Week 18/21
The final critical weeks are looming up for the League, but it's looking increasingly likely that Covid-19 will make
those weeks problematic. Princes Mead School has already announced
that it's closing its Sports Hall for external users, and that includes Kings Table Tennis Club, which hosts
a quarter of the League's teams.
In some seasons the winners and promotion/relegation candidates are virtually assured of their places at this point,
but this year we find that Division 1 in particular can still realistically be won by any of 4 teams.
Nothing like
it has been seen since
the chariot race in Ben Hur.
The difference now is that no-one knows if the race can even finish, as playing venues start closing down.
Division 1
Kings A 3-7 IBM A
Two of the League's strongest players,
Tressa Armitage and
Ed Slot, were ranged against each other here, with Ed finishing ahead in 3 straight games in the Singles, but with Tressa
sharing in
IBM A's Doubles win. Both players won their other 2 Singles.
Five Tees C 3-7 Kings B
Five Tees C trail the field in Division 1, and
Clive Welsman and
Bobby Zhou made a feast of it with 3 Singles wins each.
Medstead A 4-6 Five Tees A
Leyon Joseph has returned recently to
Five Tees A after a 3-month absence, and is making
a difference already. Neither side was quite at full strength, but that's been
Five Tees A's
story all season, having called on 9 players altogether. Three wins again for
David Wills,
who has single-handedly amassed half his team's points.
Division 2
IBM B 7-3 Kings C
Paul Martin of
Kings C is making a speciality of doing well against
IBM B - he won 3 against them for the second time this season, a feat he hasn't achieved against anyone else this season!
IBM B are respectably placed in mid-table and are by no means a pushover.
Winnall 6-3 Swanmore A
With
Kevin Muldowney still out injured,
Swanmore A haven't been rattling up many points lately.
Both teams were a player short, so the evening was short and sweet.
Division 3
Owslebury 4-6 IBM C
Owslebury continues to battle on with the barest bones of a team, thanks to the ravages of injury and ill-health. 3 wins for
Martin Healey of
IBM C.
The highlight of the evening
was when
Vas Shcherbinin smashed what looked like a winner, it hit the edge of
Martin Woolf's bat, spiralled up to within inches of the 10 metre-high roof of
the IBM Sports Hall, still spinning viciously, landed on Vas's side of the net and then span back over it, completely unreachable.
Kings D 7-3 Kings E
A long hard slog, this one, with several players putting in hard hours and getting little to show for it.
Andy Quick was the exception, with 3 wins for
Kings D.
