"Air's penultimate match of the season at Brandon was against True Roof Direct, who fielded their strongest team on paper consisting of Neil Herrington, James Bradbury and David Blackburne. Initially there were clear skies for Air winning their first two games thanks to Lee Tinkler and Geoff Salter, but after that there was turbulence. Jamie Lupton faced Blackburne, who needed two ends to find timing on his fast, deep backhand drives. The fourth end went 16-14 in favour of Lupton, just about managing to neutralise the attack and weather the storm. Salter had trouble dealing with Bradbury, who mixed chops with varying backspin and forehand loop drives to effectively force mistakes out of Salter. Eventually, Salter regained his composure to execute his trademark hitting game to take that game 3-2. In the doubles, Tinkler and Lupton struggled to deal with Herrington and Blackburne, the visitors taking a 2-0 lead. The combination of Herrington's pushing to set up Blackburne's aforementioned attacking game made it difficult for the Air pair to find their usual rhythm. With some tactical adjustment, Tinkler and Lupton fought back into the fifth end but with the tension rising, True Roof had their first match point at 10-9. It looked like they converted when Herrington sent the ball down Air's backhand line, but somehow Lupton sidestepped all the way from the other side to produce a match saving forehand hook. Air secured the next two points to win 12-10 and 5-0 up at the halfway point.

The remaining five matches produced some excellent table tennis. The main highlights include Herrington utilising his steady backhand block and equally consistent forehand to wear down Lupton in the longest match of the night, and Blackburne ripping some tremendous shots from both wings to put away Salter. Overall, this is the most enjoyable league match I have played this season. All players were finding success at times playing positive, attacking strokes and also countering their opponents strokes. There were many moments where you thought the rally was over, only for the disadvantaged player to produce some seemingly miraculous recovery shot. I hope to experience more matches like this one, hopefully in the near future.

The other match taking place at Brandon was Bullets taking on Mount, with the away team taking the 10 points in convincing fashion. With this win, Mount finished undefeated and are officially Division 1 Champions. Congratulations to all their players for a successful season and to those on Air who have secured second place. Air will finish their season next week vs Bullets.

Jamie Lupton"