This week saw the Annual Closed Championships of Burnham & District Table Tennis League, a weekend of sport to separate the contenders from the pretenders and a Finals Evening held to crown the champions.
Before we arrived at Finals Night there was drama aplenty in the weekend’s sport and qualifiers with lots of standout performances. Peter Harverson dominated the Junior events, winning the Junior Singles and Doubles events without losing a match, partnering Oscar Wyman in the doubles.
Another Junior, Arthur Shadforth, had heads turning as he won the Fambridge Singles Title for Division 3 players, beating red hot favourite Allan Steel in the final, and also made it all the way to the Handicap Singles final where he fell to the crafty Peter Chastin. Shadforth had even beaten the incredible Lee McHugh in a tense semi-final despite being caught at 17-17 in the deciding leg. To add to his trophy haul, Shadforth also came runner-up in the Junior events. A bright future for sure.
Adi Kamma came through the pack for a shock win in the Dan Richardson Trophy for Division 2 players – he was beating everybody and anybody, a real star of the Saturday events.
Ella Sach almost caused the upset of the day when she took Chris Hancox all the way to deuce in the fifth set – a close call for sure.
That was a near miss but in the Men’s Singles qualifiers we did get the shock of the tournament when Dan Patynski bettered one of the favourites in Lee McHugh and progressed into the knockout stage, leaving McHugh to ponder what might have been. McHugh had already seen some glory when he won the Mixed Open event so he didn’t need to mourn for too long.
Once we got to the knockout stages there was plenty of drama and none more so than John Poysden dispatching top seed Reece Seddon – Poysden was definitely having a purple patch this tournament as he had also won the Over-60s event the night before, beating Eric Green in the final. Eric was okay though as he was really only there for the hardbat tournament which he has dominated for the last two years and was by far the best player yet again as he retained his title.
Dick Wyman took the Over-70s Zimmer Frame Cup with a fine display over the very tricky Mervyn Perriman. The ladies’ doubles went to form as Dawn Baldry and Shirley Carroll retained their title, as did the Veterans’ Doubles that saw the power couple pairing of Duncan Taylor and Kevin Read sweep past Eric Green and Simon Jacob in the final.
On to Finals Night where the first issue to address was who would make it to the coveted Men’s Single final. The first semi-final was probably the most anticipated match-up as we had the young and exuberant Liam Squirrell with his hard-hitting hexagonal paddle, versus the old war horse and perennial retriever Duncan Taylor. A battle for the ages, of the ages, and it took ages.
The opening game was cagey as our two gladiators sized each other up, and with extended rallies came a plethora of nets and edges that interrupted the flow. Squirrell edged the first leg but dominated the second to take a 2-0 lead, at which point Taylor went all Worzel Gummidge on us and screwed on his serious head and took the third leg.
The fourth leg was a beautiful example of attack v defence with long sustained rallies as Squirrell teased Taylor resisting the temptation to hit every ball that Taylor was deliberately feeding him. A game of chess ensued and Squirrell emerged the master of this sport with an 11-6 game score to take the match and march into the final.
The second semi-final was betwixt the sartorial master of ceremonies John Poysden and the four-time champion Kevin Read. Another battle of styles for the baying crowd. As soon as play began it was clear that Poysden would look to thwart the Read attack and dominate the play. Read did pick off any Poysden serve that wasn’t short enough but that was largely his only real success as Poysden racked up the points and Read was forced into a much higher percentage of errors than normal, even giving away multiple foul serves, often on key points. Poysden progressed to the final.
The first final of the night was the Mixed Doubles event where Sue Body & Duncan Taylor were hot favourites. However, they didn’t have it all their own way as their opponents showed plenty of spirit with Lee McHugh throwing in some Samurai inspired serves. His partner Tina Hutchinson was fantastic when she opened up and attacked the ball, especially against a Taylor floater – but this didn’t happen enough, much to the crowd’s disappointment as they loved cheering a winner against a Taylor chop.
Taylor was his usual retrieving master and Body was very consistent in returning off both her opponents and this is what swung the match. So the Seeding Committee were right as Body & Taylor secured the first crown of the evening.
The next event was the Veterans (Over-40s) Singles final featuring our two losing semi-finalists from the Men’s Singles, Duncan Taylor and Kevin Read. In the opening leg Read still seemed out of sorts as the brainfog lingered and his attacking play, especially on the backhand, let him down and handed Taylor several ‘got away with that one’ points.
This pattern continued with Taylor working hard retrieving from near and far and his consistency and indomitable defence took him to a quick 2-0 lead. Read fought back in the third leg and perhaps Taylor’s concentration levels dropped for a second, and this meant Read was able to benefit from a few winners that saw him through the leg.
By the time we started the fourth leg Taylor had had a word with himself, tightened his belt as was back in business. No resurgence from Read as the resilient Taylor spirit was back with a vengeance as he pushed and floated his way to retain his cup.
After the intermission we were straight into the Men’s Doubles final again featuring Duncan Taylor & Kevin Read, but this time as partners rather than foes, as they took on the mighty pairing of Liam Squirrell & Reece Seddon. This one had an Old Guard v New Guard undertone that could spill over into the spicy category.
Seddon was a bit ring-rusty in the opening leg as he and Squirrell adjusted to the experienced partnership opposite them. So a quick and winning start from Taylor and Read, and plenty of tactical chat from the youth section going into the crucial second leg. This was much better tactically from Seddon & Squirrell as they took their time in the rallies and forced their opponents out of position or when the time came hit through them. So at 1-1 we now had a proper match to enjoy!
The next two legs were shared to take us into a winner-takes-all deciding frame. It was tit-for-tat up until 6-6 when between them Taylor & Read hit three unforced errors that gave Seddon & Squirrell an unassailable lead, which they didn’t waste. That’s two on the spin now for this formidable pairing.
The penultimate match of the evening was for the coveted Ladies Singles’ Cup. Dawn Baldry and Sue Body were the top seeds and had come through the qualifiers without loss. Billed as a slugfest but it didn’t turn out that way as our finalists set off on a push-off.
This was working out better for Body as Baldry failed to convert her attacking opportunities into winners – sometimes choosing the wrong ones to hit. So Body took the cagey first leg, and by now some of the nerves must have switched into adrenaline. In the next two legs both players were more attacking, Baldry deliberately and Body when the chance arrived, so we had a more open contest. This style of play suited Baldry and she took the next two legs to open up a lead.
Body took the more guarded fourth leg and then in a nervy final leg both players missed a few early opportunities and this allowed Baldry to switch ends with a tight 5-4 advantage. Points were shared until Body found herself at 7-8 down, but then hit two errors into the net and Baldry finished off the job with a lovely cross court forehand winner to retain her title.
And so after many preliminary rounds, group stages, and knockout stages we finally arrived at main event where Liam Squirrell and John Poysden would fight it out for the prestigious Men’s Singles crown. Perpetuating the changing of the guards theme of Finals Night we had another clash of ages and styles. Would Poysden, giving up some 45 years of battling, be able to slow down and control the exuberance of Squirrell to allow him to play his game? Would Squirrell just blast his way past the Poysden defence?
The opening leg was over in a flash with a combination of Squirrell winners and Poysden errors. In the second leg it was clear that Poysden was trying to shorten the game and push Squirrell out of position. This was working at times but Squirrell was still able to hit winners even from close to the table and off balance and this somewhat thwarted the Poysden tactics – a closer leg nonetheless.
The third leg was much tighter in the earlier stages with Poysden now hitting a few winners to match the Squirrell quota but come the business end from 7-8 down Poysden hit a couple into the net as Squirrell kept his composure and saw out the match for his inaugural Burnham Singles title. A very worthy winner.
A big thank you to everyone who competed or spectated over the course of the tournament week. But of course we would all like to thank the main organiser Tim Huxtable for a cracking job well done along with his sidekicks Alan Dadswell and Dan Anderson. Also major thanks to Jan Dadswell for her amazing efforts with the refreshments. Now back to the league contest.
