(Picture Credit - Andrew Baggaley)
The 2015-16 season was quite satisfactory for my table tennis team: Nemesis. Brian Lomas, Phil "The Swerve" Sharpe and I finished 4\7 in a highly competitive Division 2. The Green Horns Old Boys pipped Colin Woodford’s Carrera Engineering to the League Title.
For me personally, it was
a disappointing league campaign however. I finished 12th in the ratings with 47.17%. A
run of 9 individual defeats near the end of the season didn’t help. Yet as a
reserve in Division One I beat Individual Champion-to-be Pawel the Pole
during my bad patch! That was nearly as good as Jon Daly defeating our young
Grimsby Lady Champion Chloe Lingard in a Division Three match.
On the 6th of
March I took part in The Closed Championship. I decided to “have a go” by
switching from my “Goldilocks” Sriver 1.7 MM bat to my much faster Mark V.
Because I use 11 different bats in practice, there is a myth about: that I constantly
change bats. Wrong. Switching to Mark V was a rare event for me in competitive
play.
Anyway, I put on a decent show in that Closed, even against Premiership
players Rob Sampson, Mike Bailey, Brian Allison and Stewart Dean. In fact I
knocked Stewart out of the Vetts with some great blocking.
So when I entered the D2
Tournament on the 9th of March I went in using my Mark V. I knocked
up with Michael Louca and afterwards joked, “See you in the final”.
Coincidentally I made a similar joke at the Huddersfield Poly Closed in 1971
and actually reached that final (to be outclassed by a good pusher).
I later learnt that I was
seeded 6\8 for this D2 tournament based on league averages. Would have seeded
myself accordingly to be honest. But hey, I was there to “have a go”.
My night started really
badly. In our group I lost my first match 2-3 to my own team-captain Brian!!!
Some of his blocking was amazing. I got out of breath trying to beat him, to no
avail. Final score: 12-10, 10-12, 11-8,
5-11, 5-11 to him.
Afterwards my mind went
back to that Huddersfield Poly tournament: then I’d lost the opening match in a
shock defeat, but later beaten one of the favourites to get out of the group (thus
eliminating that favourite too). Could I do it again?
Next up, I got thrashed
in the first game with Paul Heald. But then I had a stroke of genius. I was still
using my Mark V bat. And the last time I used a similar bat in the league
against Paul I got wiped out. Clearly he loves facing pace. So I softened my
hands and tried to play plenty of gentle, floaty shots. He fell apart. In the
final game I led 6 or 7 nil but then survived a big comeback to nick it. 3-11,
11-8, 11-4, 12-10 to me.
Paul actually kicked a
barrier in frustration at the end. Tim had earlier kicked my bag in a fit of temper
after losing his first game to Paul. (He thought it was his bag)!
Tim beat Paul in the end.
But I defeated Tim 3-0!!! Found Tim tough early doors as he played a very tight
push game. 12-10, 11-8, 13-11 to me.
The group phase ended
with Tim narrowly beating Brian to reach the Semis. That left me top of the
group! Had Brian beaten Tim then he would have topped the group on
the “head to head” rule.
Anyway, Tim faced Terry
Simister in his Semi and beat him. Terry had won the “other” group, even
beating 2nd placed Colin. Mark “Deadly Serve” Gibney and Michael
Louca were eliminated in that other group.
In my semi I did okay
against Colin in my first 2 games but lost them “convincingly”. But then I
nicked the 3rd from 3-7 down! Could I repeat that? Yes I could!!! I
got off to a great start in the 5th but Colin came back before I
found the shots to clinch it. I won 8-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7. An extremely
rare win for me over Colin.
At the end of my semi I
was thoroughly knackered. The final against Tim was a hard slog. My legs were
very heavy, presumably with lactic acid. So I had to try to win with skill. I
took a 2-1 game-lead, but the bugger hit back.
Tim set off well in the
deciding game. But I clawed my way back and then broke clear. Tim hit back
again. The match finished with an edge from me not far from the far left corner
from my viewpoint. I’d won 11-8!!! Final score: 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8.
Tim was runner up again
having lost in the D3 Final last season. Okay, so a lucky finish from me, but
overall I felt I deserved it. Echoes of my D3 Title win in 1999: there I beat chop-defender
Braithwaite in the final having defeated him convincingly in our group. But
this time I was utterly shocked at what had taken place. I could hardly credit
it.
In 2011 Leeds Rhinos finished 5th in Super League (Rugby) but
won the Grand Final against St. Helens: my performance was comparable. Not
quite a Leicester City but still… My first reward: a massive blood-blister on
my left big-toe and very sore muscles etc.
Even now I can scarcely
believe what happened. But I’ll take it. Tim actually attacked me more in that
final. Unlike me, he was able to beat Colin’s team-mates Mark and Tom Parrott
in the league. And he walked away with the team league title trophy.
The D2 Tournament was
easily the most competitive of them all. This was borne out by the fact we
finished way after all the other “divisionals”.
This coming season I will
defend my title. Colin, Mark, Tim etc. will be playing in the Division One
event however. I think that underlines what an upset it was this year. As I
say, I’ll take it.
Paul Butters
