peter Eyre had lost the last two finals of the Hard Bat Competition but he managed to avoid making it a hat trick of runners up trophies by managing to comfortably outgun  Jeff Reay who again was a runner up in a final, a trend that was to continue later in the year.
There was some fabulous table tennis played at the League's Annual Championships which were held in late January at Redlands School and all players that went on to the Finals Nights later in the year continued the trend on two very entertaining nights at Stanley Street Club.
The Draw Doubles final proved to be a fabulous match as Andy Lee and Richard Element were drawn out of the hat to play against Kalpesh Bhatt and Dave Marsh and despite three very close games Element and Lee went on to beat Bhatt and Marsh 3-0.
There was double success for Steve Lyon as he managed to retain his Over  50's and Over 60's Singles titles in comfortable fashion as he beat Paul Linfield 3-0 in the Over 60's and Malcolm Manuel in the Over 50's finals. Lyon didn't manage to complete the hat trick of Over's title wins as he had been knocked out in an earlier round of the Over 40's Singles competition and had to watch on as Rick Harris and Dave Marsh had a ding dong of a match before Harris finally took the title 3-1.
The Plate Singles Final was probably one of the closest matches on either Finals Night as both Matthew Williams and Steve Elkin fought tooth and nail in a grueller of a match before Elkin finally managed to win the deciding set on deuce to be crowned champion win the match.
Another player that enjoyed a double for Graham Stent as he won the Division Three Singles final by defeating Luke Barraclough and then went on to secure the Division Three Doubles title with Mitchell Radford by defeating Justin Flear and George Makrakis.
In the Division Two Singles Final Jeff Reay yet again had to settle for being runner up as he was comfortably beaten by his club colleague Clive Eden but Reay's despair soon turned to joy as at last he managed to be victorious in a final when he partnered Alex Olliffe to defeat Steve Elkin and Rob Vaughan in the final of the Division Two doubles.
Both Tom McIntosh and Richard Element had great Finals Nights and three of the Finals they both played in involved games against each other! McIntosh drew first blood in the final of the Handicap Singles as he just managed to edge out Element in the deciding set but Element was to get his revenge in a pulsating final of the Open Doubles as he and Dave Marsh defeated Tom and Kyle McIntosh 3-1.
Tom McIntosh put the disappointment behind him by going to win the Cadet Singles final against Matthew Mudd and then claimed bragging rights in the McIntosh house for another year at least by defeating brother Kyle 3-0  to take the Junior Singles title.
The final of the Open Singles saw Tom McIntosh and Richard Element do battle once again and with one final win each over each other they were both as keen as mustard to win the 'big one'!
There was some fantastic attacking and counter attacking throughout the final but Element had just a bit too much in his locker for McIntosh and went on to win in straight sets but it's surely only a matter of time before young Tom McIntosh goes on to win the crown himself.
At the Leagues end of season Presentation Night the awards voted for by the league's committee members were presented and the Tommy Brown Sporting Award was especially poignant as the family of the late Tommy Brown who did so much for our league and table tennis in Worksop presented the award to Ryton Park Cougars who had finished bottom of Division Two but had played with a smile on their faces throughout a tough season for them. The Best Beginner award went to Andrew Agnew who in his first ever season in our league had finished on a personal average of 84% of games won in Division Three with the Most Improved Player award going to Lea Dickinson who had come up from Division Two to have an average of over 50% in Division One.
The Junior Player Of The Year Award went to Tom McIntosh who had enjoyed a fabulous season and claimed numerous titles and was a major part of DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys who had won the Division One Title.
The Player Of The Year was awarded to Richard Element who had not only won both the Open Singles and Open Doubles but had remained unbeaten in the league all season.
The last award of the night was the Betty Knowles Trophy which was presented to our League Sponsor David Hooton of DTH Engineering in recognition of his years of sponsoring the Worksop & District Table Tennis League of which the league are truly grateful. He was presented the award by his son Robert who had been presenting trophies on the night on behalf of DTH Engineering.