RECORD TITLE HAUL FOR NMTTC
A fortnight of table tennis tournaments concluded with the Grand Finals Night of the Bournemouth and District Annual Individual Championships at the Grange School, Somerford last Friday night. Nine players from the New Milton club were involved in twelve of the fifteen singles finals, and the total haul for New Milton was nine titles, a club record.
14 year old Jack Trafford quite literally got the ball rolling in the first match of the evening to beat last year’s runner-up Matthew Stanfield (Bmth Sports) in the Junior Under 15 final. He went on to beat Krystof Skwarek (Broadstone) in their Bournemouth Handicap semi-final having given Skwarek a 9 start, but found the 14 start he had to give Yaroslav Troshchey (Winton YMCA) a bridge too far in the final.
Trafford got off to a good start against Breamore’s Luke Hunt in the Div 2 final by taking the first two sets 12-10, 11-9 but tantalisingly lost the next two 11-13, 11-13. There were some more fantastic exchanges in the decider, with Trafford’s backhand coming to the fore, but Hunt pulled away in the end to take it 11-8.
In the Junior Under 18 final Trafford had to take on Bmth Sports’ Ali Malloch who plays two divisions higher in the Premier league. He lost the first two sets 6-11, 13-15 but rallied to take the third 11-9, only to lose the fourth 6-11. The Milton youngster will be disappointed to have missed out on three of his four title bids, but he put in some excellent performances and the experience will have been invaluable.
New Milton were already assured of the Div 3 title, it was just a matter of whether it was Steve Cheesman from the F team or Graham Underwood, captain of the G team. The result went with the form book as Cheesman (pictured below), who won the Div 4 title last year, overwhelmed his club mate to win in three straight sets.
The Div 4 final saw Ben Greene slog it out with Richard Stroud from the Merton club in a match that seemed to last an eternity. Greene lost the first two sets but hung in there to win the next three to beat his much more experienced opponent.
In the Div 5 final, 13 year old Adam Titcombe dropped his first set 8-11 to Michael Kominek (Winton YMCA), but displayed a maturity beyond his years to take the next three sets to claim the title.
England Veteran Brian Bickell returned to the tournaments after a year’s lay off due to shoulder injury to win both of his Vets finals. In the Vets 60+ he despatched Dave Nicholls (Ringwood) in three straight sets, and did likewise in the Vets 70+ to last year’s champion Danny Allen (Merton).
In the Vets 50+ final, Milton club chairman Steve Hemmings (last year’s runner-up) took on former Milton player Alan Gordon who now plays for Bmth Sports. In a very open game, Hemmings’ dogged defence proved the perfect foil for Gordon’s forehand looping as Hemmings won the title in three straight sets.
The Div 1 final saw the comeback of the evening as left-hander Andy Tipsana took on Matthew Stanfield from Bmth Sports. The Bourne player went 2-1 up and was leading 10-5 in the fourth when Tipsana came back from the dead to take the set 15-13 after some thrilling exchanges. Now with the wind in his sails, Tipsana left nothing to chance to win the decider 11-7 and then comfort his bewildered opponent.
New Milton’s ninth and final title of the evening came in the Vets 40+ final as Gerard Redman took on fellow Div 1 player Ian Brown from the Broadstone club. The game ebbed and flowed and went all the way to five sets. It appeared that Brown had run out of puff and ideas in the decider and Redman (pictured below) won it very comfortably 11-4.
Milton’s record haul of titles is summarised below:-
Adam Titcombe (Div 5)
Jack Trafford (Junior Under 15)
Brian Bickell (Vets 60+ & Vets 70+)
Steve Cheesman (Div 3)
Ben Greene (Div 4)
Steve Hemmings (Vets 50+)
Gerard Redman (Vets 40+)
Andy Tipsana (Div 1)
Runners-up were Jack Trafford (Junior Under 18, Div 2 & Bmth Handicap) and Graham Underwood (Div 3).
The New Milton players will collect their hard earned trophies at the annual Bournemouth and District Presentation Evening on Friday 19th May at the Ocean View Hotel, Bournemouth.
IMPROVE YOUR TABLE TENNIS!
EASTER TRAINING DAYS
The below poster gives details of the Easter Training Days being run by Matt Ware at the Grange School on Tuesday 11th April and Tuesday 18th April.
Please note that the numbers are limited to 24 players per day, so if you are interested best to book early.
BDTTA FINALS NIGHT – TONIGHT – FRIDAY 31ST MARCH
TERRIFIC TOURNAMENT (PART 2)
By the Tuesday night of Week 2 of the BDTTA Individual Championships, the New Milton Club already had 8 of its players going through to 10 of the finals, but there was more yet to come.
On Wednesday night, there was such a high entry for the Bournemouth Closed and Handicap events that both semi-finals had to be carried over to the Finals night. Jack Trafford, already featuring in three finals, beat Jordan Pang (Bmth Sports) in their quarter-final of the Handicap event to face Broadstone’s Krzystof Skwarek in the semi-finals. Jack will have his work cut out as he has to give Skwarek a 9 start up to 21, but the way Jack’s playing at the moment he may well end up playing either Matthew Ryan or Yaroslav Troschey (both from Winton YMCA) in the final.
In the Vets 50+ event last night (Thursday), last year’s runner-up Steve Hemmings saw off Wei-Jun Liang (Bmth Sports) in their semi-final to face ex Milton club mate Alan Gordon (now Bmth Sports) to have another crack at the title.
The matches involving NMTTC players on Finals Night appear below. They will not be in that particular order but a Programme of Events will be issued on the night.
This is far and beyond the highest number of finalists that NMTTC has ever had in the Individual Championships, so why not come on down to the Grange tonight to cheer on your team and club mates.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL OUR PLAYERS!
SEMI-FINALS
Bmth H’Cap – Jack Trafford (NMTTC C) v Krzystof Skwarek (Broadstone)
FINALS
Division 1 – Andy Tipsana (NMTTC C) v Matthew Stanfield (Bmth Sports)
Division 2 – Jack Trafford (NMTTC C) v Luke Hunt (Breamore)
Division 3 – Graham Underwood (NMTTC G) v Steve Cheesman (NMTTC F)
Division 4 – Ben Greene (NMTTC J) v Richard Stroud (Merton)
Division 5 – Adam Titcombe (NMTTC L) v Michael Kominek (Winton YMCA)
Junior U15 – Jack Trafford (NMTTC C) v Matthew Stanfield (Bmth Sports)
Junior U18 – Jack Trafford (NMTTC C) v Ali Malloch (Bmth Sports)
Vets 40+ – Gerard Redman (NMTTC C) v Ian Brown (Broadstone)
Vets 50+ – Steve Hemmings (NMTTC A) v Alan Gordon (Bmth Sports)
Vets 60+ – Brian Bickell (NMTTC B) v Dave Nicholls (Ringwood)
Vets 70+ – Brian Bickell (NMTTC B) v Danny Allen (Merton)
TERRIFIC TOURNAMENT FOR NMTTC PLAYERS
I am indebted to Club Secretary Bev Scott-Johns for his daily updates on the BDTTA tournaments which has enabled me to concoct the following report:-
No sooner had the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league come to an end the previous week than their annual Individual Championships got under way at the Grange last week. At the time of writing, the New Milton club has eight of its players competing in the finals, rising starlet Jack Trafford (pictured below) featuring in three of them.
On the first Tuesday night Andy Tipsana (New Milton C) won his Div 1 semi-final and will face Matthew Stanfield (Bmth Sports) in the final. The club is assured of one of its players winning the Div 3 title as Graham Underwood from the promoted G team will take on Steve Cheesman (F team) who won the Div 4 individual title last season.
On Wednesday night 13 year old Adam Titcombe (L team) won his semi-final and will test his mettle against Michael Komineck from Winton YMCA. Komineck only lost 3 out of his 48 league matches to give him a 94% winning average, but the rapidly improving Titcombe has no mean average on 89%.
Thursday night saw New Milton players book their places in the Div 2 and Div 4 finals. 14 year old Jack Trafford from the C team will play Luke Hunt (Breamore) in the Div 2 final, and Ben Greene (J team) takes on the very tricky and experienced Richard Stroud (Merton) in the Div 4 final.
With the divisional events out of the way, Friday night saw Gerard Redman (New Milton C) dispose of A team club mate Steve Hemmings (last year’s runner-up) in their Vets 40+ semi-final. Redman will face fellow Div 1 player Ian Brown (League Results Secretary) from the Broadstone club in the final.
The tournaments resumed after the weekend break on Monday night with the Vets 60+, Junior U15 and Junior U18 events. Milton’s England Veteran Brian Bickell from the Premier’s B team won his semi-final to take on Dave Nicholls who usually plays in Div 2 for the Ringwood club. Jack Trafford won both his Under 15 and Under 18’s semi-finals to respectively face Div 1’s Matthew Stanfield and Premier player Ali Malloch (both from Bmth Sports) in the finals.
The following Tuesday night saw Brian Bickell win his Vets 70+ semi-final and he will play against last year’s winner Danny Allen (Merton) in the final, making it two finals for Bickell so far.
At the time of writing there are still three events to go (Vets 50+, Bournemouth Closed and Bournemouth Handicap) so there is still a bit more scope for Milton to add to its laurels (watch this space!).
All the deciders will be played on the Grand Finals Night to be held on Friday 31st March at the Grange School Sports Hall, Somerford.
UPS AND DOWNS FOR NMTTC TEAMS (FINAL WEEK RESULTS)
As the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league drew to a close last week, two teams from New Milton Table Club were looking forward to playing in higher divisions while another two are unfortunately facing life at a lower level.
The H team (Lewis Reading, Eddie Tompkins, Dave Sutton & Les Smith) were top of Div 4 for the whole of the second half of the season and finished their campaign on a high by beating basement boys Bmth Sports M 8-2 in their own back yard. Skipper Les Smith (pictured below) was back in action after holidaying in the Antipodes and matched Eddie’s brace of wins to go along with Lewis’ fifth hat-trick of the season.
The club’s dark horses, the G team (Mike Toole, Elliott Storr-Smith & Graham Underwood) snuck quietly into second place of Div 3 five weeks back and occupied that slot for the remainder of the season. They also finished off with a win by beating Merton H 6-4 at the Grange.
The B team (John Millward, Shaun Newcomb & Brian Bickell) finished up second from bottom of the Premier league having spent much of their season in the basement zone. The Bees certainly found life very difficult after losing star player John Hook to an achilles tendon injury early during the second half of the season, and their curtain call was a 10-0 hammering by Winton YMCA A.
In Div 2, the B team (Terry Jenvey, Chris Pusey & Mike Toole) needed to at least draw against second from top Bmth Sports H to give themselves any chance of survival but they lost 3-7 to stay at second from bottom. It was all academic in the end, however, as third from bottom Breamore beat Bmth Sports G to send Milton down instead.
The J team had a “bye” in Div 4 in the final week with second from bottom Nimrod B needing to whitewash Merton K to swap places with Milton and send them down instead. That was a tall order as Nimrod lost 2-8 first time around and so it proved as they lost 3-7, ensuring the Jays survival. Full results details are below:-
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FREE DISABILITY TABLE TENNIS!
WHEN: SATURDAY 25TH MARCH – 2PM TO 4PM
WHERE: ALL SAINTS SCHOOL, WEYMOUTH (DT4 9BJ)
Shaun Newcomb is a full time wheelchair user and specialises in coaching athletes with a disability, working from beginner standard to Elite level. A former GB player, Shaun continues to work closely with British Para Table Tennis on Development and Selection. Shaun has been a training partner for some of our current GB Paralympic athletes and was selected to be the coach for the EAD (Elite Athletes with a Disability) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, as well as GB Team Manager and Lead Coach at both the 2013 INAS World Championships (for athletes with a learning disability) in Hong Kong and for the 2014 IWAS World Junior Games. Shaun works with Table Tennis England as an adviser on disability issues as well running frequent regional disability training sessions. He also runs table tennis sessions for rehabilitation in the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Injuries Centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
This session is open to all groups and individuals to attend. For more information please contact Andy Millar at a.millar212@gmail.com or 07710 507075
PROMOTIONS FOR NEW MILTON TEAMS! (WEEK 17 RESULTS)
In the penultimate week of the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league, the H team clinched the Division 4 title and the G team will be runners-up of Division 3 in their first season in the league. The K team are pushing for second place in Division 5 but their fate is now in the hands of others.
The H team (Eddie Tompkins, Dave Sutton & Lewis Reading) won the Div 4 title by beating third placed Merton J 8-2 at Mudeford Wood courtesy of hat-tricks from Reading and Sutton who has only dropped one match all season.
The G team pictured below (Mike Toole, Graham Underwood & Bev Scott-Johns) clinched second place in Div 3 by holding the table topping Broadstone D to a 5-5 draw in their own back yard. With Toole coming up with his customary hat-trick and captain Underwood chipping in with the one win, the doubles were needed to secure the draw. Toole and Underwood struggled to get going in the first set but shaded it 12-10; then they clicked to take the next two sets 11-7, 11-5 to claim the two points.
Down in Div 5, the K team (Mike Gent, Malcolm Douglas & Geoff Biggs) took over the second spot from Shamrock B by hammering second from bottom Nimrod C 10-0 at the Grange. However, the Kays have now played all of their matches and Shamrock only have to take a point off Nimrod C in their final match, as seems likely, to reclaim second place and deprive Milton of promotion to Div 4.
STOP PRESS!
Following the final week’s (Week 18) matches so far, the bottom-placed B team are relegated from the Premier, and the D team relegated from Div 2 at second from bottom. The J team go into the final week third from bottom of Div 4 with Nimrod C needing to beat Merton K 10-0 to send Milton down to the bottom division. However, this is most unlikely as Nimrod lost 2-8 first time around.
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BDTTA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016/2017
This year’s Individual Championships get underway at the Grange School on Monday 20th March with the Mens’ and Ladies Doubles, culminating in the Finals Night on Friday 31st March.
No need to book in advance, just turn up on the night (see registration times below), and it’s completely free!
The Program of Events (see entry conditions) appears below. Good luck to all NMTTC members who enter!
BDTTA PRESENTATION EVENING 2017
The Annual BDTTA Presentation Evening is to be held at THE OCEAN VIEW HOTEL, East Overcliff Drive on FRIDAY 19th MAY at 7.30 pm.
The Special Guest this year is none other than Sandra Deaton, Chairperson, Table Tennis England.
Why not come along to cheer on your prize-winning club mates or simply to enjoy an evening of very pleasant food and convivial company.
Tickets cost £18 for Adults and £10 for Juniors. Hurry as there are a limited number of Tickets available.
Please let Bev Scott-Johns have your preferred meal choice (Main & Dessert from below) at the time of booking your ticket(s).
MAIN COURSE
Pan Roasted Chicken Breast, Sweet Potato puree, Red Wine jus.
Grilled Fillet of Trout, Sauteed Potatoes and a Lemon Herb Butter.
Vegetarian Basil Linguini, Roasted Pine Nuts, Parmesan crisp.
Vegetarian Potato Gnocchi, Baby Leaf Spinach & Wild Mushrooms in a Tarragon Cream.
DESSERT
Cream Filled Profiteroles with a Dark Chocolate Sauce.
Sticky Toffee Pudding with a Butterscotch Sauce.
Vanilla Bean and Baileys Cheeecake.
Tea or Coffee, served at the table.
CUP RUN IS OVER FOR NEW MILTON F!
Last week saw the New Milton F team knocked out of the annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition in the semi-finals, but two of the club’s teams made it through to the semi-finals of the Plate competition.
In the Cup proper, the Div 3 F team (Ian Linney, Steve Cheesman & Sylvia Smith) lost their semi-final against the Premier’s Ringwood A despite a hat-trick from Cheesman. It went right down to the wire at 4-4 with Linney needing to beat Ringwood’s Oliver Crossley in the ninth and final match but he narrowly lost 15-21, 21-14, 19-21.
In the Plate quarter-finals, the Premier’s B team (Brian Bickell, Shaun Newcomb & John Millward) gained some light relief from their parlous league position by beating Div 4’s Bmth Sports M 5-4 to book their place in the semi-finals. England veteran Bickell is still recovering from a shoulder injury but played cannily to win his first hat-trick since his return. It was poised at 4-4 when wheelchair player Newcomb beat Bourne’s Maggie White to follow suit with his team-mates.
The other team to progress through to the Plate semi-finals was the Div 3 G team (Graham Underwood, Mike Toole & Bev Scott-Johns) who did so at the expense of their club mates in the D team (Terry Jenvey, Malcolm Floyd & Chris Pusey) who usually play a division higher. It was all over at 5-0 and then club treasurer Floyd narrowly beat club secretary Scott-Johns in the mandatory sixth match to make it a tad more respectable at 5-1. The triumphant G team are pictured below: l-r Mike Toole, Graham Underwood (Captain) & Bev Scott-Johns.
The E team (Peter Daish, Simon Daish & Simon Golding), who normally ply their trade in Div 2 faced a very strong Div 1 side Bmth Sports D which included ex Milton player Alan Gordon. Milton went ahead 3-2 but Gordon beat Golding having already seen off the other Simon to level things off at 3-3. Unfortunately the two Simons lost their final matches to exit the Plate at 3-5.
The L team featuring Stuart Burton (captain), James Harper and Maggie Brown had to travel to Colehill to take on Shamrock A who normally play a division higher than them in Div 4. In another very tight match and despite a hat-trick from captain fantastic Burton, Milton just lost 4-5 to be denied progress to the Plate semis.
The New Milton club are assured of at least one of their teams making it through to the Plate Final as the B team has been drawn against the G team in the semi-finals.
The break in the league programme enabled the two postponed derbies to take place. The A team repeated their first round 9-1 trouncing of their B team who are firmly stuck on the bottom of the Premier. In Div 3, the second placed G team assumed bragging rights over their F team as they converted a first round 5-5 draw into an 8-2 drubbing. Full results details of all matches are below. Read the rest of this entry
New Milton Table Tennis Club 