Five players from the New Milton Table Tennis Club made it through to the Finals night of the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis Association annual tournaments. Two of them emerged as champions, one of them by default, the other at the expense of a fellow clubmate.

New Milton’s 17 year old Brett Bentley was awarded the Junior title by default as Bournemouth Sports player Daniel Chen had tested positive for COVID so couldn’t play.

Sylvia Smith faced Rob Hill from the Bournemouth Sports club in the Division 4 final, having already lost to him twice in the league.  From the off, Smith had problems with Hill’s tricky serve, so she was largely playing catch-up throughout their match, narrowly losing the first end 9-11.  Smith was able to compensate with some very effective back hand shots in open play and scraped the second end by 13-11, to level things off.   The next two ends proved very tight, but Smith lost them 10-12 and 9-11.

In the Division 3 Final, Milton’s Andrew Daish faced Broadstone’s Phil Mayall and narrowly lost the first end 11-13.  Left-hander Daish powered back to take the second 11-9, but then sadly faded to lose the next two ends 7-11, 4-11.

In the Over 70s final, Milton’s Mike Gent took on Richard Crockley from the Bournemouth Sports club.  Gent narrowly lost the first two ends 9-11, 10-12 but did very well to claw back the third 11-8.  That proved to be a false hope however as Crockley comfortably took the fourth 11-4 to land the title.

Sylvia Smith had a second crack at a title as she took on fellow Miltonian Andy Ingram in the Bournemouth Handicap final, having already beaten him twice in the league in Div 4.  Playing off scratch as they had identical winning averages in Divison 4, Smith scraped the first end 21-20, but left-hander Ingram took the second comfortably 21-9 to level things off.  It was nip and tuck throughout the decider as to be expected, but Ingram just shaded it 21-18 to land the Handicap title.

The trophies will be presented to the winners and runners up at the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis Association’s annual presentation evening due to be held on 28^th May.

Author: Malcolm Floyd