Another excellent Bexhillians Table Tennis Club tournament ran on Sunday June 2 at the Bexhill Youth & Community Centre. There were 20 entrants and the day provided a feast of table tennis.

Starting at 9am the four Open Singles groups saw Nathan Darby, Kevin Rowe, Bashar Ubaid, Bob Lowe, Owen Brown, Andy Panayi, Ryan Heselden and Danny Rickaby gain places in the knockout stages of the competition.

The quarter-finals saw Darby, Heselden, Brown and Ubaid go through to the semi-finals without too much of a challenge. However, the semi-finals produced some stunning table tennis and closely contested matches with Darby overcoming Hesleden 12-10 in the fourth end after losing the first game, final score 5-11, 11-7, 13-11, 12-10. In the other match a real battle ensued with Ubaid  clinching it 3-1 (11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 15-13).

The final was set with the clash between the top two seeds and resulted in Ubaid taking the title for the first time 3-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7), defeating Darby, the previous winner.

The ever popular Open Drawn Doubles always throws up some interesting pairings and the day proved no exception. Group 1 saw Alison Jordan and Bashar Ubaid, and, Owen Brown and Sue Pingram progress, Group 2 had Nathan Darby and Trevor Towner plus Andy Panayi and Danny Rickaby reach the knockouts whilst Group 3’s James Gorridge and Bob Lowe with Martin Richards and Keith Lindsay also qualified for the latter stages.

The two quarter-finals saw victory for Panayi and Rickaby after a very tight match against Gorridge and Lowe while in the other half of the draw Brown and Pingram saw off Richards and Lindsay in three straight. On to the penultimate matches which saw a 3-1 victory for Jordan and Ubaid over Panayi and Rickaby (11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11) and a win for Darby and Towner over Brown and Pingram 3-2 (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 2-11, 12-10).

The final was a more one sided affair and Jordan and Ubaid were crowned the champions with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-8) win over Darby and Towner, giving Ubaid a double victory on the day.

A big thank you to everyone who supported the tournament again which was played in the best of spirit and with great sportsmanship. Thank you too to all who helped on the day in various capacities.

If anyone is interested in playing table tennis in Bexhill and would like to join the club then please contact Trevor Towner on 07854 670683. Club nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays and coaching sessions are available for both juniors and adults.