The culmination of a season’s table tennis finishes with the Finals of all the events that were played at the Closed Championships at Castle Leisure Centre last week. The finals were to be held for the first time at Elton Vale Sports Club.
Dean Clyne of Maccabi and Callum Stott of Ramsbottom Town opened the proceedings with a very fast attacking game which is to be expected from junior table tennis. Dean played in the third division this season and they won promotion to division two. Callum had equal success in division five and will be playing in division four next season. The first game showed no sign of nerves from either player and Dean won 11-7. Callum hit back in the next game with some strong hitting on the forehand and backhand and won that 11-7. There was no stopping the attacking and the next two games went the way of Dean 11-7 and 11-6 to take the junior title for the first time since 1996 when current England women’s number four ranked player Lyndsey Thornton beat a young Michael Moir.
In the first semi final Gary Newton of Carlton Club faced reigning champion Graham Jeffries of Radcliffe Cricket Club. Gary looked to be on top of his game and took the first 11-8. Graham then seemed to get into gear and reeled off the next three games to win through to the final 11-4, 11-7, 11-3.
In the second semi final two team mates from second division club Grubba Fans won through some tough matches in the earlier rounds. Marek Maraszkiewicz and Lukasz Serdiuk played some very entertaining table tennis and it was Marek who struck first blood taking the first game 11-4. Lukasz hit back straight away and won the second game convincingly 11-2. The next two games were shared which meant the first fifth game of the night and it was Lukasz who won through to his first Open Final 11-7.
Derek Watmough and Dennis Collier of St.Philips faced new players to the league Tony Bates and Tony Smith both of BAE. St.Philips took the first game 10-8 but it was the strong attacking game of Tony Smith and good defence from Tony Bates that seemed to be the key to their success and they reeled off the next three games 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 to take the doubles title for the first time.
Mark Ramsbottom of Ramsbottom Town and Mick Dore of Radcliffe Cricket Club won through to the final and it was Mark who settled into his game the easiest and took the first game 11-2. Mick responded with some good defence to Marks strong hitting but couldn’t quite keep on terms with his opponent and eventually lost 11-8, 11-9 for Mark to take the over 40’s title for the fifth time.
A new event which was only played for last year saw defending champion Derek Watmough of St. Philips making his second appearance of the night and he faced Tommy Ryan of Adelphi. Both players won promotion to the first division next season. Tommy took a very easy first game 11-2 but Derek hit back straight away to take the second game 11-7 and he took the lead in the third by winning that game 11-4. Not to be outdone in a very entertaining match Tommy levelled it in the forth 11-8. For the second time in the night it went to a fifth set to decide the champion and Tommy Ryan kept his nose ahead to win 11-6 to take the tile off the defending champion.
Earlier in the night it was reining champion Graham Jeffries of Radcliffe Cricket Club who won his semi final as did Lukasz Serdiuk of Grubba Fans. The final is played the best of seven games. Any thoughts that this was going to be a one sided affair because Lukasz plays in division two and Graham in one were soon dispelled when Lukasz reeled off the first game very comfortably 11-2 and he took little time in adding another 11-8. Graham seemed unsettled in his game and it looked like he had found his rhythm to take a 9-3 lead in the third but somehow squandered that to go down 11-13 and 0-3 in the match. With his back to the wall Graham could not afford to loose any more games otherwise he would lose his title. His strong attacking game coupled with some excellent defence saw Graham back in the match when he took the next three games, 11-6, 11-8, 11-3 to take the match into a seventh and deciding game. It was very close in the first few points then Graham eased into the lead which he would not relinquish and defended his tile in the hardest way possible by taking this final game 11-9 to become champion for the third time in succession.
With approximately 100 spectators following all these matches made for a great atmosphere for the players. With almost the same number of trophies to hand out it was left for the guest of honour Councillor Michael Hankey who is the Chair of the Bury West Local Area Partnership to congratulate all the winners.
In addition to the Dwyer, Macdonald, Sponsors and Poytress Cup three new competitions needed to be named and this is what was agreed. Three long time members of the league who had recently passed away game their names to the new cup competitions and the relations of these members were invited to present the cups for the first time. Mrs. Felicia Pressman, Mr. Graham Hilton and Mrs. Nancy Lomax accompanied by her son Andy were pleased to be included in the presentation of these cups to the winners. In addition David Poytress also presented the cup named after his father, past Chairman of the league and long time player.
It was left to Chairman of the league Ken Crimes to close the proceedings and gave thanks to the league sponsors, the championship organising committee, the league committee for their continued work throughout the season and for Elton Vale for kindly hosting the night.
Junior Singles
Open Singles Semi Finals
Open Doubles Final
Over 40’s Singles Final
Over 60’s Singles Final
Open Singles Final
Prize Presentation
