Guildford Table Tennis Association News No.5

Published on: 6 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 8 Feb, 2019

Report by John Diggens

This past week, in the Guildford Table Tennis League Second Division, the battle for supremacy has been intriguing.

Godalming’s Mick Stanners .

Performance of the week has to be Mick Stanners three for Godalming F against Bramley B. in a 7-3 victory, he took out Linda Makepiece, no less, in fine style.

His all out attacking play this season has been a revelation; poetry in motion Mick!

Merrow F beat Bramley D by 9-1 to go level on 81 points with Godalming. Nothing much really separates the top four in this Division with College C and Aftermath C still both very much in the mix.

The First Division produced some rather surprising results. Top of the table Merrow E were held to a draw by bottom of the table Aftermath A, courtesy of two walkovers due to illness. Nevertheless a sound performance from Simon Turner and Albert Cheung who scored a great doubles win.

Abinger’s Chris Pullinger.

Cody beat College Hill 7-3 with Paul Shakespeare unbeaten. An out of sorts Bramley A lost to Abinger B 7-3. The much-improved Chris Pullinger was unbeaten in this one.

The Third Division saw a top verses bottom encounter when Bramley E consolidated their position with a 9-1 victory over Merrow G. Kim Farminer, Steve Palmer and Alan Osgood continue to delight as a formidable combination.

Ash B, despite three from Ted Cornell, suffered a 6-4 reverse against Farnham Tennis to dent their title hopes. In this topsy turvy world of ping an outstanding 6-4 victory from tenth placed College Hill E, with only two players, over fourth placed Aftermath D, shows anything can happen. Richard Knight with three and Peter Norman with two plus the doubles between them completed the win.

Division Four and College Hill F got a good 8-2 win over Godalming P with Richard Abbey having a great result against high flying Vincent Quiambao. Rick Clement and Sue Bowman backed him up with braces.

Annual Closed Championship report by John Calcutt

The first part of the 84th Guildford Closed Table Tennis Competition took place at Christ’s College on Sunday, February 3. Before proceedings started we remembered four table tennis players who have sadly passed away in the last year. Carole Ingram, Mike Willimott, Colin Henderson and Ron Stracey.

The day’s competition consisted of the Divisional Singles and Doubles, the Veterans Singles and Doubles and the Masters competition.

The Divisional Championships are always keenly contested and this time we had entries from the Premier and Divisions 1, 2 and 4.

Phil Harrison.

In the semi-finals of the Premier section Rory Scott beat Phil Harrison three straight and Phil Snelson beat Richard Seymour also three straight.

In the final Scott went one up with a 13-11 win but Snelson came back strongly winning 11-6, 11-6 and 11-7 to become champion.

In the doubles Phil Snelson and Julie Lawrence had a fine win in five over Simon Vine and Rory Scott before playing Vijay Bhaskar and Richard Seymour in the final. This they won 5-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-8 to complete an excellent double for Snelson who is in the form of his life.

The First Division saw Chris Pullinger and Stuart Vincent move strongly to the final with wins over Peter Palmer and Steve Collins.

The final was an ’up and down’ affair with Pullinger winning the first two matches 11-3, 11-6 but then Vincent upped his game and won 11-2. Well, what was going on?

Pullinger who is in fine form buckled down and took the fourth set 11-5. That man Chris Pullinger with his scratch partner Adrian Cretu reached the doubles final when they had to play Stuart Vincent and Adrian Sharp. This proved to be a very tense encounter with Vincent and Sharp winning 21-19, 7-11, 11-4, 2-11, 11-8.

Anshuman Richharia.

The Second Division competition was played in two groups of five. Brian Mitchell was undefeated in Group A and Ansh Richharia was unbeaten in Group B.

This anticipated final looked to be plain sailing for Mitchell as he took a two set lead, 11-2 and 11-7 but Richharia was made of firmer stuff and battled back by winning 11-9 and 11-8. Anyone’s game you would have thought but Mitchell, playing very consistently, took the fifth set 11-2 as Richharia’s challenge faded.

Carsten Horne.

Another tense doubles final took place between Mike Caudrey and Paul Tanton and Carsten Horne and Ansh Richharia. Horne is somewhat of a doubles specialist and he together with his partner won 6-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9.

The Fourth Division competition was played in two groups and the young guns Owain Osmond-Gillam and Vince Quiambao came through to the final.

This proved to be a tight encounter with Quiambao emerging as the winner 11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 11-8. Veteran umpire Jim Faulkner reported that this was an excellent match played by two young players in a fine spirit.

The doubles final saw the youngsters playing, let’s say, experience and it was the youngsters who emerged victorious. Vincent Quiambao and Owain Osmond-Gillam beating Richard Abbey and Rich Clement 11-7, 11-4, 5-11,11-5.

Simon Vine.

The Masters event for over 60s was played on a straight knock-out basis. Simon Vine beat defending champion, Phil Harrison 11-5, 11-5, 11-5. This was a reversal of last year’s result and a delighted Vine was happy to announce that this was his first Guildford Championship since he won the open singles as a young lad in 1976.

Julie Lawrence.

The Veterans Championship for over 40s is always a hard-fought contest and the standard gets higher every year. There were two stand out quarter final matches. Simon Vine beat the fancied Richard Tanner 9-11, 11-8, 11-6,11-6 and Julie Lawrence put up a terrific display against a rattled John Robinson before running out of steam and losing 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 5-11, 3-11.

The semi-final was a classic between Phil Snelson and the mercurial Rory Scott. Scott won a nail-bighting first game 15-13. It was then up and down before Scott came through by winning 4-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-9.

The other semi-final saw Simon Vine nearly taking a two-set lead against John Robinson but Robinson is a fighter and he won 8-11, 16-14, 11-6, 11-1.

The final between Robinson and Scott was another dramatic affair with the supporters on the edge of their seats.

Scott was dominant in the first game winning 11-8 but Robinson snatched the second 11-9.

The third game was vital and often when it gets tight Scott’s variation of serves, pendulum, tomahawk etc. gets him out of trouble (as it had in the semi-final).

Robinson had to control these and also keep the ball off Scott’s terrific backhand smash which is a lethal weapon. He kept his nerve and concentration and nicked the game 12-10.

The fourth game could have gone either way but Robinson maintained control and his composure and won 11-7 to become a worthy winner.

Richard Tanner and John Robinson.

The final events, the Veterans Doubles, saw some more high class matches. John Robinson and Richard Tanner played Simon Vine and Rory Scott in the final. Robinson and Tanner had not dropped a game in getting to the finals and this pattern continued as they won 11-5, 11-7 and 11-4.

And a short video clip of some of the action.

In total 136 matches were played over the day. On Sunday we do it all again when we will stage the Open Singles and Doubles, Junior and Ladies events.

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