Although, inevitably, much of the focus of top class local table tennis will be in the higher divisions, occasionally a touch of class will occur lower down, as it did in the Division Four Leicester & District League catch up match between Knighton Park VII and Nomads II.
The end was a fitting 5-5 draw but along the way was a real humdinger between Park’s Eddie Kwok on his way to a maximum and the canny Laszlo Kocsis. Kwok won in five and had the spectators in awe at the top class play by both players.
Mike Smith won one for KP while Kocsis and Roger Burley took two apiece for Nomads, Mick Harvey one. Even KP’s Bill Walmsley got in on the act by partnering Kwok to a doubles success for a deserved share.
Top individual performance of the week came from Arnesby’s Ian Brown in Division One. Graded at 241, he defeated David Grundy (266), Andy LeButt (262) and Chris Brewer for a terrific maximum. Alas his team went down 7-3.
It’s League Cup time with disappointment in the top event, the Rose Johnson Cup, in that there have been two defaults and one bye so far into the semi-finals, with the other five events showing more interest.
At the other end of the scale it was the Lillian Williamson Trophy for players graded below 115, which is, in effect, bottom two third of division five and bottom third of division four, where there were three 5-4 results in the quarter-finals and a really worthwhile event on show.
Abbots Road A beat Winstanley Wizards B by the slimmest margin thanks to three from Dave Rana, including a 3-2 (11-7, 10-12, 12-14, 11-8, 12-10) victory over Kenny Obilaso, Uzdir Sheikh supporting with the other two. Eiz Eddin Al Katrib took two for the Wizards but could find no way around Rana.
A 5-4 win also for Abbots Road B over Knighton Park B. This time it was a maximum from Ketan Patel that led the way, while Bradley Lapworth weighed in with an excellent brace to overcome two by Phil Wood, one each from Dave Cooper and Tony Scarborough.
In Nomads’ 5-4 victory over Syston Casuals, a very good one at that, the victors were just that deeper in depth with two each from Roger Burley and Terry Highton while Phil Tomlin notched the all-important fifth. For Syston, Wes Glauds and Tony Burns each won two.
The Frith Trophy, for players grading under 140, had Knighton Park A in tip top form against Regent Sports, Chris Parmar-Saville, Alec Downes and Martin Pember winning 5-0. A closer contest was the Electricity 5-2 victory over KP’s B team for whom Steve Bessant won the two. For the Sparks Dave Silvester, Edward Brown and Dave Cox all did their bit.
There was a 5-4 scoreline in the Saracen Cup for players below 170 when Winstanley Wizards’ Dan Andrews almost ploughed a lone furrow in winning three against Great Glen, the latter just taking it thanks to two apiece from Kelvin Herbert and Cliff Smith and one by Kev Trueman. Kelsey Andrews won the other for the Wizards.
Brajesh Patel recorded a great maximum for Knighton Park in their 5-2 success over Syston Casuals while Richard Anderson won Regent Sports’ only two when Abbots Road beat them 5-2, Steve Pratt, Richard Martin and Bhulesh Rathod doing the business for Abbots.
Only one actual result in the Corrall Cup (under 210) when Knighton Park B saw off Great Glen 5-2. Alex Mason won the two he played for Glen but Rayan Kotecha, Mike Lapworth and Patrick Cox clinched five between them.
Meanwhile, Knighton Park’s A team had to concede against Electricity while the two Syston Casual teams still have to play each other.