South Devon and Torbay Table Tennis League: ADVANTAGE HALWELL AS LEADERS GO HEAD TO HEAD

The teams in the chase for the South Devon & Torbay Table Tennis League Division 1 crown meet this week in what could be the title decider.

Both Halwell A and Newton Abbot Batmen have played 12 matches each ahead of the fixture which sees Halwell A holding a slim three point advantage.

Two clear 7-3 and 9-1 wins for Halwell A on their travels against Bishopsteignton’s Full of Beans and Dawlish Aces respectively, gained them the upper hand prior to the second meeting of the big guns. Mick Atkinson was Halwell’s hero over the two matches with maximum points to his name. The two battles for Atkinson were against Richard Jessop of Full of Beans and Ed Crawford of Dawlish Aces. Both games went the distance with Atkinson coming from behind to take the wins 11-6 against Jessop and 11-9 against Crawford who was unlucky not to gain a second point for Aces losing by the same scoreline against Dave Wadling.

Atkinson had good support from his Halwell team mates of Rod Sugden and Dave Wadling, but perhaps the biggest shock of the meetings was in the Full of Beans fixture in which Tracey Lyon claimed a monumental straight sets victory against Wadling 12-10, 11-9, 11-9 in only her third win of the season.

Newton Abbot Batmen held on to their undefeated record with a 6-4 home win over an under-strength Brixham Gulls who were short of two first team players. Caolan Walpot from second Division Brixham Swifts came in to complete the team fixtures and did extremely well to hold his own up against Batmen’s Dennis Gibbs, Tony Halse and Sam Hurst.

Gibbs took his 11th maximum of the season so far, but Halse and Hurst stuttered against Gulls’ young guns David White and Michael Lu who both claimed wins over the Newton Abbot players in four sets except for Lu who eased past Halse in three.

The results set up a meeting of the leading two who have been yo-yoing between first and second place all season this week at Halwell. If Halwell emerge victorious, it will be extremely difficult for Batmen to hold on to their Division 1 title with only three matches remaining of the season.

Taverners gained revenge over Brixham Trawlers for their narrowest of defeats in the Dyment Doubles the week before with a 6-4 away win to see them leapfrog over Newton Abbot Academicals into third spot. Brixham’s Alan Maynard and Taverners’ Colin Harrop battled out the last singles of the match both on equal averages in a fantastic match of attack-defence. It was Harrop who emerged the winner 11-7 in the fifth to take Taverners to the six points with Nick Williamson and Geoff Read pinned back from extending the margin further by Maynard and Ian May in the doubles. Ian May’s form returned with only his second win ever over Geoff Read in the singles.

In Division 2, Marldon crushed Barnabas Sports Trust 9-1 to give the division leaders a 17 point lead at the top with just three matches to play.

Helen Parton and Dave Atkin both achieved maximums against Barnabas’ Ed Thomspon, Roger Doxat-Pratt and Hugh Doxat-Pratt while Thompson won over Marldon’s captain George Breyley to avoid the whitewash.

Marldon Millers managed a win over lowly Hasbeens by the same scoreline to keep in touch of their clubmates with a game in hand. Millers’ Alan Tyrrell won all three without dropping a set, while a Nigel Hunt’s hatrick was completed only dropping two sets. They were supported well by Mike Wickens who lost in the narrowest of games to Hasbeens’ Dave Alexander 15-13 in the final set.

Tykes lie only one point behind Marldon Millers in third place completing a 7-3 away win over strugglers Dawlish Diamonds. Kevin Ayling and Steve Metcalfe performed brilliantly taking maximums in very tight games, while Chris Garner was unable to maximise the lead falling against Dawlish’s Ozzy Dee and Karolina Czyz. Ayling and Garner then lost a 2-0 lead in the doubles against Dee and Don Beesley who fought back from the dead to deny Tykes the one point that would have levelled their tally with Millers.

Brixham Pirates were again in action in Division 3, and again extended their lead at the top of the table to a massive 19 points. Joe Holmes, Patrik Herget and Joe Holmes were deadly in their games up against Dawlish Dinosaurs’ Stan Haigh and Michael Miller, but it was the undefeated Mike Coxhead who once again marched through the match with his 100% record intact. The Pirates played well, but had no answer to Coxhead’s solid backspin defence.

The win however makes Pirates almost certain favourites for the Division 3 crown, while in second place, club-mates Brixham Swifts are making a strong bid for the runners-up spot. Swifts drafted in Dan Asker from Pirates and Peter White, the younger brother of Devon junior champion David White to see through their fixture against Newton Team Spirits. They joined regular team member Sam Zhou who beat all members of the Stephens family, Ashleigh, Robert and Cheryl, to take a maximum, while he was well supported by Asker and White to win the tie 7-3 and go five points clear of Dawlish Drifters in third place.

The three points for Team Spirits takes them off the bottom of the table on equal points with 21 Down, who lost 8-2 against Dawlish Drifters in a match that produced a doubles leg score of 20-18 in favour of the Drifters victors Bruce Freeman and Richard Rains.