British League Fixture 1 Report
The Isle of Man Table Tennis Association has again backed a Manx team to play in the British League throughout the 2024/25 season. The British Clubs League is Table Tennis England’s premier club team competition, and is open to entrants from across the Home Countries (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man). The Isle of Man’s participation provides great value and prestige in terms of developing the skills of our top players when pitted against some of the British Isles’ strongest amateur competition.
A synopsis of the Manx team’s results in the first series of fixtures is as follows:
IOM (4) Halton TTC (5)
IOM (3) Dundee (6)
IOM (4) Birmingham (5)
IOM (5) Guernsey (4)
The first series of fixtures were played in one weekend, and the Manx team consisted of Scott Lewis, Adam Teare, Duncan Alexander and Becky Taylor - our top-ranked players.
Each fixture consisted of 2 singles matches each, followed by one doubles pairing. The IOM took on Halton 2 first and were unlucky to come away with a 4-5 loss given 4 of the matches went to 5 with the IOM unable to capitalise on any of those 5 set thrillers. Each player picked up one win however, and the doubles match thus proved crucial. Adam and Scott were unlucky to lose their match 9-11 in the 5th end.
The second fixture of the day was against a strong Dundee side, which saw the IOM team losing out 3-6. Lewis did really well to take his 2 singles, followed by a strong performance by Duncan to claim one of his. Unfortunately that was not enough and the IOM lost out overall 3-6.
Sunday kicked off with a thriller against a young Birmingham side - with the IOM team being extremely unlucky to lose out on this one too - but by a narrow 4-5 margin. The fixture was tied the entire way through with an extremely good win for Scott and Duncan in the doubles, taking the match 11-8 in the 5th end, meaning the IOM took a 3-2 lead going into the final round of singles. Duncan had an extremely close 5 set encounter with a young and up and coming sensation from Birmingham. Having gone 0-2 down, Duncan clawed his way back to 2-2, only for the young buck to hold his nerve and clinch the match 11-7 in the 5th end. The match score was then tied at 4-4 where Becky was unlucky to lose out to her opponent 1-3 in the deciding match.
The weekend was finished off with a hugely satisfying victory over Island rivals Guernsey. The Isle of Man put out a strong performance with every player picking up victories to take the win 6-3. Scott Lewis was awarded player of the match with his 2 strong singles wins, and he then teamed up with Duncan in the doubles to take a crucial 3-2 victory.
The IOM finished Weekend 1 therefore sitting in a comfortable 6th position with Weekend 2 to be played in November, where the team will aim to climb the table.
Picture: (from left to right) Adam Teare, Duncan Alexander, Becky Taylor & Scott Lewis (photo by Malcolm Lambert)
Ken Mitchell
