The Annual Tournaments of the New Milton Table Tennis Club have been taking place over the past few weeks and culminated in the Grand Finals Night at Mudeford Wood Community Centre. Phil Handy successfully defended his Handicap Singles and Open Singles titles and rising club starlet Matthew Daish tried to steal his thunder by bagging three titles. The thirteen year old from Lymington not only successfully defended his Junior title but he also won the Under 40 (Handicap) event. Then he went on to win the Doubles title with older brother Peter, not a bad return from an evening’s table tennis!

Phil “fills his boots” at the NMTTC finals night.

Before the finals got underway there was the matter of four semi-finals which had been held over to the Finals Night. First up was the Handicap Singles semi with last year’s trophy winner Phil Handy playing off a handicap of +6 taking on Ian Linney (+19). Linney really went for it but the Premier’s Handy overcame the large differential to win in two straight sets 31-25, 31-26.

In the other Handicap Singles semi, Shaun Newcomb (+13) was out for revenge over Div 1 teammate Julie Smillie (+13) who had beaten him in the Vets Over 40 (Handicap) semi-final. Newcomb drew first blood winning the first set 31-20 but Smillie came back to take the second set 31-29 to set up a mouth-watering finale. Newcomb established a 10 point lead but Smillie got her forehand loop going to overhaul and then beat her teammate 31-26.

Next up were the Doubles semi-finals. Matthew Daish and older brother Peter playing off a combined handicap of +15 took on Gerard Redman and Roy Hobbs playing off the same handicap. The Daishes took the first set quite comfortably 31-23 as Redman & Hobbs stuttered but the latter pairing got back into the game to take the second by a nail-biting 36-34. The Daishes got their collective act back together and won the third and final set 31-26. The very tricky Div 1 combination of Shaun Newcomb & James Lewis (+12) took on Div 3 combo Eddie Tompkins & Bev Scott-Johns (+20) in the second Doubles semi and saw them off with some ease in two straight sets 31-26, 31-24. Read the rest of this entry →

There was a terrific turnout for New Milton Table Tennis Club’s Mixed Doubles tournament at Mudeford Wood Community Centre on Monday 10^th June. Initially there were 23 competitors compared to last year’s 18 participants, but there was still a last minute scramble to make the numbers up to an even 24. After a number of frantic phone calls, Kai Major’s mum Nicola delivered an unsuspecting Kai to be paired up with Malcolm Floyd, who had initially offered to stand down (nothing at all to do with him wishing to spare his poor old back!).

The Mixed Doubles is always a bit of light relief in between the club’s more “serious” singles events, with the pairings being drawn out of the hat on the night. The individual’s handicaps are then averaged to give a handicap for each pairing. The 24 nicely lent itself to two groups of 6 pairings, and once again it was decided to restrict the group stages to two sets.

One group comprised Keith Kensley & Bob Fagan (+18), Les Smith & Phil Handy (+14), Fern Daish & Chris Pusey (+19), Matthew & Peter Daish (+15), Sylvia Smith & Ian Linney (+19) and Eddie Tompkins & Bev Scott-Johns (+20). The explosive pairing of Matthew and older brother Peter Daish only lost two sets to win the group, one of them against Les & Phil in their last match of the group stage. The brothers Daish lost 26-31 in their first set against Les & Phil but came back to win the second by the mind-boggling 38-36, a real crowd-pleaser. Their only other loss was at the hands of Eddie & Bev who came runners-up.

The other group contained Gerard Redman & Roy Hobbs (+15), John Parkhouse & Geoff Biggs (+21), Andrew Stainton & Simon Daish (+21), Andrew Daish & Terry Jenvey (+18), James Lewis & Shaun Newcomb (+12) and Kai Major & Malcolm Floyd (+17). The very tricky combination of wheelchair player Shaun and fellow Div 1 player James only dropped two sets all evening, including one against runners-up Gerard & Roy. It is fair to say that Malcolm and Kai struggled a bit, but Kai’s head never went down and he played some lovely shots (can’t say the same for Malcolm!). Their consolation came in their last match of the evening as they claimed a set against Gerard & Roy, the eventual runners-up.

The winners and runners-up go straight through to the semi-finals which were held over to the Grand Finals Night on 24^th June. Brothers Matthew & Peter Daish take on Gerard Redman & Roy Hobbs, while Shaun Newcomb & James Lewis will face Eddie Tompkins & Bev Scott-Johns. Roy came runner-up with Dave Sutton last year, and as the only “surviving” finalist he is looking forward to a second bite of the cherry with new partner Gerard.

Roy Hobbs wants another crack at the Doubles title.

Following a break for the bank holiday, the New Milton Table Tennis Club’s annual tournaments resumed with the “Handicap Singles” event at Mudeford Wood Community Centre on 3^rd June. The 23 entrants, slightly up on last year’s 22, were split into three groups of six and one group of five. Because of the high entry, once again it was decided to restrict the group stage to two sets per match.

The first group of six comprised Kai Major playing off a handicap of +21, Shaun Newcomb (+13), last year’s winner Phil Handy (+6), Dan Williams (+21), Terry Jenvey (+15) and Bev Scott-Johns (+21). The Premier’s Phil breezed through the group, dropping just the one set, while Shaun only lost to Phil and Bev to go through as runner-up.

In the second group of three were Dane Major (+25), Julie Smillie (+13), Richard Barrett (+23), Malcolm Floyd (+14), Ian Linney (+19) and Andrew Stainton (+24). Ian won the group, and Julie pipped Malcolm to second place. Malcolm played tentatively after a lay-off with a bad back but beat Julie 31-29 in their first set. It was nip and tuck throughout the second set, but Julie eventually won 34-32 to deprive league teammate Malcolm of a place in the quarter-finals.

The final group of six comprised Sylvia Smith (+20), Lucy Craddock (+25), Fern Daish (+23), Matthew Daish (+12), Angela Farmer (+23) and Mike Roberts (+20). Matthew fought valiantly to try to overcome the high differentials, but in the end Mike won the group with Lucy coming runner-up.

The group of five contained last year’s runner-up Peter Daish (+19), Bob Fagan (+16), Andrew Daish (+21), Chris Pusey (+16) and Steve Hemmings (+6). Steve won the group to join Premier teammate Phil in the quarter-finals and Peter Daish came second.

The quarter-finals reverted to “best of three” and Ian Linney’s match with Peter Daish was the only match to go all the way. Playing off the same handicap (+19), Ian took the first set 31-26 but then Peter turned the tables to win the second 31-26. Ian’s forehand attack proved more consistent in the third and he shaded it 32-30 to proceed to the semi-finals.

It was opposite ends of the spectrum as Phil Handy from the Premier took on Lucy Craddock from Div 5. Lucy had to accrue 6 points to win each set as against Phil’s mammoth 25 points target, but it was not to be as Phil won both sets 32-30.

Phil Handy, looking for his second Handicap Singles title in a row.

Shaun Newcomb (+13) booked his place in the semi-finals as he saw off Mike Roberts (+20) in two straight sets 31-26, 32-30.

Julie Smillie (+13) was looking for revenge against Steve Hemmings (+6), as she had already lost to him in this year’s Vets 40+ (Handicap) semi-finals and last year’s Vets 40+ (Handicap) final. Normally Steve’s stoic defence is the perfect counter to Julie’s forehand loop, but Julie appeared the fresher after a long evening’s table tennis and overcame Steve in two straight sets, 31-29, 34-32.

The semi-finals were held over to the Grand Finals Night on 24^th June when Ian Linney will take on Phil Handy, and Julie Smillie will face league teammate Shaun Newcomb. Shaun who plays off the same handicap as Julie (+13) will be looking for revenge as he lost to her in this year’s quarter-final of the Vets 40+ (Handicap) event.

They say the sun shines on the righteous – well the various sporting clubs of the New Milton area must be doing something right as we nearly had the perfect June day, if only the wind had been a little less it would have been 10/10.

Having had a kind offer from Steve Hemmings who was all set to transport a table from Mudeford Wood, at the eleventh hour I received a phone call from Jamie Burton at New Forest District Council to say how please he was that we were taking part and would it be useful if he brought a couple of the “PING!” tables to the event for our use. We had one inside a fairly decent sized square tent and one just outside, Jamie parking his large van alongside to create a further wind break. Despite the gusts which made for interesting play on the outside table in the morning, this largely settled down later in the afternoon and all participants seemed to thoroughly enjoy their table tennis experience.

An ingenious device to encourage the youngsters’ participation was that they were each given a card with spaces for coloured stickers granted when they had taken part in each sport – having tried at least six sports they could collect a nice medal from the organisers – so we had no shortage of takers.

First on the scene at crack of dawn as usual was Julie Smillie, followed soon by me and Malcolm Floyd. Steve Hemmings, Frank Handy, Cameron Golding and Silvia Smith who were all a tremendous help. Other club members showing support including Malcolm Douglas and our club President Bob Fagan, both of whom could afford a more brief visit but who also enjoyed this.

Many other sports were represented along with displays in the arena with welcome refreshments including burgers, ice cream (of course!) – a beer tent and a few more healthy options. All in all a really good day from which I’m sure we’ll pick up a few new members.