Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 204
Dateline: 14 March 2026
One in Three!
In the Liverpool & District Table Tennis League the quarter-final stage has been reached in the Frank Murphy Veterans Handicap Cup, a competition for teams of all standards of players over the age of 40 and in which the club has a rich history as well as being the current holder of the trophy. Three teams from the club were in action.
Forgotten!
BSM 2, led by the current trophy holder Colin Turner, were due to play Wavertree labour 1 at Marine on Wednesday. However, the expected visitors failed to arrive, and it transpired that they had ‘forgotten’ the day of the match! An early night for Colin and his team of Barry Elliott and Matthew Wilson.
The BSM 2 Team of Colin Turner, Barry Elliott & Matt Wilson. Still bidding to hold onto the Frank Murphy Cup - shown above.
Above left: BSM 4 - Ray Hibbs, Captain Danny Every and Keith Dudley.
Above: Maghull 1, Sue Venner, Ritchie Venner and Pat Merry.
And to the left the match scorecard.
There is great video coverage of this match, courtesy of the Ray Hibbs Photographic Studio, on the Liverpool League Facebook page.
A 'Merry' Dance!
BSM 4, led by Danny Every, faced a tricky visit to Maghull to play Maghull 1, led by top 1st Division player, Ritchie Venner. Ritchie was joined by his wife, Sue, and relative newcomer to table tennis and vastly improved, Pat Merry. Who came with a fairly generous handicap for her current ability. Making a team that spanned all five divisions of the league. Danny was joined by Keith Dudley and Ray Hibbs and it was the BSM team who started with a slight handicap advantage of 66 points. With Ritchie knocking off 68 points from the difference in his first two sets, after 6 sets the Maghull team had cleared the handicap disadvantage and were 9 points ahead. Then, when neither Keith nor Ray could overcome their female opponents, Ritchie simply had to close out the match in his final set, which he did with a margin to spare, leaving the Maghull team 52 points ahead come the end of the match. A tough night for the BSM team, who managed to win just 4 of the 18 games played, and a departure from the competition.
Former club member leads the opposition!
The final match of the week involved a visit of BSM 5, led by Dave Stoddern, to Cadwa. Cadwa 1 made a change to their line-up for this match bringing in the leader of their Cadwa Junior team, division 1 player and former captain of BSM 1st team, Dermot Tierney to replace Steve Daniels. Dermot was joined by Alan French and Alby Ofoeme, the latter on a fairly generous +70 handicap! Dave was joined by Mehdi Eskoroochi and Amir Norouzzi. The BSM team started with a handicap advantage of 27 points. With Dermot’s extra firepower and an off night for BSM captain, Dave, after 6 sets the home team had cleared the handicap deficit. They went further ahead when Alby overcame Amir. Mehdi fought hard to pull it back in the eighth-set bringing the scores to within 3 points, but Dave couldn’t match Dermot in the final set enabling the home side to prevail by 30 points. A very good win for Cadwa 1 – not so good for BSM. A good effort by Mehdi who won 4 out of 6 of his singles, but with just 1 game won by each of Amir & Dave it wasn’t quite enough, a slightly disappointing evening for the BSM team.
On the above left, the Cadwa 1 team: Alan French, Dermot Tierney, Alby Ofoeme & Steve Daniels.
Above, the BSM 5 team: Dave Stoddern, Amir Norouzzi and Mehdi Eskoroochi.
And to the left the match score card.
And in conclusion.......
So, just 1 BSM team through to the semi-finals and that the only team that didn’t play! Colin’s team will need to work really hard in that match if they are to get through to the final again, especially as they will face the strong Maghull 1 team.