Bury & Distict Table Tennis League Week 23 Match Report

Bury and District Table Tennis League Week 23 Match Report

The League fixtures came to a close last week but because of the bad weather in January a number of matches had to be postponed and have been rearranged through the second part of the season and the next two weeks which involves seven cup finals. Final League tables will be published as soon as all of the postponed matches have been played. Three Cup Finals took place this week for divisions one, two and three.

MacDonald Cup Final

Radcliffe CC retained the Macdonald Cup in a very exciting match against Little Lever who has previously won this cup no less than eight times. The first time was in 1971 when Phil Riley and Ted Foster were in the team and they were both spectators on the night cheering on the players. Playing the new individual handicap system for the first time this season every point mattered to both sides. The Macdonald Cup is for first division teams only. The total combined handicaps for Radcliffe was 114 and for Little Lever was 123. Playing for Radcliffe were Rob Hall, Graham Jeffries and Mick Dore. For Little Lever it was Ronnie Durose, Ian Lansdale and Steve McNicholas. After the third set the scores couldn’t be closer with Little Lever holding the narrowest of leads at 234 against Radcliffe’s 233. In the next three sets Little Lever extended their lead by thirteen, fourteen then back to eight points. The doubles became the pivotable point in the match for the defending champions by having a resounding fourteen point win to take a six point lead and were never challenged after that. In the doubles Graham Jeffries and Mick Dore played for Radcliffe and Ronnie Durose and Ian Lansdale for Little Lever. There remained one set to play for each player. Mick Dore against Steve McNicholas saw Radcliffe’s lead stretch from six to twelve. Ian Lansdale clawed back two points against Graham Jeffries to keep Radcliffe ten points ahead going into the last set. Ronnie Durose had to somehow claw back eleven points off Rob Hall but that ended up being the winning margin of Radcliffe against Little Lever. The match was played in very good spirit and there was some spectacular points on the night which you would expect from top first division players.

Poytress Cup Final

The Poytress Cup is for division two teams only and saw Prestwich B take on Polish Catholic Club. If the League results were anything to go by then Polish CC started as favourites because they won on both occasions and as a result were giving a 16 point start. Prestwich started on 175 points and Polish CC on 159. After the first set between Alex Waring and Eddie Kalinowski that start had been wiped out and the match score stood at 206 each. In the next three sets they built on their lead until Alex played again, this time against Ian Byrne and turned the match score in their favour with a five point lead. The next set that lead vanished and Mick Hill took a one point lead against Eddie Simon. The doubles seem to be a crucial set in this new handicap competition and the pairing of Alex Waring and Eddie Simon for Prestwich against the Polish Club’s Mick Hill and Eddie Kalinowski regained the lead by two points. Three sets to go and Ian Byrne regained the lead for the Polish Club by seven points against Keith Butler. Yet another swing in the next set when Eddie Simon for Prestwich gained a one point lead against Eddie Kalinowski. The final set saw a bad start for Alex Waring against Mick Hill for the Polish club and Hill’s steady play saw them through to a finishing result of 544 against Prestwich 527. Another very entertaining night’s table tennis played in very good spirit.

Pressman Cup Final

The Pressman Cup is for division three teams. Elton Vale and Stand have made it through to the final and Elton Vale started on 204 points with Stand 71 points behind on 133. Keith Mills, Rodney Hall and Jim Bollard lined up for Elton Vale and Chris Sutcliffe, Dave Jackson and Paul Tatlock were playing for Stand. After the first three sets Stand had narrowed their deficit to 38 points and the next match with Rodney Hall of Elton Vale against Paul Tatlock of Stand the difference was down to 19 points. Jim Bollard of Elton Vale then took on Dave Jackson and lead for Elton was cut to 11. A big swing in the next match of Keith Mills and Paul Tatlock with Stand taking the lead for the first time in the night by 13 points. With the doubles played there were three sets left to play and Stand did not relinquish their lead and finished the winners on 563 to Elton Vales 507.

Closed Championships

There was a welcome return to the Closed Championships to Castle Leisure Centre in Bury and an entry of 86 players provided a full days table tennis in ten different events. There has been an absence of over 15 years from Bury because of rising costs and lower entries. The divisional handicap events were played through to the final on the day and the following events will be played on ‘Finals Night’ on Tuesday 20th April, 7pm at Elton Vale Sports Club. Juniors, Over 40’s, Over 60’s, Doubles, Singles semis and final.

Juniors

To attract a good entry of junior’s players who attended the Ramsbottom Table Tennis Academy were invited to play and a field of fourteen juniors in three groups played. The winners of each group progressed to the semi finals plus the ‘best runner up’. There was a tie for best runner up so a play off between Nicholas Kroll from Ramsbottom Academy and Adam Newton, eleven year old son of one of the league players, Gary Newton saw Nicholas win through. He played Dean Clyne won plays for Maccabi and were promoted from division three this season and Dean won through to the final. Callum Stott another Academy player played Jack Gratton who plays for Wardle B in division five. Callum won that match and plays Dean in the final.

Over 40’s

The preliminary round was in a group format with winners and runners up progressing to the knockout stage. Mark Ramsbottom progressed through to the final beating Alan Meltzer, Derek Watmough and a fine win over reigning champion Graham Jeffries in the semi final. In the bottom half of the draw Mick Dore progressed through beating Ben Armstrong, Dave Scowcroft and Ian Quinn.

Over 60’s

Players could enter the over 40’s as well as the over 60’s if they qualified on age. The format was a straight knockout. Derek Watmough, reigning champion won through to the final at the top half of the draw beating David Watts, Harry Barlow and Wayne Ellis on the way. Tommy Ryan at the bottom of the draw beat Mike Singleton, Rodney Hall and Frank Carse on his way to the final.

Doubles

This event was a straight knock out. Derek Watmough progressed through to another final paired with Dennis Collier. They beat Clive Roberts and Jack Bostock, Steve Greaves and Carol Mitchell, Dave Bolton and Craig Bradbury and a fine win over Graham Jeffries and Steve McNicholas in the semis. In the bottom half of the draw Tony Bates and Tony Smith won through to the final for the first time representing BAE a new club to the league this season. On their way to the final they beat Andy Evans and Steve Hathaway, Ian Quinn and Gary Newton and a good win over Mark Ramsbottom and Rob Wylie in the semi final. The Divisional Handicaps were played to a conclusion on the day. They would be using the same handicaps that were used for the first time this season in the cup competitions. Handicaps shown in brackets.

Division 1 Handicapped Singles

Rob Carter (18) won through to the next round beating Ben Armstrong (13) in the process. He then faced Gary Newton (13) who won through to the final. Steve Barber (11) beat Mick Dore (5) and Ian Quinn (12) and eventually lost to Gray Newton in the final.

Division 2 Handicapped Singles

One of the biggest entries of all the divisions so more rounds played. Dave Scowcroft (9) beat Craig Bradbury (14), Ken Hayes (8), Lukasz Serdiuk (1) and Keith Butler (17) to get to the final. Mark Reading (15) beat Dave Smith (8), Steve Hathaway (16) and Derek Watmough (5) to get to the final against Dave Scowcroft and the latter eventually won the event.

Division 3 Handicapped Singles

There were four groups in the preliminary rounds with the winners and runners up progressing through. Steve Greaves (8) won his group and faced John Dawes (4) runner up in his group and John progressed through to meet Paul Carter (15) who won through to the final. Rodney Hall (12) winner of group two was beaten by Paul Carter. Wayne Ellis (4) runner up of group one beat John Dodd (12) and lost to Alan Meltzer (9) who had beaten Frank Carse (6) in the previous round. In the final Paul Carter beat Alan Meltzer.

Division 4 Handicapped Singles

Two groups in this division saw Jim Eardley (11) progress to the semis to face Alan Hibbert (9) where Jim won through to the final. In the bottom half Keith Cheyne (8) won his group to face runner up in his group Steve Evans (8) who beat Keith to get to the final. Steve Evans won his final against Jim Eardley.

Division 5 Handicapped Singles

Two groups in this division saw Dave Watts (3) face Graham Wardle (14) in his semi final where Dave Watts won. In the bottom half Ian Ferrari (5) faced Alex Braid (13) and it was Ian who won through to the final to beat Dave Watts.

Open Singles

The big event of the day was on a group basis in the preliminary round to then progress to a straight knockout to progress through to the semi finals which will be played on Finals Night on 20th April. Gary Newton won his place in the semi final by beating Carol Mitchell, Steve McNicholas and Ben Armstrong. Graham Jeffries beat Ken Hayes, Tony Bates and team mate Mick Dore to secure his place in the semis. Marek Maraszkiewicz from the new to the league ‘Grubba Fans’ club had an excellent day beating Lee Devenport, Dennis Collier and Derek Watmough to secure his place. Team mate Lukasz Serdiuk had an even better day causing the upset of the day by beating Mark Ramsbottom in the second round having already beaten Dave Bolton in the first. Lukasz then beat Rob Wylie to secure his place in the semi final and will face his team mate Marek and Graham Jeffries will face Gary Newton in the other semi.

To all players who attended we hope you enjoyed the day