There was a break in the Isle of Man Table Tennis Association league season over half-term, with this year’s Fun Doubles Tournament taking place at the NSC instead.
Pairings for this event are allocated by organiser Maggie Mulhern based on current league rankings.
Top ranked players are partnered with lower ranked ones which gives all participants an opportunity to play with, and against, players they wouldn’t normally meet in league matches.
Play commenced with two groups of seven pairings and was played in a round robin format. Group A was dominated by Ege Niyazi and Jon Taylor-Burt who won all six of their matches.
Malcolm Lambert and Margaret Forsyth plus Geoff Ball and Maggie Mulhern finished with four wins apiece, but after a countback Lambert and Forsyth went through as runners-up.
Mike Levine and Bob Borland finished in fourth place, leaving John Magnall and Jackie Gill in fifth place, while sixth saw the youngest player Eben Moore team up with his coach Malc Lewis to take the win over John Shooter and Tony Sewell.
Group B saw two pairings finish with five wins each - Kevin Drewry and Francesca Lord along with Dan Levine and Wilma Dalugdugan. After another countback, Drewry and Lord topped the group, leaving Levine and Dalugdugan as runners-up.
In third spot were Neil Ronan and Sonja Shaw with four wins ahead of Wayne Taylor and Darren Shaw in fourth with three wins. In fifth place were Steve Curtis and Maurice Campbell, with David Parsons and Pat Halliwell taking sixth place, plus William Shooter and Thomas Taylor-Burt seventh.
The top two pairings from each group then went forward to the semi-finals. In the first semi were Niyazi and J. Taylor-Burt who eased through to the final with a straight sets win over Levine and Dalugdugan 11-7, 11-9, 11-8.
In the second semi Drewry and Lord had a tougher match, winning 5-11, 15-13, 13-11, 11-9 against a determined display from Lambert and Forsyth.
The final was between Niyazi and J. Taylor-Burt plus Drewry and Lord. It was a magnificent match for the final, with Drewry and Lord proving to have the winning formula.
They went two games up 11-7, 11-9, only to be pegged back by Niyazi and J. Taylor-Burt 5-11, 7-11, before regrouping to win the final game 11-8 and take the match.
Lord thus made it two wins in a row after taking the title in 2022 with Geoff Ball - a brilliant achievement for her and for a delighted Drewry.
Next week on November 10-12, some of the island’s top players will be travelling to Wales to compete in the Home Countries Table Tennis Tournament against top teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey and Jersey.
Good luck to senior men Scott Lewis and Adam Teare, senior women Kerenza Baker and Wilma Dalugdugan plus under-18 Boys William Shooter and Amit Lanin.
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Practice nights continue from today (Friday) between 7.30-10pm with 12 tables available - cost is £5 per person.