COPY SHOP D NEED SUBSTITUTE TO MAINTAIN MOMEMENTUM
Lack of space meant only six matches could take place in the DLP Adapted Bathrooms sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis League at Centre 21 last Sunday.
Copy Shop A retained top-spot in Division One although their lead has been reduced to just one point as second-placed Arbory beat bottom-placed Tower A 6-3. Third-placed Strathallan A consolidated their position with a convincing win over fourth-placed Travellers A who were missing their top player.
In the Third Division ‘new boys’ Kings clocked-up another 10-0 win and now enjoy a 21 point lead over second-placed Copy Shop D who had to rely on a last minute substitution in order to maintain momentum. Their 9-1 win puts them eight points clear of promotion rivals Tower C who have a game in hand.
DIVISION ONE
Arbory (6) Tower A (3)
Paul Kozlowski blasted bottom-placed Tower off to a flying start by beating Mike Tamarov 11/6, 11/2, 7/11, 11/4 but Tower were a player short so they were actually 3-1 down on points. Arbory’s Jason Quirk quickly made it 4-1 with a straight sets win over the league’s oldest player Graham McFarlane who later defeated Keeran Chan who is more than 60 years his junior. Tamarov took four sets to overpower McFarlane which made it 5-2. Kozlowski conquered Chan to make it 5-3 but was denied his hat-trick as Quirk won their encounter 11/5, 11/7, 11/9.
Strathallan A (8) Travellers A (1)
Travellers edged-out third-placed Strathy 5-4 when they met last October so were not too surprised when Malcolm Cummings won the first point against Andy Horne. Travellers were without the Greystone LLC sponsored Island Closed Singles champion Liam Chan so, try as they might, Cummings, Colin Brown and Mike Dunning could not purloin another point. Cummings came closest losing 5/11, 9/11, 11/9, 15/13, 11/13 to Julian Briercliffe. Dunning also came tantalisingly close in a ding-dong five setter against Horne only to lose 9/11. Brown stretched Andy Patterson to a fifth set but Patty completed his hat-trick with an 11/5 victory.
DIVISION THREE
Kings (10) Peel C (0)
Top-placed Kings made short work of eighth-placed Peel C who failed to field a third player. Tiernan Garvey narrowly lost his first set against Tom Keating and then took the second set 11/2 causing Keating to concentrate in order to win 14/12, 2/11, 11/6, 11/8. Archie Walter got to 8/11 in one game with the league’s top seed Matthew Crabtree. Neither Garvey nor Walter looked likely to steal a set from Stephen Jelly in either the singles or the doubles.
Surestrike Ramsey D (7) Junior Development A (3)
Captain Jack Yardley was unavailable so fifth-placed Surestrike Ramsey D called up Leon Crowe. He, Alex Yardley and Dylan Yardley each won two singles and Crowe joined Dylan to deliver the doubles. JD’s Callan Reed exceeded expectation by beating both Crowe and Dylan. Similarly, Louis Faragher surprised Alex by coming back from 1-2 down in sets to win 11/8, 15/17, 6/11, 11/7, 11/7. JD’s William Shooter is improving fast and he took a set off both Alex and Crowe.
Copy Shop D (9) Copy Shop F (1)
Promotion hunting Copy Shop D would have been a player short but were able to borrow Cameron Dudley from their sixth-placed F team opponents. This pitted Cameron against his brother Josh Dudley and what a match it turned out to be! Josh took the bragging rights for the F team 11/8, 6/11, 11/6, 5/11, 11/9. That was the F team’s only success as Zac Walker and Jack Christian both clocked-up three points and won the doubles while Cameron beat his usual team-mate Leo Doyle in four sets.
Surestrike Ramsey E (10) Junior Development B (0)
Tyler Hannay, Liam Cooper and Sally Green dropped just one set for fourth-placed Surestrike Ramsey E. The youngsters from JD went for their shots and it was evident that their standard of play has improved markedly since the beginning of the season. Lilly Byrne took the first set off Green then lost 6/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/7. Lauren Allwright unluckily lost her third set tie-breaker 13/15 against Cooper but team-mate Victoria Watson found points hard to come by.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
