DOMINATORS RETAIN THE LEAGUE CUP BY
A SINGLE POINT
The final of the League Cup was a real David and Goliath affair between the league
champions and current trophy holders the Dominators and fellow Waveney team the
Arrows who presently reside at the foot of the second division. However the
handicap competition is designed to balance the odds by offering a point
advantage to the underdogs, and with these two teams at opposite at ends of the
playing spectrum handicap point starts were a mountainous 15 to 18 points out
of 21, but even so this match this proved to be delicately balanced. The Arrows
started well with Stuart Faulkner beating Stuart Baxter in the third set, Tom Petifer destroying Luke Casewell,
and Lauren Jones plucking away at Martin Peek, to give them a 3-0 lead. But the
tables began to turn as all three Dominators climbed back level with three successive
wins until Petifier found holes in Peek’s defences winning both sets 21-9 / 21-9
and taking the lead back for the Arrows. It could have been all over in the
next game when Jones reclaimed an initial set and pulled back to within one
point of victory, but Baxter won the single remaining point so that everything
fell to the final game. Caswell stepped up to face Faulkner to decide the match
and promptly won the first set 21-19, but Faulkner pulled all square again
winning 21-20 in the second, and as the final deciding set became 20-20 all
fell to a final single point where luck cruelly swung the other way. By the
closest margins the Dominators retained the League Cup David Curtis Memorial
Trophy which was presented by Ernie Curtis.
More close
matches were fought in the first round of the team knockout. The Critters faced
the Hits with a 32 point advantage and managed to remain one step ahead. With
wins for both Graham Lawson and Chris Trindall it was
left to Gary Warnes to scratch just enough from the final
sets for the Critters to win by just 2 points. The Shakers meanwhile faced a
rough time against the Terminators when they could field only two players
drastically reducing their 176 advantage. But convincing wins for both Bernard Warnes and David Willis shook enough points from their sets
to claim the match by 14 points even with a missing player. The Shakers will
now face the Piranhas in the next round after they managed to restrict the
Merlin points and won by a mere 3 points. The Dominators found the Arrows a
more difficult target in their KO round match losing by 50 points thanks to a surprising
first set win for Kevin Jones against Paul Wilkinson. The Misfits beat the
Oddbods by 29 thanks to a set win for Jonathon Block against Chris Durrant. The Kites squeezed past the Conservatives with set
wins for Bob Quantrill, Kenny Carter and Phil Petifer.
While the Spartans smashed Sidewaves with wins for both Colin Fortescue and Thomas Baxter.
For further
information on League Table Tennis in
League Cup
Final:
Arrows 4
Dominators 5
Team KO
Round One Results
Misfits 404
Oddbods 375
Hits 314 Critters 316
Dominators 375 Arrows 425
Terminators 358
Shakers 372
Spartans 362 Sidewaves 281
Merlins 348 Piranhas 351
Conservatives
353 Kites 368
Presidents
Cup QF Result
Oddbods 8 Beacons
13
Team KO
Cup QF Draw
Shakers (+212)
v Piranhas
Arrows (+9)
v Misfits
Beacons
(+78) v Critters
Spartans v Kites
(+79)