2017-18 David Viggers Tournament Report
CRACKINGTON’S Frank Barnes was crowned the Class One champion at the North Cornwall Table Tennis League’s annual David Viggers tournament at Budehaven Sports Hall last Sunday in a classic final against Ingus Abolnieks.
Barnes’ club team-mate Ross Paynter won Class Two while Budehaven’s rising star, Cayden Gill edged an epic decider against Sam Jennings in the Class Three final.
Jennings was also runner-up in the Junior Singles, losing in straight sets to Owen Salisbury.
Twenty-five players entered and were split into three classes of eight depending on which division they play in and if neccessary, their current form.
All matches in the group stages were best of three first to 11, with the semi-finals and finals being played as best of five.
In Class One, there were originally going to be three groups of three but a late pull-out meant that Dave Salisbury and Zach Parker were in a group by themselves.
Salisbury won with Parker going into the ‘Repechage’ section to face the runners-up of the other groups. The winner of that would reach the last four.
Helland’s Abolnieks and Budehaven’s Helen Murgatroyd won their groups with Barnes and Salisbury joining Parker in a bid to play Dave Salisbury in the semi-final.
Barnes won both comfortably before surprisingly beating Salisbury 3-0.
He was joined in the final by Abolnieks who gained some revenge on Murgatroyd for his loss to her in the league on Thursday.
The final was epic as both men played some scintillating table tennis to take it to a decider.
Barnes had trailed 1-0 and 2-1 and wasn’t going away. After both men missed match points, the Crackington A star snuck home 15-13 to draw applause from everyone watching.
In Class Two it was a straightforward route to success for Ross Paynter as his fine form continued.
After seeing off Alex Whitfield, Stephen Parsons and Tim Orchard in his group, he came from a game down to beat David Sillifant 3-1 and reach the final where he’d face club-mate Paul Seez.
Although the experienced Seez doesn’t play regularly in the league anymore, he’s a difficult man to beat.
In the group stages he beat Keiron Chatterjea, Robin Evans and Sillifant before taking on the runner-up of the other group, Stephen Parsons in the last four.
In an attritional battle, Parsons snuck the first two games before Seez rallied to claim the next two with ease. The decider was close, but it was Seez who edged home 12-10.
The final however was pretty one-sided as Paynter won 3-0, dropping just 11 points in the process.
Class Three saw a mixture of players from divisions two and three.
In the end, Budehaven’s youth reached the final with Cayden Gill taking on Sam Jennings.
Gill took a 2-0 lead before Jennings launched a brilliant comeback to make it all square.
But in the end, Gill’s match experience told as he won the decider 11-9.
The Juniors Singles was won as expected by Owen Salisbury who is still yet to lose in Division Two this season. He beat Jennings in three straight games to round off the day.
Author: via North Cornwall Table Tennis League
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