Southport Table Tennis Club helping to regenerate table tennis in Southport

The ‘E’ team ( ‘E’ for effete-adj. exhausted, spent, worn out,but not all of us ) visited Formby on Friday 26th Oct. & were again the model of consistency by losing 9-1.

Despite another great win by Ken in his singles, a winning game by Norah & some determined battles in all sets the home team were comfortable winners.

The team continues to enjoy the matches & the friendly atmosphere in which they are played. Hopefully, the experience being gained will show positive results in the second half of the season and in the meantime efforts continue to be made to introduce other members of our large squad into the more demanding environment of competitive matches. To date seven members have made appearances.

As a result of Formby HT ‘E’ playing an ineligible player last week, the 3 sets in which he was involved have been awarded to us. This makes the result look slightly more respectable but we look forward to gaining a few more sets through our own efforts

On 24 October we played at the Holy Trinity church hall against the Holy Trinity ‘E’ team. We finally finished the games at 10-45pm, much to the chagrin of one of their team members who wanted to go to the pub.

We had an excellent evening, a friendly group, well matched teams with the score ending 5 sets each.

Andy Hickey retained his 100% record but was let down by the number 2 player who blamed a bad cold for his poor performance.

So far, so good this year probably won more than we’ve lost and we hope it continues.

Tom T

Southport ‘E’ ( E for embattled ) entertained Formby HT ‘E’ at home on Tuesday 16th Oct. and suffered their heaviest defeat to date, going down 0-10 against a very strong team.

For a variety of reasons Formby were unable to field their usual team and drafted in two very senior players in order to fulfil the fixture. The circumstances had been reported to the League and we were given a full explanation prior to the match.

It was agreed to play the match and leave the League to rule on any penalties to be imposed. Who knows? We may yet gain a creditable draw or, at least, a few sets in the ‘for’ column.

Notwithstanding the difference in class it was another enjoyable contest played in a very friendly spirit. Ken again carried the flag by returning the only game won. Len Constantino made his debut.

Southport “E” ( E for exiting no, not exciting, exiting ) met Paraplegics in the Anon Cup on Wednesday 10th. and  the hosts ensured that our Cup run did not go on and on.

Hope flickered briefly when Charles won the first game against Ian Littlewood but Ian responded fiercely and the set was lost by 3 games to 1.

The real hero again  was Ken whose singles victory over Ronnie Coutinho ensured the dreaded whitewash was avoided.

Despite the result it was an enjoyable match played in an excellent spirit — we’d just like to win one one day!

The ‘D’ team has a policy of rotating its players to give them experience, and on this occasion, it was Paul Lunan’s turn to take a break. With a total age for the ‘D’ team less than the table tennis playing experience of one of the ‘C’ team members (Tom Banton) they were always going to find it a daunting prospect. Seriously weakened by the absence of their coach and star player, the young lads of the junior team still put up a brave fight against their seniors.

Two of the sets went to 4 games and a further two went to 5, the last being a very close doubles set, in which Danny W and Ollie narrowly lost to Tom Banton and Alan Nolan. The final scoreline was 0-10 to the “visiting” ‘C’ team, but it could easily have been a bit closer. With the speed at which the juniors are progressing, by the time of the return fixture in January, such a result will be most unlikely!

One thing worthy of special mention is the spirit and good humour of the ‘young uns’ – naturally they don’t like losing, but they try not to show it, and they certainly don’t sulk when they lose – thank you, lads.

Alan

The ‘E’ team (‘E’ for eclectic ) travelled in hope to North Meols on Thursday 4th Oct. but despite valiant attempts to overcome the home side trundled home as losers by 9 sets to 1.

The scorecard achieved a modicum of respectability through Ken Ray’s great singles win and again there were some good rallies and many close games & sets.

Norah Fitzsimmons made her debut and threatened to show us all up by only narrowly losing her first game 11-13