The Annual Bournemouth and District Table Tennis Individual Tournaments got underway at the Harewood College last week, and 16 players from the New Milton club entered the first week’s events with varying fortunes. Two of the club’s players made it through to the Finals; Matthew Daish (Div 1) and older brother Peter Daish (Div 3).

The A team’s Phil Handy entered the Premier event and came runner-up in his group, only to be knocked out in the quarter-finals by Nathan Bingham from Bmth Sports A.

Julie Smillie and 12 year old Matthew Daish, both from the B team, entered the Div 1 event with contrasting fortunes.  Julie came runner-up of her group but got knocked out in the quarter-finals by Anthony Forster from Winton YMCA. Matthew won his group and disposed of Daniel Prakesh (Bmth Sports) in their quarter-final and then saw off Christian Carmen (Lynwood) in their semi-final. Matthew will face Julie’s tormentor Anthony Forster in the Div 1 final. Amazing to think that it was only two years ago that Matthew won the Div 5 individual title!

The Div 3 event saw Milton’s highest entry of eight players. Sylvia Smith and Bev Scott-Johns were unable to emerge from their groups, but Andrew Daish, Peter Daish, Simon Daish, Frank Handy, Bobo Jiang and Ian Linney made it through to the quarter-finals. Frank disposed of team-mate Simon Daish and Peter Daish did likewise to Bobo to proceed to the semis. Unfortunately, Ian lost to Ringwood’s Jacob Elliott to be denied further progress. 14 year old Peter Daish saw off his G team captain Phil Handy in their semi-final and will face Ian Linney’s nemesis Jacob Elliott in the final. Young Peter would just love to win the Div 3 Individual Title to go along with his Div 3 winners medal that he won with his G team this season.

Just the one entry from Milton in the Div 4 event in the shape of Svet Ignatov who won his group. He beat Ringwood’s rising starlet Jamie Hall in their quarter-final, but lost to his league bogie-man Jon Tennant (Bmth Sports) in their semi.

There were three Milton entries in the Div 5 tournament; Lucy Craddock, Andrew Stainton and Mike Roberts. The K team’s Andrew Stainton helped to knock team-mate Lucy out of the group stage to come runner-up, but lost to Nimrod’s Mike Melaniphy in the next stage. Mike Roberts from the J team won his group but then lost out to Graham Jeneson (Winton YMCA) over four high-scoring sets.

Max De Kment paired up with Winton YMCA’s Julian Hewlett for the Men’s Doubles event and they came runners-up of their group. However, they were denied a place in the semi-finals as they lost to the very strong combination of Patrick Hurley (Merton) and Steve Davies (North Bmth).

So it’s the brothers Daish who booked their place in the finals which will take place at the Harewood College (Boscombe) on Friday 3^rd May. Matthew v Anthony Forster (Winton YMCA) in the Div 1 final and Peter Daish v Jacob Elliott (Ringwood) in the Div 3 final.