Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 205
Dateline: 03 April 2026
Cup run ends!
There will be no team from Bath Street Marine in the final of the Liverpool & District Table Tennis League Frank Murphy Veterans Handicap Cup this season! The cup holders grasp on the cup was broken this week by the handicap odds and a brilliant display by one of the League's top players.
Forgotten!
Current holders of the Frank Murphy Cup, BSM 2, led by 1st division team captain, Colin Turner, faced Maghull 1 this week in the semi-final of the 2025/26 Veterans Cup competition. Maghull had already overcome BSM opposition in the previous round. Once again the BSM team fielded a team of all 1st division players, Colin being joined by Barry Elliott & Matty Wilson. Maghull fielded a mixed team of husband & wife Ritchie & Susie Venner joined by Pat Merry. Pat bringing with her a generous +75 handicap, which gave the Maghull side a starting advantage of 128 points.
BSM started well taking the first two sets and reducing the deficit to 75. But when Ritchie Venner came to the table they found him to be in superb form, even against his fellow first division opponents. His decisive wins against each of his first division opponents effectively added another 72 points to the handicap advantage, meaning that if BSM wanted to secure a place in the final they would need to clear 200 points advantage from the remaining six sets. A very heavy challenge!
Colin, Barry and Matty did their very best to clear those points, and indeed they did win all of the 12 remaining games of the match and by the end of the eighth set they were within 8 points of the Maghull side. But the final set of the night once again featured Ritchie. One might say the best had been kept to last! And indeed Ritchie raced through the final set against Barry adding an incredible 28 points to the final score, a 36point win for Maghull.
It is fair to say that Ritchie, one of the top male players of the league, was the outstanding player of the night with none of his fellow first division players able to come close. An excellent match and a place in the final for Maghull 1 where they will face Cadwa 1, led by former BSM 1st team captain, Dermot Tierney. The final should be an excellent match.
There is a great write-up about each of the semi-final matches on the Liverpool League website.
