Tilstone And Lakhani Crowned DTH Senior Doubles Champions

Chris Tilstone and Kartik Lakhani claimed the DTH Senior Doubles title on a night of some fabulous table tennis played at Sparken Hill Academy. 32 players entered the competition and after being seeded in accordance with the latest player averages they were then paired up with the No.1 seed playing with the No.32 seed, the No.2 seed with the 31st seed and so on and then the 16 pairs were drawn into two groups of eight. Matches were up to 21 no deuce with the top two going through to the semi-finals. Group A was won by Tilstone and Lakhani registering 146 points with Ivan Guilliatt and Derek Piper finishing in second place just one point behind on 145 points.
Group B was just as close with Richard Element and Nick Sievewright claiming top spot with 139 points and Helmuth Osborne and Kay Wilson having a good group campaign finishing second on 138 points to go through to the semi-finals.
The first semi-final put Tilstone and Lakhani up against Osborne and Wilson with Tilstone and Lakhani racing into an early lead, a lead that they never looked like relinquishing and subsequently went on to win 21-11 to go through to the final.
If the first semi-final was a little one sided, the second semi was anything but! In the closest of contests that could easily have gone either way it was Ivan Guilliatt and Derek Piper who just managed to squeeze into the semi-finals just pipping Richard Element and Nick Sievewright 21-20.
The final was played up to 31 points with Tilstone and Lakhani taking control of the game early on and carrying the early advantage all the way through to the end finally beating Guilliatt and Piper by a 31-20 scoreline to secure the title.
It was a week for cup competitions with all four of the Carnation Cup quarter finals being played the night before also at Sparken Hill Academy. Jeff Reay and Nigel Stent had what looks like at first glance a comfortable 5-0 win against Tony Swain and Neil Fisher but in reality there were some very close games. Stent who was playing with his opposite hand due to an injury did well to beat Swain 21-5, 21-8 but he was handicapped as a 3rd Division player and not as his usual 1st Division ranking but none the less still played well to defeat Swain so comfortably. Another Swain, Ben had a more successful night as he and his partner Connor Bettley enjoyed a 3-2 win over Mitchell Radford and Farhad Saiepour in what was a terrific match to watch. Swain lost to Saiepour in the first singles game with Bettley beating Radford to level the match at 1-1. The doubles went the distance with Swain and Bettley taking it 21-16 in the deciding game to take a 2-1 lead. Back came their opponents as Saiepour defeated Bettley in the singles to once again level the match. The outcome of the match was now down to Swain and Radford to decide with Swain finally winning it 21-18 in the deciding set to take himself and Bettley through to the semi-finals.
Another quarter final to go all the way was the match between Pete Eyre and Neil Penny and their opponents Rob Vaughan and Scott Lee. Lee got his pairing off to a great start as he beat Eyre in straight sets before Vaughan did the same against Penny to give them a 2-0 lead and made them favourites to go through to the next round. Eyre and Penny hit back to take the doubles to reduce the deficit with Penny beating Lee to level the match at 2-2 with Vaughan and Eyre to play the last singles of the match. Vaughan took the first set 21-16 but Eyre hit back to snatch the second 21-19 with Eyre hitting top form to take the deciding set 21-17 for a 3-2 victory.
The last quarter final saw Mark Samson and Kay Wilson play really well to beat James Wormwell and Mick Potter although they didn't get off to the greatest of starts as Potter beat Samson to take a 1-0 lead. Any thoughts that Wormwell and Potter had of extending their run in the Carnation Cup soon evaporated as Wilson beat Wormwell and then teamed up with Samson to win the doubles to go 2-1 up. Wilson then defeated Potter to secure their passage into the semi-finals with Sansom beating Wormwell to put the icing on the cake of a 4-1 win.
Division Three Result:  Sparken Hill Hawks 7 DTH Redlands Red Devils 3.