Match Reports

In the Divisional Final for Division One teams, Sparken Hill Buzzards took the David Hooton Handicap Trophy by the smallest possible margins against Worksop Miners Welfare. Before a ball had been hit the handicaps were worked out and it was the Welfare side who were to start with a lead, but it was only a slender advantage of just 3 points. In the first game Richard Element beat Terry Emmerson by 18 points to extend the Welfare sides lead to 21 but the Buzzards hit back in the next two games as Kartik Lakhani beat Dave Marsh and the teamed up with Chris Cattell in the first doubles game to beat Element and Mick Bell to reduce the deficit. Cattell then had a comfortable win over Marsh who was just coming back from injury and when Emmerson beat Bell and Lakhani and Emmerson defeated Marsh and Bell in the second…full report »

With all the ups and downs in all three divisions coming to a close last week it was now down to the final round of Divisional Cup matches to decide which teams in each division would contest next week’s finals at Sparken Hill.
In the David Hooton Trophy for Division One sides Sparken Hill Buzzards made it through by virtue of their win over Sparken Hill Starlings which was their third win out of three in their group which meant they topped the group and therefore made it through to the final. Chris Cattell had a fine night for the Buzzards as he won his two singles games and the two doubles games he was involved in and gave the Buzzards the springboard to go on to win the match. Cattell was well supported by both Kartik Lakhani and Terry Emmerson who both made telling contributions to their win.…full report »

In a thrilling end to the season in Division Three Sparken Hill Falcons left it to the very last league game to finally seal the Division Three title with a win over DTH Redlands Red Devils. There was a bit of a bonus for the Falcons before the match started as the Red Devils could only field two players, so they were 3-0 before a ball had been hit. From then on in it was a real team effort for the Falcons with Neil Penny beating both Dave Lyus and Phil Daly with Luke Barraclough and Mick Potter also adding wins over Daly but losing out to Lyus. The doubles also went the way of the Falcons as Mick Potter teamed up with his son Jordan to beat Lyus and Daly in 4 sets to complete an 8-2 win and to cap a fine season for the Falcons.
The…full report »

In a final packed full of top quality attacking table tennis Ernest Mpundu overcame Valentinas Riauba to win this season’s Open Singles title. Mpundu took a tense first game 12-10 before Riauba hit back to take the next 11-8. In the next game Mpundu played some of the best table tennis of the match to take it 11-5 to go 2-1 ahead and when he took the fourth game 13-11 the match was all over and was Open Singles champion.
Valentinas Riauba also featured in the final of the Open Doubles with his brother Orestas where they were up against Chris Cattell and Farrell Anthony but with Cattell and Anthony firing on all cylinders they soon found themselves 2-0 down in no time at all. The third game was a lot closer but Cattell and Anthony were not to be denied and they duly won it 12-10 to take…full report »

There is only one place to start this week and that is with DTH Redlands Roosters who retained their Division One title with a game to spare. Their 7-3 win over Sparken Hill Buzzards coupled with their closest rivals losing meant that they couldn’t be caught and gave them their third Division One title in a row. Tom McIntosh and Ernest Mpundu did the damage in their win over the Buzzards as both players remained unbeaten and then teamed up to also add the doubles to give the Roosters their 7 games. The Roosters third player Steve Fox had one of those nights as he went to 5 sets with Steve Lyon, Terry Emmerson and James Wormwell who was playing up from Division Two and lost to all of them in 5 sets!
The only team that could have caught the Roosters were DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys who were…full report »