Twelve year old Matthew Fields was the surprise winner of the second division competition of the Divisional Singles played at the Hilton Centre last week. It is his first season in Division Two but, the Hilton youngster beat some very experienced players along the way to become probably the youngest player to win a divisional competition. After winning through the group stages, he beat the top Nomads player Dave Holden in the quarter final over four games, and followed with a semi-final win over Hilton D’s Alan Bradshaw 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5. In the other semi-final, Nomads’s Brett Haslam came out on top against Jimmy Hewitt of Coburg 11-3,11-7,11-13,11-9. But in the final young Matthew, who played perhaps his best table tennis so far this season, scored an excellent victory once again over four games 11.7, 7.11, 11.9, 11.7
In the Premier Division competition, nine payers were spilt into two groups. Wharton’s Barry Elliott was unbeaten in his group and went on to beat Phil Biggs from Hilton Tameside 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 in the semi-final. In the other group, Hilton Tameside’s Bolton closed champion Jake Shaw won through to the semi-final despite losing to Nigel Hallows, along with Ron Durose of Little lever A. In the semi-final, Jake lost the first game and was 1-5 down in the second before rallying to beat Ron over five games. The final was a repeat of last season’s Closed Championships with Jake again beating Barry in three games 11-9, 11-9, 11-8.
Only six players played in the Division One round robin competition. The winner was Nomad’s Dennis Collier, with Marc Townsend of St Catherine’s B the runner up
Nine players entered the Division Three competition which was spilt into two groups. In the semi-finals Hilton F’s Garry Hibbert beat Jean Smart of Hilton G in straight games 11-6, 11-6, 11-6, and Alan Hibbert of BEN B also won straight games 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 over Adam Smart. In the final Alan beat Garry 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.
Division Four was the best supported with an entry of twenty players, the majority juniors. Played in five groups, two juniors made it through to the semi-finals. Matthew Leach of Farnworth TTC who lost to Hilton I’s Malcolm Rose 11-2, 11-6, 12-10,while Sam Evans, also a Farnworth TTC junior, put in a very creditable performance before losing to Andrew Morey of Hilton J over five games. 11-4, 5-11, 10, 12, 11-8, 5-11. In the final Andrew came out on top, defeating Malcolm in three straight games 11-5, 15-13, 11-5.
Farnworth table Tennis Club is based at St James Sports College, Farnworth under the guidance of Andrea Holt, the ETTA development officer for the North West . It operates a Friday night session from 7pm-9pm, when anyone interested in playing table tennis is welcome to attend. There are three resident ETTA qualified coaches in attendance, and Andrea is looking to develop more coaches, so if there are any players in the Bolton league interested in gaining their coaching qualification please contact Andrea at the centre, or through the league match secretary.
Results
Premier Division.
Winner Jake Shaw
Runner-up Barry Elliott.
Division One
Winner Dennis Collier
Runner up Marc Townsend
Division Two
Winner Matthew Fields
Runner up Brett Haslam
Division Three
Winner Alan Hibbert
Runner up Gary Hibbert
Division Four
Winner Andrew Morey
Runner up Malcolm Rose.