Six of the 10 contests finished with 4 ends, including the first four with only 2 ending 3-0 which showed it was a finely balanced contest. The final score of 6-4 also reflected the situation. In all honesty, after seeing the teams, I was expecting a slightly better score of 7-3 or 8-2 to Morpeth! A couple of the surprising results may be due to fatigue as Rob, Steve and Samson said they played several games in different tournaments all day on Sunday!

In general, there were a few slightly controversial issues than I seem to remember in matches in this League in the last 5 years or so although all issues were quickly resolved. 

The first of which was when Steve was 7-10 down to Samson in the second. I thought Steve's smash very slightly clipped the net and went out with the end ending 7-11. Steve protested the ball clipped the edge of the table not the net and the umpire (Duncan) said he was not sure. Rob said he thought it touched the edge. I accepted and lost the end 10-12 The next was when Rob and Ian were playing with Rob asking Ian why he was not apologising after a series of nets - no comments from Ian and Rob stopped apologising for nets and edges thereafter! Perhaps the most controversial issue was when Steve stopped playing the point after he thought his own serve touched the net before Duncan returned it. He did not raise his hand, Duncan did not raise his hand, I was umpiring and did not see the serve touching the net. I asked Duncan if he saw the ball touching the net and whether he would accept a let but he said it was not a let. This was when the game was 9-9 in the fourth and Steve lost 11-13. Another one came when Rob and Steve were playing as to whether a ball touched the edge or the side of the table. Both quickly agreed to play a let. The last one came during the doubles. Ian served to the wrong side of the table but insisted that the serve was correct, Gregory was umpiring and did not see it. Thankfully, Steve confirmed the serve was wrong. 

There were no behavioural or disciplinary issues or strong or unpleasant arguments but I was surprised by the number of incidences where two people saw different things in one evening!

Kind regards, Samson