Guildford Table Tennis League Week 21 And More!

Published on: 15 Mar, 2020
Updated on: 15 Mar, 2020

By John Diggens

The Premier Division of the Guildford Table Tennis League saw a number of wonderful matches with some fine individual performances during week 21.

The Burymead ‘local derby’ was a classic, ending five all.

Phil Snelson starred taking all his singles plus the doubles which included victory over his ‘partner’ Julie Lawrence, who scored two points for the B side.

Snelson was made to work hard with both Axel Raeder and Tim Goodship taking him to five sets.

In fact, the A’s won four of the five ‘five setters’ during the evening. In another ’derby’ Merrow B took out their A side 7-3 for the second time this season.

Graham Faulkner.

Graham Faulkner and Richard Seymour played superbly in this one.

In Division One, Merrow D, still in line for promotion, suffered something of a setback dropping five points to lowly Godalming D, for whom the ever-dependable Brian Mitchell got three.

Brian Mitchell.

Surprisingly John Grant went away pointless although losing in five to both Mitchell and Carol Day.

Division Three, and Merrow F are making a fight of it at the top with their latest 10-0 win against Aftermath D.

Table toppers Bramley D got an 8-2 result against their F side, a feature of which was a maximum in singles and doubles by Steve Mullins.

There was a finely balanced match in Division Four where two of the top three clubs Godalming N and Woking C fought a five all draw.

Godalming rode their luck in a pulsating finale taking the last three matches, all going to five sets. Interestingly no player went away pointless!

Guildford Junior League (Clausura) – Round 4 by Adam Laws

The top three teams, Merrow Demons, Farnborough Lions and Merrow Hawks each won 5-0 in round four of the Guildford Junior League (Clausura) to further increase the gap between themselves and the chasing pack.

Merrow Demons lost their first end of the league when Ashley Minoo lost 3-1 to Dan Godsill.

Dan and Jack Liu won the remaining matches against Ashley and Alex Evans 3-0.

Farnborough Lions defeated Ping Kings 5-0 in an almost identical set of circumstances.

This time it was the doubles that resulted in the loss of an end for Kyle and Anton Kepa against Elliot Latham and Thomas Bailey.

The Kepa brothers won all their singles 3-0.

Merrow Hawks remain a point behind the top two with an equally convincing 5-0 win over Plumbuses.

Max Swindells and Jai Dhillon swept all before them against Sasha Diw and Santi Canals-Marti.

The closest match of the evening was between the two Farnborough teams – the Flames and the Fires.

Abhinav Suri put the Fires in front with a tight 3-2 win over Oliver Sheen but that was as good as it got for them.

Charlie Everingham impressed with two decent wins over Abhinav and Ciaran Johnson, while Oliver just edged past Ciaran 12-10 in the fourth game.

The two teams began their doubles long after the other teams’ matches had finished and produced a match that reflected the closeness of the contest; Oliver and Charlie took the doubles 11-8 in the decider to win 4-1.National Junior League – report by Adam Laws

Guildford played their final round of fixtures in the National Junior League on March 7 at Cippenham TTC.

Competing in the second division, the team was Max Flint, Vincent Quiambao and James Scott. Nathan Tse also played in the earlier rounds.

Their first match was against host team Cippenham B and it finished in a draw.

Max won his two matches 3-0 against Kush Tanna and Doug Claridge-Hansen. James was 2-0 down against Kush, but fought back well to win the next three 11-7, 12-10, 11-9.

The next match against Warren Spring B also resulted in a draw.

Max again won his two against Meth Wijeyekoon and George Thorn, but this time it was Vincent who added the third win in the last match against Satveer Pawar 11-7 in the fourth end.

The third match against Ashford C ended in a 5-1 win.

Max and Vincent each won twice and James added a win over Maninder Saggu. James just missed out 11-9 12-10 11-9 against Daniel Winders in the last match, which would have made it 6-0.

The next match against divisional leaders Ashford B was Guildford’s toughest match and ended in another draw.

Max again won his two matches, including a tough 3-1 win over Ashrith Behara. Vincent then sealed the draw again with an important 11-7 in the fifth victory over Parin Shah.

To clinch second place (and a medal), Guildford needed to beat Warren Spring A 5-1.

Vincent started off well with a convincing 3-0 win over Sam Demont and Max did likewise against Veli Prahanarov.

James was unfortunate to lose 13-11 in the fourth against combination bat player Heidi Oestreicher to make the score 2-1.

Max finished the day with a perfect 10/10 by winning 3-1 win against Sam, but Vincent just missed out 3-1 against Heidi who also finished the day with a 100% record.

James signed off with his best performance of the day, winning 11-9 in the fifth against the hard-hitting Veli to make the match score a creditable 4-2 win.

Click here for Guildford Table Tennis Association’s website.