Eastern Valley Closed - Final Night

The Finals Night saw the completion of the 2014/15 Eastern Valley Closed Tournament. The Closed Tournament is held over a number of weeks at the end of the League season and events not completed during those weeks are held on Finals Night. The Junior Singles was previously completed on one night with Matthew Pearce beating Ben Allen in a terrific final.

Due to the large number of entries for the Handicap Singles event there were still 2 quarter finals outstanding with Paul Booth beating Louis Price(+2) in 5 sets. In the other quarter final Eric Turner beat Ben Allen(+4) in 4 sets to join Booth, Mark Farrow and Chris Price in the semi-finals. Farrow had a win in 4 sets over Booth(+2) and Turner(+3) defeated Price in straight sets. In the final Eric Turner(+3) had a surprisingly comfortable straight sets win over Mark Farrow.

In the Doubles the father and son combination of John and Lee Thomas had already reached the final when they beat Peter Gordon and Alex Jones in the semi-final. Gordon and Jones had a very surprising win in their quarter final over the holders Tony Collins and Andrew Ryder. The other semi-final involved another father and son duo of Chris Price and Louis Price against the top seeds Mark Farrow and David Lloyd. This was one of the most exciting matches of the night with Farrow and Lloyd coming back from 2 sets to 1 down to win 12-10 in the final set. The first set of the final was closely fought with Farrow and Lloyd winning 14-12, but that was as close as it got as they comfortably won the final 2 sets to clinch the title.

The Division Two tournament had reached the semi-final stage with Louis Price v Wayne Ford and Michael Blatchford v Lincoln Alford. Young Price was having a busy night and was well warmed up before he met old Ford. The match was an exciting affair with the outcome swaying too and fro between the players, but Price eventually won a tense match 12-10 in the final set. (Quote from Ford "my opponent had just come back from a training camp in Sweden where as I had just returned from a holiday camp in Devon") In the other semi-final Blatchford had a straight sets win over Alford. The final was closely fought with Louis Price capping a fine night of table tennis for himself with a win over the experienced Michael Blatchford in 5 sets. Blatchford had done well to come back from 2 sets down only to lose out in the final set.

The Veterans tournament had reached the final between Lee Thomas, the number 1 seed, and Mark Edmunds. Thomas had beaten Tony Collins in the semi-final whilst Edmunds had beaten Jonathan Allen in his semi-final after a very good win over David Lloyd in the quarters. The shock of the earlier group stages was the defeat of a previous winner Ray Goulding by Alex Jones. Jonathan Allen had also done well in his group match to beat Mark Farrow. The final had the anticipated outcome with Lee Thomas proving too strong for Mark Edmunds to win in straight sets.

The final of Division One was played between Tony Collins and Chris Price. Collins had previously beaten Mark Farrow in the Semi-final and Price had beaten David Lloyd. As expected the final provided a good spectacle of table tennis with the first set going to Collins 17-16. Collins also took the second set 11-6 but Price came back to take the third set 11-9. However in the final set Collins proved too strong to win 11-3 to clinch the Division One title.

It was an enjoyable night of table tennis to round off the 2014/15 season and all winners and runner ups will be presented with their trophies at the League AGM on Monday 13th July at Panteg House commencing 7.30pm.

 

 

Author: via Gwent Table Tennis Club
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