TEARE, BAYLEY & HOLMES TAKE THE HONOURS
Last Wednesday saw a break from the league programme as we held the individual divisional singles event. There was a good entry across all three divisions with a total of 46 players involved, and it proved to be a very competitive evening of table tennis.
Division 1
Nineteen players were split into five groups for the first part of the evening and after many close encounters ten moved into the knockout stages. Michael Tamarov prevailed over Steve O’Hare, as did Tim Baker over the younger Darren Smethurst in the preliminary round. Moving into the quarter finals Tamarov took on the number one seed Ronan McDonnell who proved too strong, Baker could not overcome the steadiness of Mark Johnson, Brian Crellin outplayed Andy Patterson, and Adam Teare beat Mason McLarney by two points in the fifth set. The semi’s pitched McDonnell against Teare, and whilst this promised to be a close contest Teare closed it out 3:0. The second semi between Crellin and Johnson proved to be much tighter with Crellin just edging the result. In the final Teare established an early lead which Crellin pegged back to 2:1, but Teare took the title closing out the fourth end in deuce.
Division 2
A smaller entry of twelve were divided into three groups, with the majority of results going to form. The first round of knockouts put Mike Bayley up against Nigel Beattie, with Bayley snatching a close win in the fifth end. Bayley then moved into the semi’s against the young Danny Hamill who had won his group, and after some open rallies Bayley closed the match out in the last end. On the other side of the draw Sean Drewry proved too strong for Steve Ellis-Pearson, and was then up against Malc Lewis. Another close matchfollowed with Drewry coming back with some brave attacks in the final rubber to set up a finale against Bayley. The last match of the night saw Drewry playing his usual attacking style but the title went to Bayley 3:0.
Division 3
There was a good mix of youth and experience in this section, and after a slightly delayed start there were many tight group matches only decided by a couple of points. In the quarter finals the youthful Ben Christian overcame the experienced Marion Forrest, Kevin Drewry beat Oliver Cain, Aaron Faragher got the better of Matthew Evans, and the number one seed Chris Holmes proved to be too good for Will Cross. In the first semi Holmes played some impressive shots to defeat Faragher, and the youngster Christian proved too consistent for Drewry senior. The finale was a tense tussle with little to choose between Holmes and Christian, but in the end Holmes prevailed and took the title.
Mike Bayley 26th January 2012
