In the Premier Division Mount A
beat Matfen Senators 8-2. Anthony Ainley and Phil Prady both won three games
for the Mount team and combined to win the doubles. The points for Matfen came
from good wins by Alex Holliday and Neil Forsyth over Bailey Pye. Cramlington
Casuals had a 6-4 win away to Old England Jacks. Cramlington’s James Bradbury,
Gareth Pearson and Steve Pearce all won two games. The Old England points came
from Steve Penman who won three games and paired up with Jake Helm to win the
doubles.
In Division 1 NECA B had a
straightforward 10-0 win over Brandon Anacondas. The NECA team of David Byers,
Ken Lee and Jamie Collins proved too strong for their opponents. In the game between
Mitford and Cramlington Tigers, Mitford raced into a 5-1 lead thanks to wins by
Barry Hill, Karen Henry and Michael Bull but then the Tigers fought back to
secure a 5-5 draw with wins from Oliver Ho, Bernie McArdle and Pete Wilkinson.
Prudhoe B had a 6-4 win away to Ouston A. The points for Prudhoe came from Ryan
Campbell who won two games, Duncan Fraser two games and Maurice Cheek one game.
In Division 2 with Mount E not
playing Old England Crocks took the opportunity to go back to the top of the league
with a 5-5 draw against Cramlington Swifts. Barry Matthews was player of the
match winning three games for Old England. Tyneside B had a 7-3 win over Matfen
Tribunes, Tyneside’s John Carr was player of the match winning three games with
Jim Robertson winning two games and Don Catley one game. In the all Cramlington
affair between Cramlington Reivers and Cramlington Trojans the Trojans could
not field a full team and ended up losing 7-3. Jack Cairns offered some
resistance for the Trojans winning games against Michael Dunn and Joe Swinburn.
Cramlington Spartans had a good 6-4 win against higher placed Ouston B. Rob Lee
was player of the match winning three games for the Spartans.
In Division 3 with Brandon
Bravehearts pushing hard for promotion they had a straightforward 10-0 won
against bottom of the table Ouston D. The Brandon team of Paul Dale, Jamie
Westwater and John Spencer proved too strong for their opponents. Top placed
Mount F had an 8-2 win over Newton B with John Rowell winning three games, Michael
Bradley two games and William Edwards two games. Newton’s resistance came from
Thomas Manuel who won two games. Matfen Cohorts had a 6-4 win over Saints with
Mark Perrin, David Crompton and Richard Rayfield all winning two games.
Cramlington Cobras lost 7-3 to Matfen Whitely Chapel with Stefan Sobell player
of the match for Matfen winning three games.
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Over this week end The Sporting
Club hosted the Northumberland Junior tournament and the Northumberland Closed
Tournament. Seventy-three players took part over the two tournaments which took
place on Friday 14 February and Saturday 15 February.
In the Junior tournament Adam Webster
secured his fifth consecutive win in the Junior singles beating the quickly
improving Oliver Ho from Cramlington in the final. Adam who is ranked number 18
in the current England Junior rankings; and is sure to go higher after recent
wins against higher ranked players in recent County representative matches,
collected The Norman Moore Memorial Cup.
In the Cadet singles Oliver
secured a win against Tyneside’s Leo Conn. The pair both play in the
Northumbria League team in the National Cadet league and the first end between
them was very close with some great attacking table tennis being played by both
players. Oliver was awarded The Harry Dignan Cup for winning the Cadet Singles.
The Under 13 Singles was the
closest game of the night with Cramlington’s Jessica Yang coming out on top in
three ends against Brian Granada from St Mary’s Catholic school. The score was
9-11, 13-11 and 11-9 to Jessica showing how close the game was.
The Under 12 singles was played
in a group format with Jake Hill from John Spence school coming out in first
place with Josiah McQueen from St Oswalds school in second place.
In the Northumberland Closed
tournament was the final of the Open Singles. This was contested between Andrew
Wilkinson and Graeme Barella who are ranked 29 and 39 respectively in the
England national rankings. This time
Graeme Barella came out on top and received The Alan Morpeth Memorial Cup for
the third consecutive year.
The winner of the Women’s Singles
and recipient of the Philomena Clark trophy was Lynne Herrington who beat Kit
Robinson in the final. This is the 14th year that Lynne has won the
Women’s Singles in the Northumberland tournament.
In the Veterans competition
Andrew Wilkinson who is ranked number 4 in the current England Veteran rankings
defeated his long time teammate Steve Penman in the final. This year there was
an inaugural Over 60s singles competition which was won by Alex Holliday from
the Matfen club who beat Dave Cutler from the Dunston based Mount club.
For this first time this year the
Northumberland Closed featured a consolation singles competition for those
players who were knocked out in the group phase of the Open Singles. The
inaugural winner was Ken Lee from the North East Chinese Association club who
beat Newcastle University’s Matthew Hopkins in a five end thriller that could
have gone either way.
After his success in the Junior
tournament Oliver Ho continued that form into the Northumberland Closed wining
the Handicap singles and the Band 4 Singles. The Handicap singles is based on
relative ranking of players and they either start with a points lead or a
points deficit. In the final Oliver was pushed by his more experienced
Cramlington club mate Nigel Rodgers but ended up winning a close game. In the
Band 4 singles Oliver faced another Cramlington club mate, Anthony Doyle, and
this game went to five ends with Anthony pulling back from being 2 nil down to
level at 2 all before Oliver won the fifth and deciding end.
The other banded singles winners
were players play against players of a similar grading were; Steve Penman won
the Band 1 singles for the 14th time defeating Jeremy Hamshaw from
Newcastle University; in the Band 2 singles David Cutler beat club mate Rod
Roberts; in the Band 3 singles Tyneside’s Dean Eadington defeated Mount’s Ethan
Brown; and in the Band 5 singles there was an all Cramlington affair between
Joe Hastings and Alan Roskilly which Joe ended up winning in a close 5 end
game.
The final competition was a
doubles in which players are paired up randomly. The winners this year were
Chris Blake from St Chads in Sunderland and Cramlington Anthony Doyle who beat
the pairing of Dave Cutler from Mount and John Henderson from Newton.