'Ramsey A regain top Spot in Division 1'

Week 5 of the Fun88 sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association League took place at the NSC last week. As ever there was plenty of exciting play to be seen across the Secondary Sports Hall.

 Division 1

 Ramsey A (6) Strathallan (3)

 Ramsey A regained top spot after 5 fixtures, with 3 points coming from the in-form Duncan Alexander, 2 from Chris Holland and 1 from Chris Holmes. Alexander beat Julian Briercliffe, Andrew Patterson, and Neil Quane, all in 4 sets. Holland lost to Patterson in 4 sets to lose his 100% record - an impressive victory for Andrew. Holland went on however to comfortably beat Briercliffe and Quane. Ramsey's third player Chris Holmes then picked up a point by getting the better of Patterson in 3 sets, but came a cropper against the all out attacking style of Neil Quane in a 5 set thriller in which Neil came back from 2-1 down. Briercliffe then added a third point for Strathallan by beating Holmes in 4. 

Arbory (3) Copy Shop A (6) 

Sean Drewry continued his impressive start to the season and maintained his 100% record after 14 matches so far, steering Copy Shop to a 6-3 win. Unfortunately Arbory were only able to field 2 players, Jason Quirk and Mike Tamarov, who both succumbed to Sean in straight games. They both fared better against Adam Davies, but Mike lost out in 4 to Ewan Watterson, whilst Jason's tactical mastery proved too much for Watterson. The win takes Copy Shop to 4th place in the table.

Desmonds Douglas A (5) Ramsey C (4)

Desmonds needed points and they did well to extract 5 from this tie. Jim Travers led the way in determined style by beating Adrian Slater in 3 games, young William Dalugdugan in 4, and then beating the experienced Rhys Yardley in 5 sets. A highly satisfying evening for Jim then. He was admirably assisted by Tommy Cowin who beat the fast improving William in 4 sets, and Russell Kent who beat the tenacious Slater in 5 sets. Some great rallies were seen in this match in particular.  

Travellers B (5) Tower A (4)

Travellers gained a valuable 5 points in this tie, with 3 coming from the classy John Shooter and 2 from an unyielding Malc Lewis. For Tower, Dave Parsons used his impressive looping and defensive strokes to pick up 2 points by overcoming Lewis in 4 sets, and by beating William Shooter. Will Bayley and Ken Mitchell picked up a point each for Tower to make it a handy 4 for them. 

The fixture between Travellers A v Ramsey B was postponed until December.

Division 2

Tower B (3) Copy Shop B (7)

This was an excellent win for Copy Shop against the highly experienced Tower B trio of Simon Radcliffe, Dario Mazzotta and Graham McFarlane. Star of the night was Sonja Shaw who continued her good form with 3 points for Copy Shop alongside the evergreen Malcolm Lambert's 3. Young step up player John Paul Banaag did extremely well by adding a point for Copy Shop by beating the tricky Mazzotta in 4 sets. Malcolm then added to Dario's misery by also beating him in 4 sets. Sonja's victory over Radcliffe was a close affair with 3 of the 4 games being decided 12-10. She then came back from 5-2 in the final set to win against a tough to beat Graham McFarlane. Lambert's other victories were against Radcliffe in 4 and McFarlane in 3. Radcliffe and McFarlane dug deep to secure a point in the doubles. Despite this setback, Tower B remains joint top in Division 2. 

Peel B (4) Travellers C (6)

Peel B secured their 4 points courtesy of Stuart Perry, Maggie Mulhern, and 2 from Nathan Evans. Travellers C were fortunate to have David Lovelady playing for them, who had previously stepped up to play 2 winning fixtures in Division 1 for their A team. He secured 3 points here to maintain his 100% record across the 2 divisions. David Buck added 2 points for Travellers and the Two Davids combined well to win the doubles with some exciting rallies being seen, against Perry and Evans. Perry took both Lovelady and Buck to 5 sets but sadly for him he came away empty handed. Unfortunately for Travellers they had no third player so had to forfeit 3 points, but a good win nonetheless. 

Desmonds Douglas B (4) Ramsey D (6)

Ramsey D came away with 6 points from the home team. Peter Russell managed to beat Sally Green in 4 sets, and Neil Ronan beat Sall in 3, and Nathan Walker in 4. Peter and Neil then combined well to win the doubles against Charlie Callow and Nathan in 4 close games. For Desmonds, Richard Hill played well and was unfortunate to come away with nothing - Sally Green did well to beat him in 4 sets, whilst Nathan and Charlie took 5 sets to get past him. The game with Charlie looked particularly close, with young Callow doing extremely well to win the final 2 close games. 

Tower C (3) Travellers D (6)

Ryan Holland stepped up as Travellers D's third player, and did well to win 2 points for them by beating Margaret Forsyth and Barry Jenkins, only  losing in 5 to Mike Chapman with some close games being seen in that match. Maurice Campbell managed to beat Margaret and combined well with Jackie Gill to beat Mike and Barry in 3 games with the first 2 being 12-10. Traveller's other 2 points came from the excellent Jackie Gill, who beat Chapman in 3 sets and in a 5 set battle with Margaret Forsyth. For Tower, Barry had a close match against Maurice but pulled through in the 5th set. Jenkins also beat Pat in 3.  

The fixture between Peel A v Copy Shop C was postponed until December. 

Division 3 

Peel C (5) Ramsey E (5)

Amit Lannin was the star of this match, bringing in 3 points for Peel, whilst brother Vlad won 2 points. Amit dismantled the unfortunate Lisa Lord and Wilma Dalugdugan in 3 sets, but took 4 close games to finally see off Francesca Lord. Vlad took 3 sets to beat Lisa, but the match with Wilma was closer, before he finally pulled through in 4. His match with Francesca was even closer with the latter coming out tops 11-6 in the 5th set. Bob Borland was unlucky to come away with nothing on the night, and his match with Francesca was particularly close at times, but the Ramsey youngster finally saw Bob off in 5. Wilma and Francesca later got their own back on the Lannin brothers by beating them in 4 sets to secure the doubles and a match draw. 

Peel D (8) Ramsey G (2)

A solid win for Peel with Ali Ramirez winning all 3 of his matches against Megan Lord, Henry de Silva and Geoff Birchill. Liam Bibby added 2 points by beating De Silva and Birchill in 3 sets. James Devereau did the same but by beating Henry in 3 and Megan in 5 sets. James lost in 4 close games to Geoff Birchill. The doubles went to Liam and Ali who beat Geoff and Megan convincingly in 3 sets. 

Ramsey F (4) Copy Shop E (6)

Ramsey F secured 2 points apiece from Ryan Holland and Mathew Bell. Ege Niiazzi won all 3 of his points however which swung the result in the end. He beat Ryan in 3 sets, and Matthew in 4, and then went on to also beat Tom Tsitsos in 4 sets. Ryan had more joy against Corbyn Schade and Daniel Levine, whilst Matthew beat Corbyn in 4 and Daniel in 3. The doubles went to MIke Levine and Ege in 5 close games against Ryan and Matthew, just pipping their opponents 13-11 in the last. Ramsey F remain top of Division 3 with 37 points after 5 fixtures - 5 clear of Peel C. 

The fixture between Ramsey F and Ramsey G was postponed until December.