W/c 16th January
2012 Bury and District Table Tennis
League
Sponsored by Hands
On Computer Solutions Ltd
JOHN REDDY Vice –President of the League died last
week aged 74 years. John holds a record in the Bury League that is unlikely to
be beaten. John partnered Beryl Hardman to no less than eight Mixed Doubles
Championships between 1959 and 1967; seven on the trot. It would have been nine
but for losing in the 1960 final. John continued playing for Seedfield
Methodists until 10 or so years ago and was a regular at the season end Finals
Night and will be sadly missed.
DIVISION ONE – MacDonald Cup
Just one match in division one at the top team Ramsbottom Town A drew Prestwich A at home and had to concede one hundred and thirty seven and managed to claw back to just twenty four points by the end of the match which wasn’t enough to see them through to the next round. Only the second set of the night went the way of Prestwich which Colin Boardman beat Graham Young of Ramsbottom by eleven points. Paul King and second division reserve Mohammed Sagied were Prestwich’s other players. Bury Champion Mark Ramsbottom and Andy Jackson joined Graham for the Ramsbottom team.
DIVISION TWO – Poytress Cup
ELPM A surprisingly turned out too strong for divisional leaders Maccabi A who had to concede one hundred and thirty eight points to their mid table rivals. ELPM A ended up on 548 points to Maccabi 468; an eighty point advantage. The first set saw John Dawes for ELPM drawing at forty one points apiece with Dean Clyne. Dean took an impressive twenty six points off Gillian Marsden but with three sets to go ELPM still led by eighty seven so only clawed back another seven points by the end of the match. Though Stuart Landes took eighteen points off Gillian Marsden Ian Cockcroft and John Dawes for ELPM took points back off Dean Clyne and Alan Meltzer to put them safely into the next round. Carlton Vale made the best use of their fifty one point start against Polish Catholic Club at home and managed to increase it to eighty eight by the end of the match. Chris Sutcliffe was in fine form for the home team beating Ian Byrne by ten points in the first set. Eddie Kalinowski for Polish hit back in the next set to beat Steve Morris by eleven points. Dave Jackson for the home side had no answer against Eddie Robakowski losing by fifteen points to narrow the gap to thirty five and a fight back looked on the cards. However Carlton reeled of wins in the next three sets to take a commanding eighty one point start before Eddie Robakowski stopped the rot for Polish by beating Steve Morris by twelve points. Carlton held their nerve to win the last two sets of the night to put them through to the next round.
DIVISION THREE – Pressman Cup
Seedfield C had a one hundred and nineteen point start over top of the division ELPM B. Everything seemed to be going the way of ELPM until set number five when Phil Cooper of Seedfield beat Gerry Faulkner fifty two points to forty seven. A high scoring set when the second game was won by Phil nineteen seventeen. However Seedfields lead had been more than halved at this point and with three sets to play the lead for Seedfield was just forty two points. Gerry Faulkner dominated his last set with a forty four seventeen win over Jonathan Fitton. Lead now just fifteen points and Steven Siddall for Seedfield did his best against Steve Greaves but just lost thirty four to Steve’s forty one. With just eight points in hand it was left to Phil Cooper of Seedfield to face Carol Mitchell who is also top of the averages in this division. Carol was convincing in the first two games winning three and two and the lead was ELPM’s. Winning seven and seven in the last two games Carol put ELPM B through to the next round by 528 points to 511.
DIVISION FOUR – Hilton Cup
Holmar B just missed out going through to the next round being beaten by just thirteen points by Bury Grammar School Old Boys A. Bury Grammar started with a fifty two point lead and that was narrowed down to just twenty seven with three sets to go. Trevor Candler got the better of Andy Evans by ten points so narrowed the lead to seventeen. John Millington had a bad first game against Barry Warburton losing four points to Barry’s eleven. The next three games were just two points apart so Barry was able to increase the lead to thirty points. It was too big a gap for Alan Hibbert to recover off Tim Hope. Alan did manage to claw back seventeen points but it wasn’t enough to put Holmar through. It could be said the handicapping was spot on in the match between Ramsbottom TT Academy A’s juniors who drew with Shawfield C and held a ten point lead with one set to play. It was left to Callum Stott for Ramsbottom to keep ahead of Ashley Ingham for Shawfield. After two games Ashley was just one point behind but Callum won the next set by three points to make the lead four. Ashley then beat Callum by four points to get the draw. The sets were very close throughout and Ramsbottom started with a thirty nine point advantage. By set six it was down to three. Tom Warburton for Ramsbottom then beat Andrew Webster by twelve points but Peter Gregory hit back for Shawfield beating Nick Kroll by five points to set up the final set. Under the Cup rules the match will have to be replayed.
DIVISION FIVE – Lomax Cup
This match is one for the record books! Seedfield E has kept mostly the same players and it was 5th February 2007 when they last won a match; almost 5 years! It shows their resolve to have continued playing despite the results which is a credit to them all.
The two bottom teams in this division faced each other and the first four sets were very close. Seedfield E is in bottom place so had a fifty one point advantage over the junior team Shawfield G at the start of the match. All of the sets were close and even drew set four but Seedfield were slowly increasing their lead. Barry Simpson lost twenty nine forty four to James Aadahl of Shawfield and Seedfield still led by forty two points. In a very strong set from Jim Murray of Seedfield in beating Dean Walmsley forty six points to twenty five which put the match out of Shawfield’s reach with a set to go. Andy Wood consolidated Jims result and beat Sam Burgoyne of Shawfield by eight points to put the match score 651 to Seedfield and 580 to Shawfield. Wardle Conservative Club were too strong for Holmar E and won 472 to Holmars 392. Bury Grammar School Old Boys B had an easy task against Ramsbottom TT Academy B who could only field two players. Dominic Siddall set off in fine style for the Academy beating Graham Hilton by twenty two points. That was their highlight however and the remaining sets were taken by the John’s Greenhalgh and Rowlands and Graham. Daniel Allen was the other Academy player. ELPM D were also down to two players so it was a bit of match practice on the day and their opponents Seedfield D are through to the next round.
