Bournemouth and District Table Tennis Association

BDTTA FINALS NIGHT 2011/2012 - REPORT

Friday, 30th March 2012

A well supported and entertaining evening of table tennis was had with the 'star of the show' being George Downing (Bmth Sports) winning five titles without dropping a set in any of his finals. Newcomer Kate Maksimenko (Winton YMCA) won two titles and was runner-up in one - well done to Kate in her first season. Tressa Armitage, Hugo Pang and Zac Dowling (all from Bmth Sports) won two titles each with Hugo finishing runner-up in both the Premier and Junior U18. Hugo retained his Junior U15 title, Louie La (Bmth Sports) retained his Veteran 40+ title and Danny Allen (Merton) retained his Veteran 70+ title, Louie and Danny both winning their titles for the third year running.

This year we included some semi-final matches that provided some great entertainment - Division 1 with Finn Morgan-Bayliss (Bmth Sports) with his attacking flair overcoming a resilient Jamie Trevillion (Lynwood) 7-11, 11-9, 11-9 and 11-9. However, Finn eventually lost in the final to Ben Cunningham (Bmth Sports) 8-11 in the fifth set in a match full of attacking table tennis with some scintillating rallies. Another splendid match was the Ladies Singles between Julie Smillie (New Milton) and Kate Maksimenko with Kate eventually coming out on top in a hard fought match 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11 and 11-8, although Kate lost in the final to Tressa Armitage. Not to be outdone the Vet 40+ match between Geoff Ware (Lynwood) and Phil Beeden (Merton) turned into an enthralling contest with Phil two sets up, Geoff pulling it back to two all with Phil finally winning the fifth set 11-5.

Although there were some exciting matches going to five sets - Division 1, Division 3, Division 4, Ladies Doubles, probably the toughest and most tense match on the night was the Ladies Singles between Tressa Armitage and Kate Maksimenko. Tressa took the first two sets but Kate fought back taking the next two sets. In the fifth set it became a tense pushing game with Tressa overcoming a stubborn Kate to win the set 15-13.

Other Nights Matches

In addition to the above, mention must go to a Junior U18 Semi-final match (played Thursday 29th March) between George Downing and Jamie Trevillion. This was really exciting table tennis from two juniors with Jamie being two sets to one up before George made it two all. In the final set, Jamie playing his defensive role superbly and George with his attacking 'topspin' made for some outstanding rallies, with Jamie being 10-8 up and on the verge of winning before George rallied, eventually beating Jamie 13-11.

Another outstanding match was the final of the Vets 50+ (played Monday 2nd April) between Steve Hemmings (New Milton) and Wei-Jun Liang (Bmth Sports). Wei-Jun took the first two sets before Steve pulled it back to two sets all. Steve with his superb defensive play against Wei-Jun's attacking skills made for a 'high class' table tennis match. With Steve being forced further back from the table and returning shot after shot against Wei-Jun's angled hits, made an absorbing and exciting match. In the fifth set Steve coming from 6-8 down finally won the set 11-8 and therefore the match.