This summer marked the third consecutive year when the New Milton Table Tennis Club ran a summer pairs’ competition at Mudeford Wood Community Centre. This year the event was enthusiastically supported by 38 club members signing up for the seven teams and a further 10 people who were included in a pool of reserves All table tennis matches took place on Monday evenings in the main hall on 3 tables. This club competition is similar to a conventional table tennis league with teams playing each other twice, once at home and then once away. The competition was open to both club members and non-club members. All scheduled matches were played on the same night.

The names of the seven teams were: Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Vikings, Saxons and Romans. Each team consists of two players although a third person from that team could play in the doubles. We aim to combine a higher division player with a lower league player but it is not always possible to achieve this. Each person plays two Singles matches and one doubles (all five matches are the best of 5 ends). A feature of this competition is that one point is awarded for each end or set won up to 11. The final match score is calculated by totalling the number of ends or sets won by each team over the course of the evening. I show below the teams’ positions at the conclusion of the competition, all seven teams having played each other twice:

Team          Week No.    Sets Won      Sets Lost     Points Total

Vikings         14                    142                     75                    142   – Joint Winner

Airmen         14                    142                     73                    142   – Joint Winner

Romans       14                     103                  108                    103

Soldiers       14                       93                  119                       93

Sailors         14                       90                  114                       90

Marines       14                       90                  122                      90

Saxons         14                       83                  132                      83

At the conclusion of the summer pairs there was a tie for first place between the Vikings and Airmen teams with 142 points each. It came down to a final nail-biting match between the Vikings and Airmen which the Airmen won by 13 to 9. The title was awarded to both teams jointly. If there was an award for “man of the pairs” it would surely go to Gerard Redman for his quite brilliant play and sportsmanship over the summer months. There were also fine contributions by Russell Wilson, Geoff Ware, Philip Daish-Handy and John Millward. A trophy was purchased and presented to Gerard, the senior “A” player for the Airmen who will retain it for the first 6 months and then pass it to the Vikings.

There was a great deal of support and enthusiasm for the pairs over the 14 week period. This was the most successful pair’s competition over its three year history. Thanks are due to all those people who helped with the setting up the equipment at the start of the evening and putting it away at the session’s conclusion. I do hope we can repeat the summer pairs in 2016.

BM Scott-Johns