Smith & Hallgarth Take DTH Senior Doubles Title

Keith Smith and John Hallgarth claimed the first trophy of the season as they battled their way to be crowned DTH Senior Doubles winners on a fabulous night of table tennis at Ryton Park School. Along with 6 other doubles pairings Smith and Hallgarth qualified for the final after they finished second in the round robin format  which would decide the finalists. Their opponents in the final would be Rob Vaughan & Alex Olliffe after they topped  the group dropping only one point along the way which also included a 31-26 victory over Smith & Hallgarth which probably made them slight favourites going into the final. In the final which was one game up to 31 Smith & Hallgarth got off to a fantastic start taking a substantial early lead and at the half way point led 15-10 before Vaughan & Olliffe slowly but surely started to claw their way back into the game and found themselves 25-23 and 27-25 ahead but back came Smith & Hallgarth with a late flurry to overhaul their opponents to deservedly win the game and the title 31-29.
Back to league action and the topsy turvy story that is unfolding in Division Two again through up two results that again showed that a number of teams could actually win the title. The first being the clash between two of the title contenders DTH Redlands Joggers and Stanley Street 'B' which on current form Stanley Street were probably favourites but The Joggers upset the form book with a fabulous 7-3 win with Captain Dennis Learad leading from the front with an impressive hat trick. Learad was admirably supported by the ever improving Matthew Mudd who won two games and Lewis Comley who chipped in with a single win. For the visitors Paul Linfield registered a double with wins over Mudd and Comley with Kyle McIntosh adding a solitary win over Comley. Street's other player Jack Kirkland couldn't quite manage to win any of his singles and his misery was complete when he teamed up with Matthew Williams in the doubles but lost out again as Mudd and Comley took the rubber 3-1. The win moves The Joggers into 2nd place on sets won and they are now only 2 points behind Stanley Street having played the same number of games.
Also in Division Two Ryton Park Eagles who were also challenging for the top spot came unstuck at bottom side Manton Sports although the Eagles had to play a player up from Division Three in Dave Lee to ensure they fielded a full strength side which didn't help their cause. Take nothing away from The Sports side and in particular Alan Wilson who registered an impressive hat trick in defeating all three Eagles players in John Hallgarth, Alex Olliffe and Dave Lee and with John Lowde also defeating Lee and Olliffe they were well on their way to victory. Smith also beat Lee before teaming up with Lowde to comfortably take the doubles against Hallgarth and Olliffe to run out 7-3 winners.
DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys maintained their position at the top of Division One this week with a comfortable win over mid table MBE. There were hat tricks all round for the Fluffy Toys trio of Steve Walker, Steve Fox and Richard Wesley as none of the MBE side could muster a singles win but did manage some success in the doubles as Mick Bell and Mark Stanfield became the first doubles pairing to ever beat Steve Walker and Richard Wesley in a league game but it was scant consolation as they eventually went down 9-1.
The battle of the week was surely between DTH Redlands Roosters and Global Marble 'A' who fought out a 5-5 draw at Redlands. Kalpesh Bhatt was undoubtedly the player in form as he remained unbeaten all night defeating all three Roosters in some style and he was well supported by Kerry Harvey who has beaten both Rick Harris and Steve Johnson to leave Marble 5-3 ahead. In Harvey's third game of the night she was up against the 'Pocket Rocket' Tom McIntosh and after going 2-1 down had to retire through injury to leave the match finely poised at 5-4 to Global Marble. So, it was yet again down to the doubles to decide the outcome of a match with the Rooster's Rick Harris and Tom McIntosh up against the inform Kalpesh Bhatt and the out of form Kartik Lakhani of Global Marble and in a close rubber Harris and McIntosh managed to win it to grab a 5-5 draw out of the jaws of defeat.
Division Three Result: Stanley Street Rascals 2 Stanley Street 'C' 8, Ryton Park Falcons 8 Ryton Park Dragons 2