When it comes to competitions, the Spalding and District Table Tennis League’s (sponsored by Vital Recruitment) handicapper is always at the mercy of fortune and form.
This was the case with last week’s matches, which involved two handicap competitions – the Marylands Cup and the Guardian Cup.
In the Guardian Cup, teams play four singles to 33 and then a handicap, hidden until then, is added.
The holders Castle Sports, though with different members, faced Division One side Defenders – who unsurprisingly won over the table 132-74. The handicap was another 52 for Castle, so the final score was 132-126 and the holders were out.
Practice makes Perfect and Casey’s Pingers shared the ends so that the result was closer at 120-98. With Pingers received an added 29, they took the tie by a narrow seven-point margin.
The Division Two pairing of Insidious and A Win For A Curry saw honours shared in ends and just seven points in favour of the former, but an added 18 gave the match to the Curry pair.
Outsiders’ Joe Beadle and Keith Davey, meanwhile, faced a huge task against the runaway league leaders Bladerunners and went down heavily in three legs.
However, Blades were playing a double fixture and the effort finally caught up with them. They surprisingly lost one leg en-route to a 128-62 win on the table, with a massive handicap of 82 proving to be plenty to go with the upset as Outsiders progressed 144-128.
In what was generally agreed would be a close match between JAG and JDM, the form book went right out of the window and the handicapper was found out. JAG’s James Gibson and Reece Kerry, who seem to have hit a hot streak, took all four ends – which was the first upset – and ended the game leading by 132-57.
The handicapper had agreed and had not given either team any extra points, so the result stood.
Two other matches had started, but only one pair of singles had been played.
South Holland trail One from the Past by 65-52 and Hope for the Best lead Saunter Together 66-45.
Two matches left over from the Marylands Cup second round were also played.
Practice Makes Perfect met A Win For A Curry earlier in the evening, with Garry Wilkinson (starting on 17) and Hannah Gilbert (25) facing Phil Knowles (21) and Dylan Taylor (25). They took the lead twice, but were pegged back each time before Curry took the last to go through.
Sasha Martin (0) and Dave Moore (3), of One From The Past, then found Guntars Briedes (18) and Frank Hunt (22) of Castle Sports just too much in their match.
Having taken the first game, they then lost the next three, and the match, before picking up a consolation point in the last.
More straightforward competition saw Bladerunners and Haz Beans contesting the Moulton Shield final, which is played under the old scoring system.
Not surprisingly, Tomascz Dobrzyn continued his unbeaten run to take two points, while the Haz Beans pair took the other singles to leave the match poised for the deciding doubles.
