Week 3 of The Mount Gambier Table Tennis Winter 2021 Season once again served up some thrilling results across all grades, as well as some one-sided affairs.
Sarah’s Team continued their winning ways in the A-Grade, this time proving far too strong for the Charming Archies. Leigh Barry was once again extremely solid and reliable for Sarah’s Team, winning all of his singles rubbers, while Sarah Thompson and David Fox also chipped in with good performances to steer their team to a dominant 8-3 victory. Thompson was pushed to 5-games in two of her rubbers, winning both. Ian Conlin was the best for Charming Archie, coming away with two victories from his three rubbers. Siri’s Team had a tougher time in their encounter with Where The Hell ‘R’ Ya, Sirinat and Nick Sweet scoring victories in their respective opening singles rubbers before Kevin Patzel hit back for Where The Hell ‘R’ Ya with a commanding win over Andrew Moore. The teams went toe-to-toe for most of the night, the overall outcome hinging on the final rubber of the match between Travis Sweet and Bill-John Watson. Unfortunately for Watson and Where The Hell ‘R’ Ya, he was no match for a nimble and classy Sweet who took the rubber in three games to give Siri’s Team the 6-5 win. The mother and son Sweet combination came away undefeated on the night. The final A-Grade encounter of the night was yet another close encounter, Scott Davies’ undefeated effort not quite enough to carry JJ’ to victory over Ben Newman’s Warriors. Davies triumphed over Newman in an epic 5-game tussle to close out the evening, but sadly by that stage the Warriors had already clinched the match by 6 rubbers to 5.
B-Grade results were again a mixture of tight tense battles and dominant walkovers, RLM scraping over the line to score a 6-5 win over the Backhand Bandits while Revengers continued their dominance, barely raising a sweat in their 9-2 victory over the Raiders. Cameron Beal and Olu Lande were standout performers for Revengers, both coming away with clean sheets in their singles rubbers.
In the C-grade, Jake Connell and Hailee Barnes were outstanding in their singles endeavours, both remaining undefeated on the night to guide The Fires to an easy 9-2 victory over the Cyborgs. Sergio Cesaro and Emina Leamey provided some respectability to the score card for the Cyborgs, but it was mostly one-way traffic for the duration of the match. Jedda Hardcastle turned in a gutsy undefeated performance to steer her Hurricanes team to a close 6-5 win against Tom Horrigan’s Spinning Sonics, the final result coming down to the last rubber of the match between Richard and Tom Horrigan. Richard started strongly for the Hurricanes, taking the first game before Tom levelled up the contest in the second, both players’ defences proving impenetrable as they traded powerful smashes and deceitful topspin lobs. Eventually experience won out over youth, Hurricane’s player Richard outlasting his Spinning Sonics opponent in a tense fifth game by the barest of margins. Ethan Ransom led Paladin to a comfortable 7-4 win over the Rollers in the final C-Grade match-up of the night, the teams remaining close in the early stages before Paladin blew their opposition out the water with a run of 4 consecutive wins in the back end of the match to build an unassailable lead. Ransom was the standout performer with a clean sheet for Paladin, while Chris Turner tried valiantly for the Rollers. Highlights included Paladin player Nudee Cook’s never-say-die efforts, all three of her singles rubbers lasting the full 5 exhausting games.
3-rubber winners:
- A-Grade: Leigh Barry (Sarah’s Team), Sirinat Sweet, Travis Sweet (Siri’s Team),
- B-Grade: Cameron Beal, Olu Lande (Revengers)
- C-Grade: Jake Connell, Hailee Barnes (The Fires) Jedda Hardcastle (The Hurricanes)
