Spalding and District Table Tennis League heavyweights Bladerunners were stunned by second-tier side Mine’s a Pint in a cracking Marylands Cup final.
Played over three ends to 31 from a handicap, the Division One table toppers gave away between 15 and 23 points in each end. The first two ends still went to the third, with honours shared.
However, the ‘Pinters’ took the doubles in two, only to be pulled back in the third singles, but won the final game. So, as often happens, the newcomers took a title, this time Jeremy Hitcham and Andrew Hay.
On the same night the pair also made it to the semi-finals of the Guardian Cup. This is played off zero to 33 with a hidden handicap added. The losers this time were another newcomer, Tornados, who were too favoured by the handicapper. They only received seven, which was not enough to impact on a deficit of 57 over the table.
The Pinters will now meet Casey’s Pingers, who lost out in play 73-132 to Outsiders – but had a generous 75 given to take them through 148-132.
Bladerunners had also reached that stage with a win over South Holland. Tomascz Dobrzyn was in fine form, winning his ends by 20 points to effectively kill the tie. Even with the handicap, Holland lost 132-93.
They face Castle Sports next, after they edged a close match with JAG. Honours were even in games and JAG led by eight over the table, but the added 15 Castle received swung the match in their favour 127-120.
In Division One, JAG brought forward a match with Defenders to fill a spare week. In a close match where all the singles went to four or five ends, Martyn Green took two wins while Reece Kerry and James Gibson scored one each. It took the doubles to settle the result, which ended 3-2 to Defenders.
Bladerunners completed one of their delayed matches against Haz Beans for yet another 5- 0 victory. Meanwhile, South Holland were registering the same score against Outsiders to maintain contact and confirm second place.
Earlier in the evening, Dobrzyn had defeated Colin Vertigan 11-5, 11-5, 11-9 in the Supremes semi-final and then retained his title with an 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9 victory over second seed John Gilbert.
They are scheduled to meet again in the Doubles final after Dobrzyn and David Gibson won through their semi with a 3-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8 win over Vertigan and Tony Cooper.
