Guildford Table Tennis News Week 8

Published on: 13 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 12 Nov, 2019

By John Diggens

In the Guildford Table Tennis League Premier Division several teams from the relegation area were engaged this past week.

Ash A zoomed up the table on the back of a 9-1 rout of luckless Merrow C.

College Hill A managed four points out of a weakened third in the table Godalming B, including a spirited doubles success in five sets.

Merrow A and B fought a dour draw in their ‘local derby’ with Richard Seymour unbeaten in singles and doubles.

In another ‘derby’ Burymead B took out their A side 8-2 with an unexpected blank from Mark Handcock and Ramesh Bhalla. Axel Raeder and Tim Goodship starred in this one.

Brian Mitchell excelled for seventh placed Godalming D against second in the table Merrow D in Division One scoring four points in a 6-4 defeat.

Division Two and table toppers Ash B, although winning 6-4, were thwarted by a superb display by Shaun Robertson of Emmanual who was unbeaten during the evening’s match.

Bramley A, second with a game in hand, got a 9-1 result against College Hill C.

Paul Tanton won 12-10 in the fifth against Peter Palmer to register the Hill’s only point . He also lost a five setter with Geoff Nevitt.

Division Three and Bramley D continued their fine form against their F team with a 7-3 win.

None of the D team got past Dave Barraclough though. He is having a particularly good season.

Godalming K had a real ding dong with Challoner B. In a 7-3 win they took four of the five setters on view three at deuce in the final set. Charley Penny, playing some of her best table tennis this season, was the evening’s star performer.

I have to report that Abinger’s Keith Sutton, has now decided to change his 1950s one shilling and six pence bat for a ‘state of the art’ job.

Not sure if the old one was a Johnny Leach or a Viktor Barna? Watch out for yourselves fellow ‘ping’ players!

Sad news was the death of Barry Vine, father of Simon and Timmy Vine, who was H/C Cup Secretary from 1970-73 and treasurer from 1974-80 and one of the association’s real characters. He features frequently in our history.

In the Guildford Junior League Round 3, Merrow Hawks maintained their lead with another commanding 5-0 win.

Action from the Guildford Junior League.

Their latest prey were Ash & Alex, who were unlucky not to get on the scoreboard, none more so than in the doubles when they lost 20-18 in the decider. For the Hawks, Jai Dhillon and Max Swindells were again unbeaten.

Level on points and with 100% win records at the start of the evening, something had to give when the Thunderbolts faced VM.

Guildford Junior League.

Ultimately, the Thunderbolts rumbled to victory 3-2. The Kepa brothers, Anton and Kyle each won one singles against Thomas Bailey and combined to take the doubles.

For VM, Vlad Cretu maintained his own personal 100% record in the singles with two impressive wins.

Farnborough Flames found the necessary ‘sparkes’ to ignite their season by notching their first win against Merrow Demons, 3-2.

Joe Sparkes made his first appearance of the season and this made all the difference to his team’s fortunes. He scored two wins over Jack Liu and Dan Godsill and then teamed up with Anna Simms Soteras to take the doubles.

EJJ and the Looters postponed their match to a later date.