 |
|
Press Report #23 & 21 /
24 & 22 / Closed Championship Steve Murgatroyd was crowned Basingstoke Table Tennis champion for the second time in his career after some great Table Tennis saw him defeat the reigning champion Pete Matthews 11-9 in the 4th set. Matthews took the first set convincingly 11-6 but Murgatroyd responded with taking the important second set. Matthews then struck a big lead in the 3rd losing 4 sets points and the set before Murgatroyd took the title with a win in a close 4th set. Murgatroyd reached the finals after coming back from 2 sets down to beat the number one seed an highest ranked player in the league this year Tony Palaczky in 5 sets. Matthews reached the final after beating his St Peters team-mate Sean Pickin in 4 sets after losing the first in a match that saw the two players play competitively against each other for the first time in 9 years. Murgatroyd also took the Men’s doubles trophy away with his teaming up with Jonathan Evans who were victorious over Pickin and Matthews. Kathy Ridgard marked here Basingstoke comeback by taking the Ladies singles title beating Sue Tompsett in 3 sets. Her brother Louis Conlon also hit glory winning the handicap singles against Alex Garlick. The Division One restricted singles went to Paul Rattue who showed that any of the top 10 players in Basingstoke can beat each other by beating Steve Murgatroyd in 4 sets. Brian Wilde picked up two winners medals, first the Division 2 singles title beating Roger Bielby in 3 sets and then was awesome beating Division One player Terry White in 3 sets in the over 55’s Super Veteran contest. The over 40 Veteran’s title was by Tony Palaczky beating Paul Rattue 11-8,11-8,7-11,8-11,11-6. Patrick Garlick and Sue Tompsett caused an upset as they teamed up to beat Alex Garlick and Terri Allison in the mixed doubles and Paul Rattue showed his skills beating Tony Palaczky in the mini-bat fun competition. All the above finals were played on a Monday evening after the main competition on the Saturday that saw Jonathan Evans retain his Junior singles title beating Louis Webb and Webb teamed up with Matthew Palaczky to win the Junior doubles against James Palaczky and Mohak Dalesh. In the Basingstoke League St Peters “A” only have 3 games left and are top of the Division after beating 3rd placed Winklebury 10-0 to keep the pressure on chasers Queens A who have many games in hand. James Wright recorded a fine treble and Pete Matthews pulled back from 10-6 down to beat Colin Wilkes in 5 close sets. Wright recorded notable wins over John Golding, Pete Bradley and Wilkes to help his team in the title battle. Chaz Smith proved that he is worthy of playing in Division One after taking 2 points off of Hannington with wins over Steve Rollason and Peter Henderson. His Oakley team-mate Steve Morris was unlucky losing in deuce in 5 sets to both Henderson and Rollason. It was Tony Brown who lead Hannington to an 8-2 win in this match. In Division Two Queens B still have a chance of catching leaders KG B and look like being promoted after 3 big wins. The team that included Tom Spencer playing up from their E team beat Basingstoke Hindu Society 9-1. Queens B then beat Oakley B 9-1 with Ian Warner beating Roy Pike for the consolation point. Roy Pike and Mike Chamberlain then teamed up both hitting trebles as they beat their E team 7-3. George Hellans stole a precious point from St Peters B beating Tom Speed but Alan Lipscombe was too strong hitting a fine treble for the St Peters team. Celia Hooker beat Chris Smith in 5 sets to set Queens C onto an 8-2 win over 2 player Oakley B. Two player Essex Eagles did not drop a point as Patrick Garlick and Sue Tompsett had a tough game to win 7-3 against Queens D. Steve Redstall was once again the hero for Portals. His comfortable treble helped Portals beat KG C 6-4. John McLarty held off a spirited challenge from Peter Coppins to hit a maximum that lead AWE to a 6-4 win over Queens E and was also unbeaten in the 5-5 draw with 2 player Essex Eagles. Jared Binner picked up 2 points with wins over Steve Jones and Ken Wyld.
|
