Cramlington Stingers are the champions of the Northumbria Table Tennis Summer league after victory in their final match of the season. With Dale Aitkenhead, David Graham and Iain Wood all unavailable Mark Christie and Ellis Cooper came into the side along with Andrew Wilkinson to visit Riding Mill. Christie was narrowly beaten 15 – 13 in the fifth end by Mark O’Connor in the very first match but Wilkinson quickly squared matters by beating Shirley Gelder. Cooper was then involved in a five game match but edged home 13 – 11 against Maurice Cheek. From then on the Stingers took control winning the rest of their sets in straight games to make the final score 9 – 1.

Springwell Community Centre, however, could still overtake them if they managed to get eight points from their visit to  Saint Chads the following night. Jim Stamas gave them the start they wanted with a narrow victory over Keith Weatherby and they went two up when Graeme Barella won his match with young Joshua Weatherby. But their championship hopes quickly disappeared when they lost the next four sets with Alex Smith losing out to Jimmy Scope and Keith Weatherby,  Stamas losing to Josh Weatherby and Barella and Stamas narrowly losing the doubles to Scope and the young Weatherby. Barella won his other two matches  and Stamas got one  with Josh Weatherby finished the night with two sets under his belt in a drawn match.

There was, however, success for Springwell’s second team who beat Byker B in their final match to finish on top of division three. Dave Pringle was unbeaten, winning all of his singles and combining with Alan Livingstone to take the doubles. After losing to Lee Eadington, Charlie Mouzon won his other two matches against John Carr and Chas Robertson while Livingstone defeated Carr.

 

Aubrey Drapkin