Northumberland County Table Tennis

The last match in the Winter League 2018-19 was the final of the Team Handicap KO Cup which, as the name indicates, allocates a handicap to each individual player. This allows players from lower divisions to play against the stronger higher placed teams with a points start which enabling closer games.

Thirty-eight teams entered with the first matches being played in October 2018. All told there were six rounds with the final being played, at a neutral venue, between Prudhoe and District United Services Club and Cramlington Trojans on the last day of March 2019.

The route to the final for Prudhoe was 6-3 against Ouston A; 5-1 against Brandon Bravehearts; 5-4 against Cramlington Cobras and 5-4 against Cramlington Falcons.

The Trojans advance was through a 6-3 win over Cramlington Dragons; 5-4 against Ouston B; 7-2 against Cramlington Jaguars and 5-4 against Mount B.

In the Final Prudhoe’s team was Andrew Firth, Maurice Cheek and Mark O’Connor. Jack Cairns, Alastair  Johnson and Israel Shodeinde made up the Trojans.

Match 1 saw Andrew Firth giving a 7 point start to Alastair Johnson which he overcome to take the first game for Prudhoe.

Match 2 followed with Mark O’Connor giving 10 points to Jack Cairns. O’Connor found the rapidly improving Cairns too much and lost in 2 ends to make the match score one all.

The following 2 matches saw Maurice Cheek loose to Israel Shodeinde and O’Connor loose to Johnson both in 2 ends.

Match 5 between Firth and Shodeinde was the first 3 ender when Firth overcome the 8 start of Shodeinde to win 21-12; 11-21 and 21-18.

In match 6 Cheek lost against Cairns.

Match 7 again showed Firth overcoming an 8 point start when he beat Shodeinde 21-19; 21-19 to bring the score to 3 points for Prudhoe and 4 points to Trojans. The next match was going to be crucial.

Match 8 saw Cheek play Johnson with Johnson having a 4 point start. Never the less Johnson found Cheek’s pimples a little difficult and lost the first end to Cheek 21-12. In end 2 Johnson recovered to  take the end 18-12.  The last was again tight. At the half way turnover Johnson seemed to have the game in hand but Cheek stepped up to make it 19-16 to him. Johnson reacted and drew back the score to 20 all. In a nail biting finish Johnson then took the last 2 points to make it 20-22 to Trojans thus winning the overall match 5-3.

Firth and Cairns had both won their 2 matches and though the match was won it was good to see them playing in a ding dong match in which Firth was narrowly beaten, 21-17; 16-21 and 18-21.

The KO Cup and runner up and trophies from winter league and closed tournament will be presented at  Goals Newcastle, High Gosforth Park, Newcastle, NE3 5HP on Friday 10 May.

With the last of the winter matches finalised players can now enjoy the Summer League which begins on Monday 13 May.         

The North East Sports and Leisure Club Eagles based in Longbenton are the new champions of the Northumbria Table Tennis league. For their final match of the season against Saint Columba’s they were able to turn out their strongest team including the County’s top two veteran players Andrew Wilkinson and Eddie Smith along with Steve Penman and they were far too strong for the opposition, running out 10 – 0 victors.

This meant that the Dunston club, The Mount, had to win by at least 7 – 3 when they visited Saint Chads. However they were unable to turn out their regular first team players apart from Phil Prady  and had to bring in Dan Dodds and Jamie Dent. As a result they went down 9 – 1  with the home team turning out a strong side of Keith and Josh Weatherby and Chris Blake. Dodds was their only winner when he defeated Blake.

Whickham based Saints completed the third division fixtures when they came away from Matfen Cohorts with an 8 – 2 victory under their belts, Vince Killen and Steve Dawson both unbeaten.

Cramlington Trojans team of Alastair Johnson and the two youngsters Israel Shodeinde and Jack Cairns beat The Mount team of Dent, Dodds and Bailey Pye in the  semi final of the Handicap Cup 5 – 4  and will now face Prudhoe and District United Services Club side of Andrew Firth, Mark O’Connor and Maurice Cheek in the final which will be played at the Tyneside Badminton Centre on Tuesday April 30th.

After a short break in League play the Northumbria Summer league will start on May 13th.

Last year’s champions the North East Chinese Association finished in third place this year and their team of Adam Webster, Jamie Collins and Chun Yin Yu  ended with a 7 – 3 victory over Cramlington Casuals when both Webster and Chun were both unbeaten. This year’s title will be decided when Mount A visit Saint Chads and NESLC Eagles entertain Saint Columbas.

Prudhoe and District United Services Club made sure that they won the first division by beating Mount D 7 – 3 with Andrew Firth, Mark O’Connor and Peter Stempczyk each winning two singles and Firth and O’Connor combining to take the doubles set.

Matfen Senators side of Alex Holliday, Neil Forsyth and Steve Oxley beat their Centurians team to finish in second place.

Prudhoe had a really good week by also reaching the final of the Handicap Cup with a 5 – 4 victory over the young Cramlington Falcons in a hard fought match thanks mainly to Firth who won all three of his matches. O’Connor and Maurice Cheek got one each. Alfie Stokes got two for the losing side with his brother Archie getting one as did Oliver Ho.

Prudhoe will now meet either The Mount or Cramlington Trojans in the final.

In Division Three Cramlington Spartans had Sree Kanakala in fine form and he recorded a hat trick in their 7 – 3 victory over Newton B with Sam Nair and Jamie Hall both getting two but losing out to Tom Manuel. The victory means that the Spartans finish top of the division with the club’s  Falcons side in second place.

The Northumberland County veterans team of Andrew Wilkinson, Martin Schapira, Christine Burke and Phil Prady, a late replacement for Eddie Smith, drew all three of their matches against Worcestershire, Lancashire and Gloucestershire to end up overall with five draws and one defeat  to keep their place in the County Championships Veterans Division 1A.

Wilkinson was unbeaten in all of his singles and doubles matches.

At the other end of the age scale the Northumbria League Cadet side of Ethan Brown, Patrick Nicholson, Ferg Kilsby and Alan Roskilly finished third in the Northern Division of the National Cadet League after winning two and losing one in the final session.

In the Northumbria League Wilkinson helped  full strength NESLC Eagles to gain ten points with victory over Mount C and they are now three behind Mount A at the top of the Premier Division.  All will be decided in the final matches when Mount go to St. Chads and the Eagles entertain St.Columbas.

Prudhoe and District United Services Club and Matfen Senators are the teams to be promoted from the first division after Prudhoe drew at Newton and the Senators beat Brandon Anacondas. This is the first time ever that the Matfen players Alex Holliday, Neil Forsyth and Steve Oxley who all played in every match have reached the top division.

Ouston B  team of Kevin Richardson, David Byers and Tom Fowle beat Cramlington Swifts 9 – 1 to win the second division but the one set won by  Richard Williamson was enough to keep the Swifts in the division and relegate Cramlington Reivers. Mitford who drew  with Mount E are also promoted.

In Division Three Cramlington Falcons young side recorded another 9 – 1 success when they visited second placed Matfen Whitley Chapel to gain promotion along with the club’s Spartans who need three points from their final match to finish top.

The Mount now look certain to be champions of the Northumbria league after their team of Anthony Barella, Bailey Pye and Anthony Ainley easily defeated the bottom team Old England Jacks 10 – 0. With only one match to play they are now thirteen points ahead of NESLC Eagles  who have two to play. The Old England team and Cramlington Stingers will be relegated.

Prudhoe and District United Services Club only need one point from their last match to ensure promotion from the first division after a 10 – 0 victory over Cramlington Tigers. The other promotion place will be between Matfen Senators and Newton, the latter having won away to North East Chinese ‘B’ with only two players, John Rowell and Graeme Bell to go second. Matfen are three points adrift but have a game in hand.  Tigers and Brandon Anacondas will be relegated.

Ouston B team of David Byers, Kevin Richardson and Tom Fowle defeated Tyneside B  8 – 2 to edge two points ahead of Mitford at the top of Division Two, the latter only getting six points from their match with Matfen Tribunes. At the foot of the table the Cramlington derby saw the Swifts beat the Reivers 6 – 4 and in their last matches Ouston will now determine which of them join the Trojans in going down as the Swifts entertain Ouston B and the Reivers are away to Ouston A.

The young Cramlington Falcons side of Oliver Ho and the Stokes twins Archie and Alfie, have come into contention for promotion from Division Three after a 9 – 1 win over Ouston C. With one match to play the Spartans are top with 109 points, Matfen Whitley Chapel with 104 are second, the Falcons have 102 and Ouston 100 and In the last matches Whitley Chapel are at home to the Falcons. Matfen Cohorts and Cramlington Jaguars will go down

Tyneside C team will finish top of Division Four to claim the Aubrey Drapkin Cup with Ouston D in second place. lv

Seventeen year old Adam Webster turned in the performance of the week, if not of the season, in the Premier Division of the Northumbria League with victory over leading County player Andrew Wilkinson when his team the North East Chinese Association met second placed N.E.S.L.C. Eagles. The Chinese side were trailing 5 – 3 before Chun Yin Yu defeated Steve Penman to complete his hat trick leaving  Webster to play Wilkinson in the final set. The youngster won in four games to give his team a share of the spoils and put a large dent in the Eagles championships hopes.

They now trail The Mount who beat Cramlington Casuals 10 – 0 by thirteen points with only three matches to play although they do have a game in hand.

In the second division Mitford and Ouston B are now level on points at the top of the table after Mitford’s Micky Bull, Karen Henry and Barry Hill beat Cramlington Swifts 9 – 1.

There were two very close matches in the quarter finals of the Handicap K.O. Cup, the first being when the young Cramlington Falcons  came from 4 – 2 down away to Matfen Senators to win 5 – 4. Alex Holliday and Neil Forsyth had both won twice for Matfen but Alfie and Archie Stokes along with Oliver Ho took the last three matches.

The other one was at Prudhoe where the home side of Mark O’Connor, Andrew Firth and Maurice Cheek won the first three matches only for Cramlington Cobras’ Steve Ralph(1), Joe Hastings (1) and Alan Hedley (2) to take the next four before Firth beat Hastings and O’Connor defeated Ralph to give Prudhoe a 5 – 4 victory.

In the other matches Cramlington Trojans’ Mike Dunn, Israel Shodeinde and Jack Cairns beat Cramlington Jaguars 7 – 2 and the Mount B team of Bailey Pye, Dan Dodds and Jamie Dent won 5 – 0 away against the Tyneside TTC A team.

The semi final draw sees Prudhoe play the Falcons and Mount B take on the Trojans.

The Mount team of Graeme and Anthony Barella along with Phil Prady took advantage of the fact that NESLC Eagles had no fixture to go eight points ahead at the top of the Northumbria League Premier Division by defeating a weak Mount B team 10 – 0. The Eagles, however, do have a game in hand.

Andy Firth, Peter Stempczyk and Mark O’Connor were all unbeaten for Prudhoe and District United Services in a 10 – 0 victory over N.E.C.A. B team to go top of the first division.  Third placed Newton stay in the promotion race despite being a player short when they took on Tyneside TTC as John Russell and Dave Lucas just did enough to give them a 6 – 4 win.

Ouston Community Centre B team of David Byers, Kevin Richardson and Tom Fowle have taken over at the top of Division Two by beating the previous leaders Mitford 8 – 2 and winning 7 – 3 away to Cramlington Reivers. Byers was unbeaten in both matches, winning all of his singles and also both doubles with Richardson.

Cramlington Trojans defeated Old England FATTS 8 – 2 but are now bound to be relegated with one other Cramlington team, Reivers or Swifts also looking likely to join them.

In the third division Whitley Chapel, who now only have one match left to play, lost to Newton B  6 – 4 but are top of the table by three points over Cramlington Spartans who have a game in hand and  by six over Ouston C who still have three to play.

Fourth Division Matfen Consuls strengthened their team by the inclusion of Ben Kilsby and got a 6 – 4 win over the leaders Tyneside C. He duly won two but the player of the match was undoubtedly young Ferg Kilsby who got a hat trick.

The Northumbria League Junior team are champions of the North East Section of the National Junior league.  At Ormesby they defeated Ormesby  first team 7 – 2 and Ormesby seconds  9 – 0. However the important match was the one in between when they took on Bishop Auckland and won 5 – 4. As a result they finished one point ahead of Bishop Auckland to be crowned champions. On the day Ethan Brown won all nine of his sets, Israel Shodeinde won seven and Jack Cairns got five.

Cramlington Stingers at last managed to win a match in the Northumbria Premier Division when two sets each from Steve Pearce and Nigel Rodgers, one from Rob Reed and success in the doubles by Pearce and Rodgers gave them victory over Old England Jacks although Andy Benjamin won all of his sets for the losing side.

In division one the N.E.C.A. B team of Jamie Collins, Ken Lee and Kit Robinson each won two as they beat Tyneside TTC 6 – 4 to move away from the relegation places. 

The shock result in the second division came when bottom of the table Cramington Trojans side of Alastair Johnson and the youngsters Shodeinde and Cairns held the leaders Mitford to a draw. However Mitford stay top of the table with their nearest challengers Tyneside B team being held to a draw by Old England FATTS and Ouston B being held by their A team.

It is now tight at the top of Division Three with only three points separating the top three sides after Cramlington Spartans who lead by a single point drew away to Saints, Ouston C did likewise away to Newton B and Whitley Chapel dropped three points in a 7 – 3 victory over Jaguars. 

Both of the leading teams in Division Four had convincing wins with Tyneside B beating Cramlington Knights 8 – 2 and Ouston D winning 9 – 1 against the Lions.

The Northumbria League Cadet side were in action in the North East section of the National Junior league at Ormesby and won all four of their matches even though they were without their leading player Ethan Brown. Alan Roskilly and Noah Rutherford joined regular Patrick Nicholson as they defeated Bishop Auckland C and B teams, Darlington B and then Ormesby first team. They will go into the final session in second place only three points behind the leaders Scarborough.

The Premier Division of the Northumbria League is now definitely a two horse race between the leaders N.E.S.L.C. Eagles and The Mount after the Mount side of Graeme and Anthony Barella along with Anthony Ainley beat last year’s champions  North East Chinese Association 9 – 1. The Eagles team of Andrew Wilkinson, Eddie Smith and Steve Penman had an easy 10 – 0 win over the bottom team Old England Jacks and with four matches to play are a mere two points ahead.

Prudhoe and District United Services Club squad of Mark O’Connor, Andrew Firth, Peter Stempczyk and Shirley Gelder have taken over at the top of the first division despite being held to a draw by Tyneside TTC for whom Mark Kimberley was unbeaten as they went on to beat Saint Columba’s B 7 – 3 despite Lee Tinkler winning all of his sets for the losers.

In the second division Ouston B received a set back to their hopes of winning the division when Mount E team of John Russell, Charlie Mouzon and Mick Hope beat them 6 – 4 despite Ken Richardson getting a hat trick.

Cramlington’s young player Oliver Ho had a good week  when he won two sets when playing up for the Reivers against Matfen Tribunes in Division Two and then getting a hat trick for his own team the Falcons  in a 6 – 4  defeat by Saints in division three.