Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 203
Dateline: 14 February 2026
Cup Semi-Finals
Cards, hearts, flowers and chocolates might be the order of the day this Valentine's Day but we are celebrating with a look at the semi-finals of the respective Divisional Cup competitions in the Liverpool & District Table Tennis League, in which the Club had 3 teams in action.
The Readman Cup - Division 1
The week started with the 1st team in action in the Division 1 Divisional Cup and facing the Crosby High A Junior team, who currently sit second in the division and have been pushing hard to topple their 1st team from the top of the table. Although ‘technically’ a junior team these Crosby High players are far from ‘junior’ in their skill and playing experience as is obvious from the fact that they are contending for the 1st Division title! But what a fight the BSM players put up. Maximising the fact that in the cup captains can pick which set to call on they spotted a slight weakness in their opponents at No.3 and each BSM player was able to capitalise, so that after 6 sets it was 3:3. But none of the BSM players were able to dent the ambitions of the top two Crosby players, Fraser Massey and Charlie Williams. Despite some very close games it was this duo who won out to leave the final score at 3:5 in favour of the Crosby High A team. A really close match and extremely well played by the B|SM trio of Josha Matthewman, Barry Elliott and Captain, Colin Turner.
The BSM 1st team of Josha Matthewman, Colin Turner & Barry Elliott plus the match card showing just how close this match was.
The Forrest Cup - Division 4
Both of the club's fourth division teams gained a semi-final place in the Division 4 Divisional Cup. And both faced really tough semi-final draws.
The D Team of James Sullivan, Andrew Armstrong (Captain), Danny Every & Charlie King, faced the top side in the division, Maghull G Jnr. On this occasion the Maghull side were without one of their top juniors, Ignacy Wierszyllowski, who has been in Portugal with Table Tennis England representing England, a terrific honour (there is a great picture of Ignacy & his brother Steffan on the TTE website at WTT Youth Contender Vila Real 2026 - Table Tennis England ).
Nevertheless the Maghull team still had a very strong side. After 4 sets the scores were even at 2:2 with wins for James & Danny for the BSM team. And after 6 sets it was 3:3 with Charlie getting on the scoresheet for BSM. The Maghull No.1, former BSM junior Keshav Harave, then took set 7 leaving him unbeaten in the singles, to make it 4:3 to the home team. In fact none of the BSM players could get the better of the top two Maghull juniors, Keshav & Aldrin George, both winning two singles. At this stage the home team made the rather unusual decision to call on the doubles bringing together their top two juniors, Keshav & Aldrin to face James & Danny. And what a terrific, and pivotal, set this was with the BSM pair coming through at 9:11 in the fifth end to even the match score. The final set of the night saw Danny return to the table to face the Maghull adult player, Alan Chan. Despite a slight hiccup in game 2, Danny sailed through this to win his second singles of the night and give the BSM side a totally unexpected 4:5 victory. A great match. Pictures for this match courtesy of the Ray Hibbs Photographic Studio, and more great coverage from him on the Liverpool League Facebook page.
Above - left, the BSM D team, Charlie King, James Sullivan, Danny Every & Andrew Armstrong.
Above right, the Maghull G Jnr side of Alan Chan, Jin Chen Wong (sub, Keshav Harave, & Aldrin George.
And to the right the match score card.
The E team faced Sefton Park A who currently sit second in the divisional table. This match was about the sets that got away! The Sefton Park team were led by Jordan Abbott, a very strong player at this level! But the home team were able to limit him to just 1 set. Pat Espinosa is another very strong player for Sefton park at this level, and unsurprisingly he won both of his singles. Tony McDonald for the home team took an excellent 5 game win over Joe Tighe, but Martin Vines couldn't repeat this result in his match against Joe, loosing out over 5 games. In the battle of the 'Jones' it was Ray who pulled the fifth game out of the bag to give the visitors the five wins they needed for the match. An excellent match with the second placed team going through to the Final 1:5.
Above - left, the BSM E - Gwyn Powell-Wilde, Richie Jones, Tony McDonald & Martin Vines.
On the right, the Sefton Park A team, Jordan Abbott, Ray Jones, Joe Tighe & Pat Espinosa.
And to the left, the match score card.
And in conclusion.......
A week with some really excellent table tennis and very close competition, with all teams putting in top performances. And, one team through to a final - perhaps against all expectations! That match, featuring Sefton Park A v BSM D should be on Friday 16th April - so book your tickets now, it should be a great match!