The Annual Bournemouth and District Table Tennis Individual Tournaments recently took place, and a total of 17 players from the New Milton club entered 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 Smillie came runner-up of her group but got knocked out in the quarter-finals by Anthony Forster from Winton YMCA. Matthew Daish won his group and disposed of Daniel Prakash (Bmth Sports) in their quarter-final and then saw off Christian Carmen (Lynwood) in their semi-final.

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 Handy disposed of team-mate Simon Daish, and Peter Daish did likewise to Bobo Jiang to proceed to the semis. Unfortunately, Ian Linney lost to Ringwood’s Jacob Elliott to be denied further progress. 14 year old Peter Daish saw off his G team captain Frank Handy in their semi-final to book his place against Linney’s nemesis Jacob Elliott in the final.

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 Craddock 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).

In the second week, club secretary Bev Scott-Johns entered the Vets 50+ and Vets 60+ events and emerged as runner-up of both his groups. He was denied further progress as he was knocked out by Jon Tennant (Bmth Sports) and Phil Beeden (Merton) respectively in the next rounds.

Being of slightly tenderer years, club chairman Shaun Newcomb entered the Vets 40+ event and did well to win his group. He disposed of Jon Tennant (Bmth Sports) in the first knock-out round and then came up against fellow Div 1 player Louie-La (Bmth Sports) in the next. The final outcome was no different to their league encounter as Shaun lost 1-3.

And so it came to Finals Night. Peter Daish played in the Div 3 final but lost out to Ringwood’s Jacob Elliott by 1-3, so had to settle for runner-up. Then younger brother Matthew took on Anthony Forster (Winton YMCA) in the Div 1 final. In the first set Matthew was slightly troubled by Forster’s very tricky serve and couldn’t get his back-hand going, but he just nicked it 17-15. He took command in the second to win emphatically 1-11 with his back-hand much more in evidence. Forster was now firmly on the back foot and Matthew comfortably won the third 11-4 to claim the Div 1 title. Amazing to think that it was only two years ago that Matthew won the Div 5 Individual title! Well done to Matthew and Peter for playing in such a competitive and sporting manner.