'Drewry & Thompson Dazzle at Table Tennis Divisionals'
The Isle of Man Table Tennis Association Divisional competitions took place at the NSC last week, and as ever the competition was extremely keen. Number 2 seed Sean Drewry came out top in Division 1, and up and coming youngster Ronan Thompson was victorious in the Division 2 competition.
Division 1
In the Division 1 competition, play started with 21 players playing in 7 groups of 3, with the top 2 from each proceeding to the knockout stages. The top 2 seeds received a bye into the quarter finals.
In the knockout stages, Malcolm Cummings was the first player to win his place in the quarters when he beat Dave Parsons in straight sets.
Having a tougher time was team mate Liam Chan who had a 5 set tussle with Ken Mitchell. Having taken the first 2 ends 11/6, 11/4, Ken fought back to take the next two 11/8 and 12/10, but then lost his momentum and went down 11/3 in the fifth end.
Chris Holland took his place after beating Mike Tamarov 6/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/8. John Shooter had a tough match against Tim Baker before coming out as the winner in the 4th end 6/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/9. Scott Lewis beat Khayee Vinas in straight sets, and the final first round match between Jason Quirk and Andy Patterson also went the distance with Andy emerging as the winner 13/15, 11/7, 11/5, 4/11, 11/7.
In the quarter finals, top seed Duncan Alexander took his semi final place by beating Malcolm Cummings in straight sets. Liam Chan had another 5 set battle, this time against Chris Holland, but came through 11/4 in the deciding set. John Shooter knocked out 3
rd seed Scott Lewis 4/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/5. The number 2 seed Sean Drewry had a struggle to contain Andy Patterson in their match with some tremendous rallies being seen, but he came through as the winner after battling back from 2 sets down, to take the next 3 ends, and his place in the semi finals.
The first semi between Sean Drewry and John Shooter saw Sean through to the final, eventually winning 12/14, 11/8, 11/7, 11/8. The second semi final between Duncan Alexander and Liam Chan was yet another 5 set battle for Liam, and it saw him take his place in the final 7/11, 11/9, 4/11, 11/6, 11/5.
The final was a straight sets win for Sean Drewry 13/11, 11/8, 11/7, sealing a wonderful evening for him.
Division 2
There was a lower than usual entry in Division 2 with some withdrawals due to illness. So, with only 9 players starting the evening, playing in 2 groups, Group A was closely fought with only one of the 10 matches being won in straight sets. Emerging as the winner was Paul Nelson with Kevin Drewry in runner up spot. Group B was just as tight with again only 1 match out of 6 being won in straight sets. There was a tie at the top with both Ronan Thompson and Sonja Shaw winning 2 matches each. Where there is a tie between 2 players in a group, the match between the 2 affected players decides who is placed first and second, in this case Ronan had beaten Sonja in their group match 9/11, 11/8, 11/8, 11/13, 11/8, so won the group with Sonja as runner up. The first semi between Paul Nelson and Sonja Shaw was decided in the fourth end with Paul going through to the final 11/7, 8/11, 11/7, 11/7. The second semi between saw Ronan Thompson beating Kevin Drewry 11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 12/10 in a tense match. The final was a creditable straight sets win for up and coming youngster Ronan Thompson 11/8, 12/10, 11/9.
