Six players from the New Milton Table Tennis Club were involved in five of the finals of the Bournemouth & District Annual Tournaments last week, three of them between members of the club. Club Chairman Steve Hemmings took part in three of finals but unfortunately went home empty handed.

In his first match, Hemmings took on Premier team-mate Doug Gerrish in the Vets 50+ final and it was a classic case of defence versus attack. Hemmings defended stubbornly to win the first set 11-6, narrowly lost the second at deuce 10-12, but went ahead again in the third 11-7. Gerrish started to move Hemmings around a bit in the fourth to take it 11-8 but went behind 3-7 in the decider for Hemmings to sniff victory. However, Gerrish’s forehand proved superior to Hemming’s usually dogged defence to overhaul his team-mate to win the title at 11-9.

Next up for Hemmings was the Vets 40+ final where he took on Tournament Organiser, Merton’s Mark Butler who also plays in the Premier. Hemmings only narrowly lost against Butler when they last faced each other in the league, but Butler overpowered his opponent from the start to win the title in three straight sets 11-2, 11-6, 11-8.

Hemming’s last hurrah was the Bournemouth Handicap final where he took on another team-mate in the form of 15 year old Matthew Daish. Hemmings was given a +4 start which proved no major obstacle to Daish as the teenager won in two straight sets 21-16, 21-20. Pictured below is Matt (left) with Steve just before their title match.

The club’s other internecine match was the Division 4 final between Steve Cheesman and Ian Linney, both from New Milton F who ran away with the Division 4 title in the league. Cheesman lost to Linney in the group stage but won the first two sets in their final 11-6, 12-10, only for Linney to take the third 11-8. Cheesman re-established control in the fourth set to win it 11-7 to take the title.

In the Division 1 final, Milton’s Gerard Redman took on Ringwood’s Martin Jerome, a former New Milton player and ex team-mate of Redman. Redman won the first set 8-11 with some powerful forehand and backhand loops which temporarily seemed to stun his former club-mate. However, Jerome just shaded the second set 13-11, and then progressively took control to take the next two 11-6 & 11-3 for the title.

Congratulations to Doug Gerrish, Steve Cheesman and Matthew Daish, and commiserations to Steve Hemmings, Ian Linney and Gerard Redman.

The trophies will be presented at the league’s annual Presentation Evening at the Ocean View Hotel, Bournemouth on Friday 20^th May.