The Early Season Tournament was staged for the first time in the Torbay Leisure Centre on Sunday 17th November.

Four events took place:

• The Collins Cup - Handicap Singles
• Handicap Doubles
• Family Doubles 
• Excell Cup - Hard bat Singles

Collins Cup  -  Winner Patrik Cincala, Runner-up Dennis Gibbs  8-11,11-9, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10

Group winners being:  Klara Cincalova, Elsa Perry, Dan Brewer, Patrik Cincala, Geoff Read, Dan Barnett, Dennis Gibbs and Simon Furgol.  

Klara, Patrick, Dan Barnett & Dennis fought their way to the semi-finals (special mention for Simon who pushed Dennis all the way in a thrilling encounter) which paired Klara against her father and Dennis against Dan.

Patrik being Klara's coach gave him the edge over Klara and although Dan fought bravely, Dennis looked in control for most of the game.

This brought together the two highest handicapped players in the final both playing off a handicap of -42.  As expected this was a very close encounter which Patrik led most of the way being 1-0 & 2-1 up but when Dennis pulled it back to 2-2 and had a little bit of luck to go 9-6 up in the fifth set it looked odds on that Dennis would again win through, but Patrik came back to win 12-10 and lift the Collins Cup. A good quality, exciting final with both players wanting to get on the offensive, we saw some cracking rallies.  Well done Patrik.

Handicap Doubles - Winners Simon Furgol & Doug Morgan, Runners-up Dan Barnett & Andy Tyrrell  7-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-9,12-10

Partners are decided by their handicap, whereby the lowest handicap player partners the highest handicap player.  This system looked to have paired up 2 good partnerships in the middle of the handicap chart.   And so it proved with a pairing of Dan Barnett & Andy Tyrrell meeting Doug Morgan & Simon Furgol in the final.  Again an excellent, exciting final with an impressive fight back from Doug & Simon to take the match 12-10 in the final set coming from 5-10 down.   Special mention for Zoe Barnett who had to cope with Mr Gibbs as a partner and carried him through to the semi finals.

Family Doubles  -  Winners  Patrik Cincala & Klara Cincalova,  Runners Up  Mike & Sam Perkins  11-4, 11-1, 11-5

Not surprisingly won by Patrik & Klara who defeated Sam & Mike Perkins in the final  -  Thanks to Mike & Sam for stepping in at the last minute to provide some opposition for Patrik & Klara

Excell Cup  -  Winner Dennis Gibbs  Runner Up Patrik Cincala  21-10, 21-7

Two very different semi finals where Patrik eventually came through in a close encounter with a very dogged Andy Tyrrell, a lot of pushing taking place.  In contrast Dennis's game against Sam Perkins was an open, hard-hitting match which Dennis eventually won.   So it was Dennis against Patrik again.  Revenge for Dennis as he defeated Patrik this time to take the Excell Cup for the 10th time.

Many thanks to Robert Excell for the logistics of organising the event at The Torbay Leisure Centre, the leisure centre staff, other 'shifters' and particularly Nick Williamson (ably assisted by Nick Halse) who organised & controlled an excellent day of Table Tennis for all.

Check out the photos of the day in the Gallery