SPORTS B WIN FINAL!

Aylesbury Sports B from the Aylesbury and District Table Tennis Premier Division faced Haddenham C from Division One in the final of the Frank Trophy at Elmhurst Community Centre last week.

Partisan spectators gathered to see how the premier side represented by Tim Cheek, Bradley Willis and Andrew Eggleton would cope with the handicap of 160 points granted in favour of Roger Mott , John Badmin and Lee Mallick of Haddenham. To win Haddenham needed to acquire 12 points in each leg, but handicap table tennis is never that simple.

Haddenham's strongest player, Lee Mallick, was first up against the wily fox Tim Cheek and his famous long pimples. In spite of his fears, Lee managed to collect 23 points over two nervous legs, with Tim playing a patient game in the second leg to recover from 6 – 2 down to win 21 – 10. In the legs that followed, Andrew Eggleton showed fewer nerves than either of his team mates or his opponents, making steady inroads into the handicap. His ability to change from a focused defence to sudden attack was always unsettling to John Badmin and Roger Mott .

After four rubbers, Lee came up against the emerging talent of Bradley Willis and took the first leg 21 - 14 with a mix of good recovery shots and deceptive attacking forehands down the flanks. Following tips from his experienced colleagues, Bradley won the second leg 21 – 16. The score had see-sawed between the two until Lee reached 16 before Bradley turned the screw to rescue much needed points for his team. The game between Roger and Andy went as expected with Sports reducing the margin to 47 points.

The following game was the key battle of the evening. Bradley was having difficulty breaking John Badmin's resistance until the score in the first leg reached 10 – 10. At which point Bradley discovered a winning formula, moving his rival around the table with patient top spin attacks. Ultimately winning the leg 21 – 11, then hammering home the advantage in the second leg 21 – 3 meant Bradley had very much broken the back of Haddenham's challenge, who were only 19 points ahead. Tim Cheek then kept Roger at bay to take Sports into the lead, the Haddenham captain's attempts to flat hit his way out of trouble were met by Tim's solid defence.

Andrew took the first leg against Lee 21 – 11 which meant that Sports had effectively won the trophy with one leg to spare.

Spectators showed their appreciation of some fine table tennis but also for the organisers, Brian Whitehead , Jim Styles and David Ballard for their time and effort.