With last week set aside for the second round of the Guardian Cup, the Spalding and District Table Tennis League had a quiet evening with just two fixtures completed.
In the cup, Division One’s Outsiders faced second tier leaders TNC.
The latter have been in fine form in their first season back in the league, so it was not altogether surprising that they came out of the night winning three of the four games played.
However, this is a total points based competition so, with a handicap to add in to one side, TNC’s lead of 123-106 may be boosted by the handicapper or swung the other way.
In the same event, Mine’s a Pint faced Hit and Hope’s much improved Ping Wang.
With just two of the four games played, the Pinters have a narrow lead of 51-49.
Rusty Nails’ pair of Richard Matthews and John Hayter, second in the lower tier, established a comfortable lead of 66-47 over Nets n Edges’ only player with the other two games to come.
Earlier in the evening, the latter faced South Holland in a postponed Division One match.
Edgers, sat at the foot of the table, unsurprisingly went down in straight ends to the current leader’s pair of Jean White and John Gilbert. Still, he at least had the satisfaction of forcing a deuce in one end and pushing hard in another.
At the end of the evening he also met TJ’s Jack Sawyer in the Marylands Cup.
Despite conceding the first end, Sawyer came through in the end to take his team to the final.
Holland were also busy concluding a league match against Underdogs. It was just as well they were holding a winning lead as Underdogs’ Kelvin Preville won both his games in three.
Finally, Holland’s other pairing of Gilbert and Piotr Olstowska brought forward a match with Mine’s a Pint.
In taking all the games in straight ends they stretched their lead to a title-winning 53 points with two matches to complete.
Rivals Jokers, Moulton SE and JDM can only reach a maximum of 51, 50 and 51 respectively.
