Table Tennis 14th April 2013
An excellent afternoon and evening of Table Tennis took place last Saturday at Eathorpe Village Hall as the Finals of the Leamington Table tennis Championships were played.
The day began with the younger competitors, Adam Cofler of Free Church took his first Winners trophy in the Under 13 Boys singles beating clubmate Jack Green. The Grade 5 Singles followed and brought a winner for the host club as Shaun Martin of Eathorpe just pipped Sam Bradley (Free Church) in 5 games.
An all Free Church battle in the Cadet Boys between Timmy Cooper and Sam Weaving went the way of the No 1 seed, Timmy winning in 4 games. Adam Cofler then added his second trophy with a straight games win over Jon Ablett of Eathorpe in the Grade 4 Singles
One of the best games of the afternoon followed as a full 5 game struggle went to Milly Green of Free Church. Milly just overcoming Sophie Rinnhofer of Colebridge with some very good forehand shots.
Two fairly straightforward wins followed as Sam Wiggins (Free Church) overcame Harry Purewal (Free Church) in the Grade 3 Singles and Holly Thompson(Eathorpe) was also dominant beating Lisa Rinnhofer (Colebridge) in the Junior Girls Singles.
Sam Wiggins (Free Church) was unable to add a second Graded Singles Trophy to his collection as he lost to Lee Dorning (Free Church) in 4 games in the Grade 2 Singles. The Junior Boys singles was an all Rugby affair as No 1 seed Jesse Kendrick-Hill triumphed over his club mate Anshul Satsangi in 4 games.
A first trophy for St Georges followed as Tracey Fletcher defeated Joanna Outhwaite (Rugby) in the Veterans Womens Singles.The first real upset of the day came next as Timmy Cooper and Lee Dorning (Free Church) overcame Jesse Kendrick-Hill and Anshul Satsangi (Rugby) in a superb 5 game match which contained some stupendous rallies in the Junior Boys Doubles
The first half came to a close with three further matches. First the handicap Singles where William Apted (Eathorpe) overcame a 10 point handicap against Sam Bradley of Free Church, Sam held his advantage till well into the game, which eventually went to William 61-54.
There then followed two further excellent doubles matches, the Junior Girls Doubles saw the No 1 seeds Olivia Fletcher (Free Church) and Holly Thompson (Eathorpe) fall 2 games behind due to some excellent play from Jennifer and Katie Singleton of Free Church, the top seeds however recovered excellently to take the last 3 games and with it the trophies.
The last game of the afternoon was another tremendous tussle in the Parent Child Doubles, Mike and Lisa Rinnhofer (Colebridge) just losing to the Free Church pairing of Martyn and Alice Todd in five games.
After a short break battle was resumed in the evening session. It started with the Youth (U21) Singles where Ryan Lines (Rugby) overcame Aaron Riley (Potters Green) in 4 games. The Mens Singles Semi Finals followed and the No 1 and 2 seeds duly took their places in the final, Ian Ferguson(Colebridge) beating Gary Webb(St Georges) and Mark Jackson(St Georges) beating Jesse Kendrick-Hill (Rugby).
Jesse recovered from his semi final loss to take a well contested Grade 1 singles trophy win over Kate Hughes (Colebridge). Gary Webb (St Georges) also put Mens Semi Final disappointment behind him with a powerful 3 game defeat of Murray Stevenson (WCC) in the Over 50 Singles. Kate Hughes and Ian Ferguson (Colebridge) were also too strong for Earl Sweeney and Tracey Fletcher in the Mixed Doubles.
Two more straight forward victories followed as Simon Griew (WCC) overcame Earl Sweeney (St Georges) in the Veterans Mens Singles and Kate Hughes(Colebridge) and Jo Outhwaite (Rugby) were also too strong for Tracey Fletcher (St Georges) partnering her daughter Olivia (Free Church) in the Womens Doubles,
The match of the Championships occurred in the Mens Doubles as Mark Jackson and Earl Sweeney (St Georges) won deuce in the fifth set over No 1 seeds Ian Ferguson (Colebridge) and Jesse Kendrick-Hill (Rugby).
So to the two major Finals, Kate Hughes (Colebridge) cemented a superb treble in the Womens Events as she claimed her third trophy of the evening in 3 games beating Tracey Fletcher (St Georges) in the Womens singles.
In the Mens Final No 1 seed ian Ferguson (Colebridge) eventually triumphed, he took the first two games very comfortably as Mark Jackson(St Georges) attempted to be very aggressive. In the next three games Mark became much more conservative winning the third and fourth games as Ian relaxed a bit. Not so in the fifth game Ian took a strong lead and although Mark came back a bit the trophy went to Ian Ferguson.
All in all a superb evenings table tennis with established stars coming through along with some real prospects for future stardom showing in the Junior Ranks.
