Stamford and Rutland Table Tennis League round-up

A busy week of tournaments concluded this season's Stamford and Rutland League.

Firstly, the Veterans and Super Veterans completed their competitions at Northborough Village Hall and the names of new winners will be engraved onto the trophies.

Following group matches in the Veterans’ competition, the four top-seeded players made it through to the semi-finals.

MTTG's Andy Goodacre was severely tested by Langtoft's Denise Jacobi in their quarter-final, saving match points before progressing 13-11, 12-14, 18-16.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he ran out of steam in the semi-final against Uffington Archway’s Dipak Kuchhadia, succumbing 10-12, 11-9, 8-11, 2-11.

In the second semi-final, Goodacre's team-mate Leigh Ware faced last season’s winner Mark Conway and the Bourne A player prevailed 11-8, 11-5, 11-13, 11-3.

The final was a high-quality encounter which was won by Kuchhadia 11-7, 4-11, 11-9, 13-11.

The Super Veterans then took to the tables for their group matches where the semi-finalists were from four different teams.

Langtoft's Steve Smith recovered from a game down to defeat Uffington Archway's Steve Williams 8-11, 11-6, 11-9.

On an adjacent table, holder Dave Rowell of Bourne A overcame Andy Goodacre 12-10, 11-8.

The final was another close match and Smith survived a comeback by Rowell at the final end to win 11-8, 7-11, 11-8.

The Tier competitions took place at Borderville Sports Centre and again witnessed a high standard of table tennis.

The Tier One singles semi-finals involved four players who had been busy at Northborough, with Leigh Ware defeating Andy Goodacre 11-2, 11-3 and Mark Conway overcoming Steve Smith 11-2, 11-6.

The final, therefore, was a repeat of one of the Veteran semi-finals at Northborough.

The result was also the same, with Conway winning in four games 10-12, 11-2, 13-11, 11-5.

Uffington Archway’s Dipak Kuchhadia and Ramone Vara arrived in time for the doubles competition which was a round-robin event.

The key match was their contest with Goodacre and Ware which they won 11-7, 12-10 to secure the title, with the MTTG pair finishing runners-up.

In Tier Two, Bourne B's John Buck earned a comeback win against Tallington's Nick McDowall which earned him a semi-final place as a group winner while McDowall progressed as runner-up.

Harringworth’s Dave Reed survived two three-set matches in the second group to progress as group winner while Tallington Bulls’ Mark Christou won twice to complete the line-up.

The two group winners then won their semi-finals with Reed defeating McDowall 11-9, 12-10 and Buck surviving two match points to beat Christou 13-11, 8-11, 12-10.

The final was the best of five games and David Reed won 11-5, 11-8, 12-10.

The Tier Two doubles competition was another round-robin event.

After two rounds, the final match involving Steve Smith and Nick McDowall and Mark Conway and Braunston B's Dobs Meynell was the decider.

This was a good-natured but competitive encounter which Smith and McDowall won 11-9, 11-8.

Before the LJ Roll individual handicap event, Denise Jacobi and Dobs Meynell played a ladies' match which Jacobi won in three straight sets but Meynell also played excellently.

Dipak Kuchhadia (off a handicap of three) was hoping to retain the LJ Roll trophy for a fourth year but was beaten at the quarter-final stage by Jacobi (14) 41-38.

In the semi-final, however, Jacobi herself was defeated by Mark Conway (six) 41-33.

In the second semi-final, Ramone Vara (four) defeated Leigh Ware (12) 41-39.

The final was hard-hitting and Vara managed to stretch away in the second half of the match to win 41-34.

The league would like to thank the staff at Borderville for their help in setting up the tables and clearing away at the end of the day to ensure that there were no wasted minutes during a busy afternoon of table tennis.