Guildford Table Tennis League News Week 15

Published on: 23 Jan, 2020
Updated on: 23 Jan, 2020

By John Diggens

The Guildford Table Tennis League got back to routine after a lengthy Christmas break.

In fact, it was a rather punchy start when Merrow A lost to their ‘stiffs’ (old football term for reserves) 5-4 in the prestigious Percy Lawes KO Cup competition.

The Merrow B team – otherwise known as the ‘stiffs’.

The victory was crafted by their nemesis, Richard Seymour, so long a thorn in the side of the first team.

Match one set the scene when Seymour took out John Robinson, the A side’s talisman, in a fine display of vintage table tennis.

The result finally hinged on the ninth match when an unbeaten Seymour faced a pointless Martin Townshend, which looked a racing certainty for the Merrow B ace.

Even then there were still several rolls of the dice before closure.

At two sets down Townshend fought back spectacularly against an over confident Seymour to level matters, but alas it was not to be as the latter scraped through 11-8 in the fifth. Playing with Richard Seymour was John Callcut and Graham Faulkner.

The Premier Division saw a crucial clash between relegation haunted Challoner A and Merrow C with a 9-1 score line in favor of the village side.

Challoner lost all four of the five setters. Micky Lang and David Joyce completed the rout in their bid to stave off the big drop.

An intriguing encounter between Burymead B and Merrow A resulted in a 6-4 win for Merrow.

Your correspondent was present to witness an exciting evening’s ‘ping’ between two of the Premier’s top sides, in which none of the competing players went away pointless.

Burymead quickly built up a 3-0 lead and looked set for a big night, but John Robinson scored a great win over Tim Goodship at 9 in the fifth, followed by a five-set thriller with Jason Tendler just edging out Axel Raeder.

Martin Townshend got a famous victory over Julie Lawrence and it wasn’t until match 10, when Axel Raeder took out Townshend, that the Shackleford club managed a fourth point.