Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 202
Dateline: 17 January 2026
Vets back to centre stage
The Club had 4 teams playing this week in Round 2 of the Liverpool & District Table Tennis League’s Frank Murphy, Veterans Handicap Cup competition. A competition in which the club has a very rich heritage and in which it is the current holder of the trophy.
Monday's Action
In action first was BSM 2 led by cup holding captain, Colin Turner. The visitors to Marine for this match were Maghull 5, who had a successful visit to Marine in Round 1 with a very close win over Julian Quirk’s BSM 1. The visitors had strengthened their side for this match by bringing in Olaolu Stephen Oba from Div 3 in place of Paul Andrews to join captain Ned Hassan & Denise Chorley. But this time they faced all 1st Div players with Matt Wilson & Barry Elliott joining Colin in the BSM line-up. But of course, the difference in levels brings with it handicap advantages. This year, the handicaps of Div 1 players have been significantly increased, which meant that the Maghull team started this match with a massive 196-point handicap advantage. Effectively meaning that the BSM side would have to win all 18 games and each one by approximately an 11-point margin. A very tall order! From the start there was little doubt that the Div 1 players would win all of the sets, but the question was could they win by a sufficient margin to clear the deficit? Amazingly, after 8 of the 9 sets the home team had cleared the deficit, meaning that the match would be decided by the final set of the night. Stephen did his very best to counter his Div 1 opponent, Colin, in this match but he hasn’t yet developed quite enough skills to fend him off. Colin took the set, meaning that BSM had won all 18 games, and with that the match by 296 points to 279. An excellent, hard fought, match. The Cup Holder was through to Round 3.
Below left, the BSM 2 Team of Colin Turner, Barry Elliott & Matt Wilson. Colin & Barry were both members of last season's cup winning team.
In the centre the Maghull 5 team of Stephen Oba, Ned Hassan & Denise Chorley.
And below right, the match card.
Thursday's Action
The remaining 3 matches involving the club were all on Thursday. BSM 3, led by Captain, Keith Hardman, received a walk-over in Round 1, but in this round they were drawn away to a decent Wavertree Labour 1 side, led by the effervescent Terry Jones. Keith made some interesting choices for this match, bringing in Steve Riley & Bernard Cooney, to join Div 5 regular Stuart Reid. This did mean however that his team would start with a significant handicap advantage, but that proved to be just 148 points, thanks to an extremely generous +54 handicap for Div 3 regular George Liu, compared to his fellow Div 3 players who were on +25, those extra 30 points would prove decisive in this match. There was little doubt that the home side would win all the games, as all play at a significantly higher level than the BSM team, but what part would the handicap play? It took until set 7 for the home side to clear the deficit and those extra points on the handicap of Liu then told, the home side going on to win by 60 points. It would have been a far more interesting situation had Liu been on a handicap consistent with his level!
To the left, the BSM 3 team of Bernard Cooney, Stuart Reid & Steve Riley. Above the match card for Wavertree Labour 1 v BSM 3.
Thursday's Action Continued
BSM 4, led by Danny Every, had a bye in Round 1, but for Round 2 faced a home draw with Sefton Park 1. It turned out that the two teams for this were very evenly matched in standards. But the Sefton Park team started with a +53-handicap advantage. For this one, Danny was joined by Keith Dudley and Ray Hibbs. There was some really good close games in this match, with both sides being evenly matched. But, it was the BSM team who seemed to have just that little bit extra and went on to win 15 out of the 18 games played. An excellent effort. That was enough to clear the handicap deficit and leave the BSM team 45 points ahead come the end of the last set. This has to go down as a really good result. There is great picture and video coverage ofthismatch on the Liverpool League Facebook page
On the left, the BSM 4 team, Keith Dudley, Ray Hibbs, & Danny Every. In the centre the Sefton Park 1 team of Russell Thornton, Ray Jones & Ian Findon and to the right the match score card.
Thursday's Action Continued
Finally, BSM 5, led by Dave Stoddern, were also in action visiting Waterloo & Bootle. The BSM team had already fought their way through a very close Round 1 match and it was clear that they were also up for this one. Dave was joined by Mehdi Eskoroochi and Amir Norouzzi and started the match with a 31 point handicap advantage, the level of this handicap indicating how relatively close the players in this match were. Indeed, the game scores also show this with each team winning 9 games. Really close sets and the scoring reflected that. In the end the BSM team started +31 ahead and were able to hold on to the whole of that advantage until the end, finishing up +36 points ahead! An excellent match, with Mehdi the top performer for BSM winning 4 out of 6 of his games, in what was a real team effort.
And in conclusion.......
A good week of cup table tennis, 3 teams through to the quarter final and the cup holders still in contention. Keep your eyes open for the next round.
Special thanks to those who have contributed pictures this week, and particularly the Ray Hibbs Photographic Studio for ongoing supply of pictures as well as brilliant picture coverage on the Liverpool League Facebook page.
