The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
James Gibson and Henry Sharman got their hands on Spalding and District Table Tennis League’s (sponsored by Vital Recruitment) Val Mackey Doubles trophy.
In this competition, entries are paired from the league’s ranking tables.
The beauty of this event is the pairing of inexperienced players with both stronger and/or more experienced partners – and frequently a little coaching is added to the evening’s play.
This year 24 members took part and new winners were guaranteed as neither of last year’s pair attended.
Two groups of six pairs played an all-play-all best-of-three ends, with the top two pairs going through to the semi-finals.
No one achieved five wins in either group, though both winners took four.
In Group A that was Richard Matthews and Hannah Gilbert, while three pairs – Richard Hammond and Tom Coley, Joe Beadle and Dylan Taylor and Garry Wilkinson and Phil Knowles – tied on three.
On countback of results between them, Beadle and Taylor defeated both rivals and went through to face the B winners.
That was Keith Davey and James Coote, who scored four. Behind them, two pairs – Allan Lewis and Andrew Hay and James Gibson and Henry Sharman – were all tied on three.
The latter won their round robin match, so progressed to meet Matthews and Gilbert.
Davey and Coote took a close tie with Beadle and Taylor 4-11, 12-10, 11-9 to reach the final, while Gibson and Sharman progressed more comfortably, winning 11-7, 11-8 against the Matthews/Gilbert pair.
The final was a match worthy of its status.
Played over five legs, Davey and Coote took the first, lost the second and third but levelled in the fourth.
They then led 5-2 at the turn round in the fifth, only to have to come back from two match points down to level again.
However, Gibson and Sharman held their nerve and won three of the next four points to emerge as winners 5-11, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 13-11.
