Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub

Every team has a star performer!

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With the advantage of first-call, the Sefton Park captain, Jordan Abbott, unsurprisingly brought himself on for the first set of the night. Jordan is one of the top players in Div 4 with an average of some 96% this season in league play, so his aim was clearly to get his team off to a good start. But, perhaps unexpectedly, he called on the BSM No.1, James Sullivan, to face him. James has also proved this season that he is a very good player at the top of the order, so maybe the thinking was that if Sefton Park could take this one it would be one difficult set out of the way and a good basis to move forward. The first set of any match is often a difficult one, for both players, especially with only limited warm up time beforehand. Jordan however, must have been confident having beaten James in the league a few weeks earlier. It was James, however, who picked up the match vibes the quickest, remaining cool, calm and collected. He matched Jordan stroke for stroke giving away very little, just edging the first game 15:13. The games continued to be very close and evenly contested, but again it was James who proved the most consistent taking the next two games also and both by the narrowest margin. For BSM this was the perfect start and against expectations.

 

Sefton Park struck back with Joe Tighe taking a very good win against Andrew Armstrong, a set Andrew might have hoped to win on another day. So often this season, Andrew has taken the heat at the top of the order, allowing Danny Every to come in at No.3 with calm and assured play. This match was no exception, he duly despatched the unconventional Pat Espinoza, normally a very strong contributor for Sefton Park, with a straight 3:0 win. The first of two very dominant singles wins for Danny. Next into the ring was teenager, Charlie King for BSM against the seasoned campaigner, Ray Jones. It has been a tough and mixed season for Charlie, moments of brilliance mixed with moments of despair! But on this night he pulled out all the stops in this the first of his two sets to record an excellent 3:1 win giving the BSM side a 3:1 lead at the halfway stage. 

 

A better start in the second half for Sefton Park with wins for Jordan over Andrew and Joe Tighe over Charlie, but sandwiched in between, another excellent win for James against Pat. The scorecard shows though just how close this set was, James being made to work all the way for his 3:1 win. 4:3 to BSM. But Daddy 'Danny' Cool was still to play the final singles. A win for Sefton Park would take the match to a doubles decider, a win for BSM would give them the cup! With seeming ease, Danny breezed through 3 games against Ray Jones securing the set and the match 5:3. This win gave Danny the player of the match award, but both James and Joe Tighe were also unbeaten in singles.

 

A really good match and a well deserved win for BSM D. League General Secretary, Tom Purcell, was on hand to present the trophy, and thanks to Crosby High for hosting the match.