Jason Fleming reports:
A number of faces, old and new, were in action across the three divisions in week 1 of the Dumfries Table Tennis League 23-24.
Gaulty Towers and Smashing Pumpkins are both top of Division 1 on 5 points, by virtue of commanding victories against The Spinners and Netflicks respectively. Jason F of Gaulty Towers won his singles and doubles matches comfortably without dropping a set, though his teammate Graham Gault was made to work hard against Brian Kirkpatrick in a five set tussle, facing a torrent of backhands that even Mr Kreanga himself would have been proud of. Eventually the Kreanga-esque backhands dried up and Graham was able to prevail, allowing his side to sit top of the table on game difference.
Smashing Pumpkins were able to ‘disarm’ their opponents Netflicks through a resounding 5-0 victory: Paul Dawson winning both his singles and doubles matches comfortably. His teammate, Shannon Brown, had a cracking game with Netflicks’ Gordon Duff which went all the way to the fifth, including a third set which went to 19-17! Shannon won 3-2 in the end, giving her team the perfect start.
Lastly, the reigning and defending champions, Top Bananas, were in action, playing against The Spinners in a game brought forward a week. They had a solid 4-1 win in the end, with Kay picking up a consolation point for his team through a good win against Maria De Silva. Top Bananas’ Dylan De Silva decided that he did not just want to convincingly win all his matches, but also to momentarily attempt to incapacitate his opponents through his smashes, with poor Brian and his gut being the victim after being struck in three consecutive points.
Elsewhere across the divisions, the Table Toppers, comprised of Anne Borrowdale and James Hutchinson are, would you believe it, the table toppers this week in Division 2. Their team were ran close against youngsters Cory Dawson and Isaac Ishmael of Two Slips and a Gully who put in a more than respectable performance: Although the score finished 4-1 in the end to Table Toppers, the youngsters won the doubles and James needed all his pimply wiles to see off both boys 3-2.
Elsewhere in the division, The Owd Coots of Raymond Pirrie and Steven Cussell won 4-1 against Colin McGlynn and Phil Jones of Sultans of Spin. Colin won a close opener against Steve, before OC reeled off four consecutive matches to finish the first week in second place on game difference. Time will tell if Steve’s tactic of stealing all the match balls so other teams are unable to fulfil their fixtures will pay dividends – we shall see. Two further matches took place in Division 3, with Chuckle Chums and Titans winning their matches 4-1 against Falcons and Double Trouble respectively. Jane Shearn and Jean Campbell were undefeated in singles for CC, while Evan Robertson won both his singles and doubles matches for Titans to give them a strong start to the season. All of the players in this division are newcomers to the league and it will be exciting to see how this division progresses over the season.
For further details of the results and tables, please see https://www.tabletennis365.com/Dumfries.
