Derby Closed Table Tennis Tournament ( Report by Aubrey Henry )
This was played at the Draycott TT Centre on Sunday 4th January 2015 (giving players an opportunity to work off some Christmas calories before resuming league play). This is the third year where we have run the tournament on the first weekend in January and the number of entries would suggest that this is a popular choice amongst the competitors.
The entry at 53 (61 entered and 8 dropped out) was the largest we have received for some time. John Cowell, Mike Starkie, Sandra Hewitt and myself ran the event (both Sandra and I also tried to play, with varying degrees of success).
The medals seem to be shared more evenly amongst the players this year, with no one player bagging more than two finals wins. Draycott player Moh Shabir had a good afternoon, he retained the blue ribbon event ‘Open Singles’ beating his Derby League team mate Naphat Boonyaprapa. He also retained the Over 40s trophy by beating Wayne Glossop (Sawley) in that final.
Another player to take two medals was Robin Pearce (Marstons). He teamed up with Simon Varley (Rolls Royce) to win the Open Doubles against Wayne Glossop and Aubrey Henry 11-8 in the 5th, having been 2-0 down. Robin also won the Handicap Singles final, beating Aubrey 3-0. The ‘Handicap Singles’ was the most popular event on the day, with all competitors opting to enter.
Young player of the tournament Naphat Boonyaprapa beat Mathew Webster in the Junior Final before going all the way to the Open Singles final (no.3 seed) against Moh Shabir (seeded no.1). On his way to the Open final,
Naphat beat Robin Pearce (no.6 seed) in the semi-final 13-11 in the 5th, having been 2-0 down. Robin has earlier knocked out the no.2 seed (Craig Fairgrieve) in the quarter-final.
Inta Zdanovska (Littleover) won the Ladies Single, beating Theresa Richardson 3-0 in the final.
Colin Ambrose (Draycott) retained the Over 60s title, beating David Holness 3-0 in the final.
New to the Derby League, Penny May (Melbourne) won the Division 4 final against Thomas Bowes (Littleover). Penny also made good progress thru the rounds of the other events she entered. In the other divisional
finals, Theresa Richardson (Castle Donington) beat her team mate Tony Parker to take Division 1. In a tight Division 2 final, David Holness (Melbourne) beat Peter Hamshaw (Castle Donington) 11-5 in the 5th. The Division 3 final was also contested between team mates, Gordon Taylor (Rolls Royce) beating Tariq Azeem.
I’d like to thank Brian Savage and Graham Gobey for their help at Draycott TTC on the day and for providing bacon rolls and hot drinks. John Cowell, Mike Starkie and Sandra Hewitt for manning the control desk (a long day 09:00 to 20:05). Last, but not least, all the players that entered because we wouldn’t have a tournament without you.
Full Results
Open Singles - Moh Shabir bt Naphat Boonyaprapa 6, -8, 7, 2
Ladies Singles - Inta Zdanovska bt Theresa Richardson 8, 9, 3
Junior Open - Naphat Boonyaprapa bt Matthew Webster -9, 4, 11, 11
Handicap Singles - Robin Pearce bt Aubrey Henry 8, 5, 10
Doubles - Robin Pearce/Simon Varley bt Wayne Glossop/ Aubrey Henry -9, -12, 9, 6, 5
Over 40s - Moh Shabir bt Wayne Glossop -8, 5, 7, 10
Over 60s - Colin Ambrose bt David Holness 10, 4, 7
Divisionals
Division 1 - Theresa Richardson bt Tony Parker 7, 9, 9
Division 2 - David Holness bt Peter Hamshaw 4, -2, -5, 4, 5
Division 3 - Gordon Taylor bt Tariq Azeem 8, 6, -9, 8
Division 4 - Penny May bt Thomas Bowes 4, 6, 8
