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C&DTTL PICTURE NEWS - Issue 47 |
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Welcome to the latest edition of Picture News. LEAGUE - KO Cup Three more of the League's KO Cup Finals have now been played and reports and pictures can be found below. The week started with an all ECC final in the Handicap Cup. Apart from Alastair Hill, essentially an all division 5 line up, combining Simon Webber (-9!), Colin Barham (-12) and Alastair as ECC E against Ian Rogers (-8), Richard Storey (-10) and Mick Storey (-11) as ECC C. It is ironic that Simon who had an 81% average in Division 5 this year and played no fewer than 13 matches as a substitute, 11 of which were in Division 2 giving him valuable experience, had just about the lowest handicap of the night. And that advantage showed as he dashed of his two singles wins. Although Mick Storey made him work all the way before succumbing 21:19, 25:23. the remaining games were far more even. After a see-saw opening 11:21, 21:9 Colin Barham overcame Mick Storey 21:18 in the decider. Alastair Hill narrowly lost to Richard story 18:21, 18:21. Who was then defeated by Colin 21:17, 18:21, 21:19. It fell to Alastair to settle the match in favour of ECC E, as he squeezed past Ian Rogers 21:18 in the third after a slight hiccup in the second going down 8:21! Game set and match ECC E 5:1.
Thursday was the day for the 2Down Cup featuring the divisional winners Excalibur A against a mixed division 2 and 4 side from Baddow Village B. This looked likely to be a fairly one sided contest, but the card shows otherwise. The tone was set by the first two games, going all the way to the fifth end. Nigel Lamb & Matthew Fasanya took on Neil Gooday and Gareth Joice in the opening doubles. And what a contest this proved to be, Joice playing well above his fourth division status to keep the game totally open. Two all after four gruelling ends 11:7, 9:11, 6:11, 11:7 the game was anyone's. But Excalibur had the initiative having fought back from 1:2 down they were now in the ascendancy making light of the fifth to take the game 11:5. More drama followed as Alastair Piper blasted his way back from 2:0 down against Tim Pang, only to see his hopes dashed decisively in the fifth as Pang ran out 11:3. There was no less drama in the next. Neil Gooday raced into a 2:0 lead only to allow Nigel Lamb to claw it back. This time the fifth was a tense affair with Gooday just coming through 9:11. Baddow were on the score sheet. The next two games were quite tame by contrast as Fasanya dispensed with Joice 3 straight. Then Pang and Lamb disposed of Gooday and Piper the same way. Piper wasn't however to be denied a moment of glory making his mark with a sensational 11:4 in the fifth win over Fasanya. But that was it. Lamb closed out the match with a three straight win over Joice, 5:2 Excalibur.
Thursday also saw perhaps the best final so far, the Mixed KO Cup. This has been dominated in recent years by Elmtree, and they found themselves in the final again with Vytas Rybakas, Paul Lucas and Nicola Pippen facing Waseem Qureshi, Adrian Pitt and Julie Vansertima of Baddow Village. The big question here was could the Baddow men match two known stars in Lucas and Rybakas. The match started well for Baddow. Pitt & Vansertima comfortably overcoming Rybakas and Pippen 10,9 & 6. Lucas hit back with some death or glory table tennis to beat Qureshi 8,-6,9,8. The decisive game was the third when Qureshi had half a chance to make it 2:1 rather than 1:2. But it was not to be. Rybakas then pulled out his usual stunt of snatching victory from the seeming jaws of defeat. In game 4 Pitt almost let 9 match points slip before levelling the game at 2:2, only for Rybakas to up the anti in the final end to win out 2:11. Julie then duly disposed of Nicola 5,5, & 8 to even the match. The two men versus lady singles went as expected to the man. So it was up to the Baddow men to pull off a surprise if they were to get to the final mixed doubles in which they had a big chance of victory. The most likely chance looked to be in the men's doubles and it started well enough with Pitt & Qureshi taking the first end 11:5. Then the big guns kicked in. With Lucas & Rybakas taking the next three ends 6,7 & 7. It meant that if Baddow were to have any chance Qureshi had to beat Rybakas, a tall order! But what a game this proved to be, there was never more than a couple of points between the two Rybakas doing enough to stay ahead 12:10, 11:13, 12:10, 11:9. Game set and match Elmtree 5:3.
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