The summer team handicap competition organised by the Leicester & District League has reached the semi-final stage with two wildly different results.
First of all Group B had to be finalised with KP Nutters still able to progress through should they beat Casualties by a margin of 15-5, by way of games average.
In the event, KP won but only 11-9, thanks mainly to five from six by Steve Bessant, which meant that three teams finished on the same point count, resulting in KP missing out. Joining Casualties in the last four were Electric City who finished top on games average.
Come the semi-final they were probably wondering if it was all worth it as they were on the wrong end of an absolute, and unprecedented, pounding from No Parking, who had topped Group A.
The final score was an astonishing 20-0. The No Parking trio of Andy Searle, Lucky Obi and George McClurkin were all giving points away all round, ranging from 4 up to 12 per game.
Possibly Electric City’s best chance of a game came in the first set when Andy Searle just got the better of Dave Silvester 22-20, 22-20, and there were several other deuce games along the way all, of course, going in favour of the winners.
No Parking’s three players all have ideal controlling styles for handicaps, all being in the groove through the whole match. The Electric trio, Silvester, Bryan Moylan and Ian Knight, were sporting enough to go on to the bitter end instead of calling it a day at 11-0, after all, the whole idea is to play table tennis. Believe it or not, all the games were very close.
The other match was much closer when Abbots All Stars faced Casualties with the first three sets, all best of two in this format, finished 1-1 before Ross Adams put Abbots ahead 5-3 by beating Tony Burns. A 3-1 scoreline in the doubles, Fahed Sacoor given the nod here for Abbots, made it 8-4.
It was all over bar the shouting when Vishal Parmar made it 10-4 by defeating Wes Glauds and it was left to Adams to take the first against Nick Bishop for a winning lead, extended to 13-7 at the end.
So, the final will pitch the flying No Parking against Abbots All Stars, both teams having great experience in depth.