Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 201
Dateline: 06 December 2025
Return of the Vets Cup
In the Liverpool & District Table Tennis League, the Veterans Handicap Cup is always a popular competition for the club’s teams. Especially as the club has such a tremendous track record in the competition and is the current holder of the Frank Murphy Cup.
The club was once again able to enter 6 teams into the competition, and 4 were due to play this week in Round 1. As it turned out BSM 3 didn’t need to play a stroke, as their expected opponents Arriva North West 2 were unable to field a team resulting in a walkover. That meant 3 teams through to the next round before a match was played – both BSM 2 and BSM 4 received a bye.
The Action
The first match of the week involved BSM 1 playing Maghull 5 at Marine. The BSM team led by Julian Quirk consisted of an all division 2 line-up of Julian, Dave Aimson and Monica Coogan. They faced a mixed division 3 and 5 Maghull team, led by former BSM player Ned Hassan who was joined by Denise Chorley & Paul Andrews. The difference in levels between the players naturally meant there would be a handicap advantage for the Maghull team. That difference proved to be 180 points, an extremely generous advantage! Meaning the home side needed to win each and every set by a margin of at least 20 points. A very tall order. The match started well with the home side taking the first 3 sets and almost meeting the target of 60 points off the deficit. However, the visiting No.1 Ned Hassan was determined to make it as difficult as possible for the home team to achieve their goal. Taking a game in set 4 he stopped the deficit reduction. Once again, the home side struck back taking the next four sets leaving them within 11 points of a win with 1 set to play. But up stepped Ned again for the final set off the night. And once again he pulled off the unexpected taking the first game. Dave Aimson fought back taking the second, but it wasn’t enough, Ned had won by 4 points, which when added to the 11 advantage at the start of the set meant they had triumphed by 15 points. All credit to the BSM team for reducing 165 points from the massive handicap advantage, but in the end, it was two games dropped out of 18 played that made the difference between the teams. A very good match.
The BSM team who are the current holders of the Frank Murphy Veterans Handicap Cup.
Below left, the BSM 1 Team of Julian Quirk, Monica Coogan & Dave Aimson, sporting their new club shirts.
In the centre the Maghull 5 team of Ned Hassan, Paul Andrews & Denise Chorley.
And below right, the match card.
The Action
Next up was BSM 5, a mixed team of division 2, 3 & 4 players, led by Dave Stoddern, who was joined by Mehdi Eskoroochi and Amir Norouzzi. Their opponents Rainford 1 with 2 division 3 players Geoff Hough & Paul Melling joined by regular Wigan League player Ian Mason, playing his first season in the Liverpool League. Being a new player to the Liverpool League Ian seems to have attracted a fairly generous handicap! The result being that the visitors started the match with a small advantage of 10 points. Which effectively meant the match would be decided by the play on the table and not the handicaps. The first two sets were shared 1 each, the next two fell narrowly to the visitors and the 5th was exactly even. Very close, so that after 5 sets it was 5 games each and the visitors remained ahead on handicap by 18 points. But an amazing performance by the BSM players in the last 4 sets gave them 6 out of the 8 games, and just enough points to clear the deficit, even though they were still 15 behind going into the last set. The final score 419:411 in favour of BSM. An excellent match and a terrific performance by the BSM trio.
Above left, the BSM 5 team of Amir Norouzzi, Dave Stoddern & Mehdi Eskoroochi; In the centre the Rainford 1 team of Paul Melling, Geoff Hough & Ian Mason; and on the right the match card.
The Action
The final match of the week involved BSM 6, led by Gwyn Powell-Wilde, who faced Maghull 3 a team of mixed division 3 & 5 players. Gwyn was joined by Anthony McDonald, but unfortunately did not have a third player for the match! With a handicap cup match it is almost impossible to pull off a win without a full team and a handicap disadvantage! There was however some very good table tennis in the 6 sets played with both teams winning 6 games each. Very even, suggesting that if the home team had had a full side this might have been a very close tie. After those 6 sets BSM were ahead 214:204, but once the handicap plus the free points from the 3 sets conceded were added on there was only one winner, Maghull 3. A slightly disappointing end to the week for BSM but a good week for Maghull - two visits to BSM and two wins!
Gwyn in action at Marine - we don't have a picture of Anthony or the visiting team; followed by the match card - some good table tennis played, but a third player might have made all the difference!
And in conclusion.......
A good week of cup table tennis, 4 teams through to the next round and some big players - including the holders, still to appear. Watch this space!