Stent And Reay Are Cream Of The Crop In Carnation Cup

On a night of some close matches and some great table tennis at Sparken Hill Academy Nigel Stent and Jeff Reay were crowned the Carnation Cup Champions but they were made to fight every inch of the way by their opponents in the semi-final and final. In their semi-final match the pair were up against Ben Swain and Connor Bettley and got off to a losing start as Bettley with 11 start against Reay did more than enough to beat him 21-15, 21-10 to put him and Swain 1-0 up. Stent then levelled the match at 1-1 as he beat Swain and then joined Reay in the doubles to win that as well to put tem 2-1 ahead with 2 games to play. In the reverse singles Stent couldn't get the better of Bettley going down in straight sets which meant the match went into the deciding game. Reay had to give Swain 4 start in each game but it didn't stop him beating him 21-17, 21-15 to clinch a 3-2 victory and a place in the final.
In the other semi-final Peter Eyre and Neil Penny found themselves up against Mark Sansom and Kay Wilson who had played really well in previous rounds of the competition and carried that good form through to the semi-finals. Wilson with 15 start defeated Eyre in straight sets but Neil Penny managed to take the next singles match with a 21-18, 21-19 win over Sansom with the 13 point start he got proving vital. However, Sansom soon put his disappointment of losing his singles game firmly behind him by taking the doubles set with Wilson to put himself and Wilson 2-1 ahead with 2 to play. Any thoughts that Eyre and Penny had of a comeback were soon extinguished as Wilson beat Penny 21-18, 21-18 to give herself and Sansom an unassailable 3-1 lead.
The final always looked like it would be a close game and as in their semi-final match Stent and Reay soon found themselves in a tense battle with their opponents. Reay had to give Kay Wilson 13 start in the first of the singles games and soon found himself 1-0 down as Wilson took the first game 21-13 but Reay hit back to take the second game 21-19 to level at one game all. The deciding set proved to be just as close as the previous game but Wilson held her nerve to edge it by 21-19 to put her and Sansom 1-0 ahead. In the next game, Stent just as he had in the final of the Handicap Singles the previous week then beat Sansom in straight sets to level the match at 1-1 and then with Reay comfortably took the pivotal doubles match 2-0 to put himself and Reay 2-1 up.
In the first of reverse singles games Stent made sure that the outcome of the match wouldn't go right down to the wire as he beat Wilson 21-17, 21-14 with both players off of scratch to make sure himself and Reay were crowned champions.
The last singles game of the night had no effect on the outcome of the match but was played anyway with Sansom defeating Reay 2-1 to leave the final score Stent & Reay 3 Sansom & Wilson 2.
Back to league matters now and whilst Jeff Reay was busy winning the Carnation Cup his fellow team mates who also play for DTH Redlands X-Youth were losing their 100% winning record in Division Two, the last unbeaten record to fall across all three divisions. X-Youth were up against Manton Tigers who on their day are capable of beating any of the teams in the division and so it turned out to be as they ended X-Youth's 12 match winning streak with a 6-4 win of their own. Ron Firth was the man in form as he recorded a fabulous hat trick beating Mark Bloomer, Clive Eden and Matt Turner and he was well supported by Chris Mokes who added wins over Bloomer and Turner before he teamed up with Firth to win what turned out to be a vital doubles over Eden and Turner. All three X-Youth players beat the Tigers Steve Beeston with Eden adding another win over Mokes to complete the scoring.
Other Division Two Results: DTH Redlands Rookies 6 Real North Notts 'A' 4, DTH Redlands Joggers 8 Sparken Hill Eagles 2
Division One Results: DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 10 Manton Misfits 0, Worksop Miners Welfare 'A' 9 Sparken Hill Starlings 1.
Division Three Results: Worksop Owls 5 DTH Redlands Red Devils 5, Sparken Hill Hawks 0 Worksop Welfare Cypriots 'A' 10, Sparken Hill Blue Jays 9 Real North Notts 'B' 1