The Southport & District Table Tennis League held its Closed Championship Finals Night at St.Teresa's Club on Tuesday 9th February. There was a good crowd of about fifty spectators watching the events.
As usual the first matches to be played were the Open Singles semi-finals, the first of which was between Barry Crook and Paul Gittins.
Both players seemed to favour the backhand wing for most of the first game and we witnessed some excellent shots from both players with Paul narrowly winning 11-9. In the next game Barry took the honours with Paul trying to force the rallies to a conclusion too early, Barry winning 11-7. Paul regained the initiative in the fourth taking the game 11-7. Paul was ahead in the fourth with Barry trying to make a comeback to level the game only for Paul to run out a winner 11-8.
The next semi-final saw former Liverpool player Paul Hutchings playing the Liverpool University student and league newcomer Stewart Mudie. Stewart was trying to emulate his brother Andrew's efforts of two years ago when he reached the Singles Finals.
The first game saw Stewart take an early 7-3 lead with some brilliant stroke play on both wings but veteran Paul pulled it back to 9 all then Stewart won 11-9.
The next game went to Stewart who won 11-4 after Paul had an early lead of 4-2. His superb counterhitting and fierce forehand shots overwhelmed Paul. In the third Paul seemed to be working overtime just to stay on level terms. Stewart was easily coping with Pauls shots with his cool counterhitting
Division 3 Restricted Finalists Andy Hickey and Sam Lucas
Next up was the Third Division resticted final between clubmates Andy Hickey and Sam Lucas. Sam had beaten event favourite and clubmate Alan Nolan on Sunday so what followed was a surprise.
From the start young Sam looked nervous and made many errors on his forehand with Andy winning the first 11-7.
The next two games went much the same as the first with Andy trying to sportingly give junior player Sam some encouragement but to no avail Andy winning the last two games 5 & 4.
Open Doubles Finalists Luke McCall, Paul Hutchings,
Stewart Mudie and Dave Evans
Evans and Mudie took an early lead in the first only to be pegged backed by Hutchings and McCall to 9 all but eventually winning 11-9.
On paper Luke McCall appeared to be the weaker player of the quartet but he proved the opposite playing plenty of confident shots but to no avail his team narrowly being beaten in a close game 13-11.
Paul and Luke fought hard to take the third to 9 all but again with Stewart hitting some consistent shots they were defeated 11-9.
Division 2 Restricted Finalists Ben Aitken and Mendell Williams
The 2nd Division restricted final featured the lively and attacking player Ben Aitken against league newcomer Mendell Williams. What promised to be an interesting final proved not to be the case. On the one hand we hand young Ben with his all-out spin attack pitched against an experienced Mendell playing with long pimples on his backhand and short pimples on his forehand. After a close first game in which Ben seemed to have worked out the pimples on Mendell's bat he lost 12-10.
The last two games were lost 5 & 5 by a disillusioned Ben who never seemed to come to terms with the pimples.
Over 40's Finalists Barry Crook and Paul Hutchings
The Veterans final was contested by Barry Crook and Paul Hutchings, the two losing singles semi-finalists.
Pauls greater experience saw him through in the first, hitting some quality forehands to win 11-6. Barry came back to win the second game 7 by feeding off Paul's forehand topspin drives with his backhand blocks which forced Paul into errors. The third game was a hard fought affair which could have gone either way but Paul held his nerve to 13-11.
The fourth and what proved to be the final game was won by Paul who finally got his forehand going with Barry unable to return. 11-7.
Junior Finalists Luke McCall and Adam Choi
This was probably the best match of the night which also turned out to be the only five setter.
The opening game was very competative with both players going for their shots and Choi coming good in the end, winning 11-8.
The second proved to be another close game with Choi narrowly winning 12-10, McCall falling away towards the end.
In the third and fourth games Luke McCall played some excellent attacking table tennis with strong shots from both wings, winning 8 & 8.
Choi took the initiative in the fifth game and comfortably won game 4.
Over 55's Finalists Barry Crook and Dave Evans
This pair played each other twice on Sunday with each winning once. The first game went to Barry who played the more consistent shots and won 11-5. Dave's service, which is usually his strong point, was easily being returned by Barry who went on to win the next two games relatively easily 6 & 6.
Open Singles Finalists Paul Gittins and Stewart Mudie
Young title favourite Stewart Mudie soon took control of the match winning the first game comfortably 11-5. The next game went much the same way with the athletic Stewart playing all the shots in the book and again winning this game 6.
Paul had to step up several gears just to stay with Stewart and he played a much steadier game to stay at 9 all only for the younger player to take the last two points.
Stewart took the Opens Singles title thus emulating his brother's performance of two years ago.
Open Singles Winner - Stewart Mudie
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