News & Views from the Colchester Table Tennis League
with Press Officer Martyn Green

31st March-2009
RAYNE v ST MARY’S A IN CUP FINAL

In a thrilling semi-final of the Colchester & District Table Tennis Kiltie Cup Rayne squeezed past H20 Rowhedge C 5-4. Rayne shot into a two nil lead as, despite losing the first end 11-1 to Dave Moss, Steve Kerns fought back to win the next three ends. Sam Clarke and Alan Burgess then levelled things up for Rowhedge with fine wins over Ian Whiteside and Jon Hill. In the closest match of the night Moss and Burgess put the home team into the lead beating Kerns and Whiteside in the maximum five ends. The teams traded wins with Moss and Kerns both winning in straight sets, however this was to be Rowhedge’s last success as Whiteside levelled the match bating Alan Burgess. Kerns and Hill took the final match in four sets to seal an excellent result. In the other semi-final things could not have been more opposite as H20 Rowhedge B could only field two players. Gary Young beat Michael Andrews in the opening match in three straight sets to secure a 5-0 win for St Mary’s as surprisingly no Rowhedge team have reached the final!

In another thrilling match amazingly Pegasus B beat their ‘A’ team 5-4 thanks mainly to Toby Turner’s best efforts. No fewer than four of the games went the full five set distance and in the match of the night with the scores at 3-3 Turner pulled out all the stops to beat club-mate Pete Mills 14-12 in the fifth end! The ‘A’ team weren’t finished however, as Clive Forster levelled the match beating Dave Haslam. It was Turner and Tony Eversden that settled the proceedings with a four set defeat of Steve Noble and Mills. This sets up a tough final against Division Two champions H20 Rowhedge D who maintained their ‘treble’ ambitions with a 5-1 win over their ‘E’ team. The prolific Phil Smith suffered his team’s only defeat going down to Tony Price in four sets.

The Minor Cup Final will be contested between first and second in Division Four; H20 Rowhedge G and Gt Horkesley E. Rowhedge accounted for Pegasus E 7-2 with Brett Angel unbeaten in all four of his games.

The Handicap final is an all Rowhedge affair as the ‘F’ team take on the ‘D’ team with an interesting contrast of youth versus experience. With Fred Button, Phil and Mark Smith unbeaten as a team on all fronts it will be fascinating to see how the less experience but higher handicapped Ed Rudge, Andrew Harvey and Brett Angel will cope. One things for sure it will probably be the ‘D’ teams toughest game of the season!

In the Handicap Doubles final Lawford B take on Lawford D.

In Division Three of the League, Lawford B have pipped Pegasus C to the second promotion spot despite losing to them 6-4. It was a brave effort by Pegasus, who needed to win 9-1 to go up and despite George Kalli’s endeavour in scoring a maximum and leading 4-1 at the halfway stage they just came up short!

The one issue that remains unsolved is at the foot of Division Two where Pegasus B need four points from their remaining two games to send Clairmont back down, joining Tollesbury A.