The 10th round of fixtures in the Fun88-sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association league saw a resumption of singles play in Divisions One and Two prior to the festive break.

Division One

Strathallan (0), Ramsey A (9)

Ramsey A were in Scrooge-like mode in this tie, with no leeway given to a decent Strathy side.

Becky Taylor was pushed to a fifth end by both Andy Patterson and Neil Quane but on both occasions showed her fighting qualities, pulling through 11/9 and 11/3 respectively.

Her Ramsey team-mate Adam Teare vanquished the attacking Quane in three ends despite a strong effort from the Strathallan attacker. He took four ends to see off Patterson and Julian Briercliffe.

Ramsey’s third player, Duncan Alexander, was taken to a fourth end in each of his three matches, but also showed his quality at the right time to take all three points.

Ramsey now sit only four behind top-of-the-table Travellers A.

Tower A (1), Travellers A (8)

Tower were up against it in this tie, but Mike Bayley provided some festive cheer for the embattled home side by impressively beating Malcolm Cummings in five ends to take their only point.

Cummings got back on track by defeating Ken Mitchell in four close ends and Dave Parsons in three.

Dave Lovelady played up for the A team and was hugely impressive in out-foxing the Tower trio without dropping a game.

Liam Chan was back in action for Travellers and blasted the hapless Tower players off the table to take another three points.

Arbory B (8), Tower B (1)

Arbory B had been hovering above the relegation zone prior to this tie, so needed a big performance - and that’s what they got.

Tower were unable to cope with John Magnall, Dan Levine and Malcolm Lambert, apart from Steve Curtis’ impressive four-end victory over Lambert.

Levine played extremely well, with his closest win being over Simon Radcliffe which he took in the fifth end.

Travellers B (6), Arbory A (3)

Travellers’ Will Shooter had a tremendous four-end win over Mike Tamarov who had only previously lost once this season.

Shooter added a further point by defeating Sonja Shaw in three, but could not repeat his heroics against the wily Jason Quirk, losing in the fourth end.

John Shooter was impressive once again in his three wins, the closest of which perhaps was against Quirk. Malc Lewis played well in his three matches and came away with one win against Shaw.

Division Two

Arbory C (4), Travellers C (5)

The home side were down to two players, so were unfortunately 0-3 down before they started.

Dave Bufton and Kevin Drewry therefore did extremely well to extract four points from top-of-the-table Travellers C.

Drewry played superbly against Keeran Chan, winning 7/11, 11/9, 11/6, 12/10. He added another point by defeating Luke Begley in three.

Bufton also had a fantastic week, beating the usually impregnable Paul Mathieson-Nelson 11/9, 11/7, 9/11, 11/8. The latter was also pushed hard by Drewry but managed to edge it 11-9 in the fifth end.

Chan also managed to salvage some pride, doing well to defeat Bufton in four ends.

JRTE A (5), Arbory D (4)

The home side got back on track with a full team last week and snatched a valuable five points.

Indeed, it was Arbory’s turn to be down to two players, immediately forfeiting three points.

Darren Smethurst picked off two wins in three ends against Malcolm Lambert and Mike Levine.

JRTE’s Cameron Millar did really well to push Lambert to a fifth end before the experienced Arbory player stepped up a gear to take the match 11/7 in the final end.

Levine was ruthlessly efficient in taking his two points against Mitchinson and Millar in three ends apiece.

Ramsey C (2), Ramsey B (7)

Ramsey B continued their good run with another useful seven points.

Wael Kassim stampeded his way past Martyn Howard and Keith Herrington three ends and edged past Darren Shaw in four.

Adrian Slater had an extremely close match against Howard, nicking it after four ends 11/9, 13/11, 10/12, 11/9.

Howard then claimed a good win for the C team over Lisa Lord in three ends, as did Keith Herrington a tough five-set tussle.

Desmond's Douglas (2), Peel A (7)

Desmond's had gained good momentum in recent weeks to place themselves in a solid third position in the table.

But they were without one of their regular heavy hitters, Brandon Montgomery, and were up against second-placed Peel A.

The away side therefore took advantage of this and claimed another hugely impressive seven points to take them to within a single point of leaders Travellers C.

Jon Taylor Burt was again rock solid for Peel, beating George Tsioutsioulis in three plus Neil Ronan and Russ Kent in four, albeit he was pushed hard by Russ and Neil.

Ken Hegarty had a great week too, with three superb wins for Peel seemingly without being troubled.

Peel’s Stu Perry appeared to be a little off-colour, losing out to Ronan and Kent in straight ends, but saved his best for last in defeating Tsioutsioulis in three.

Division Three

Travellers G (0), Travellers D (5)

Maurice Campbell and Margaret Forsyth claimed maximum points once again by each defeating Tom Taylor Burt in three ends and adding a further two because of Max Doyle having to forfeit.

Ramsey E (1), JRTE B (4)

Adam Clayton claimed a hard-earned point for Ramsey E by defeating Gary Skillicorn in four ends.

It went JRTE’s way other than that, with Steven Carridge defeating A. Clayton in three ends and Teddy Clayton in four.

Skillocorn added a further point for JRTE but was pushed hard by Teddy, just edging it 13/11 in the fifth end. The doubles was taken by Skillicorn and Carridge in four ends.

Travellers F (2), Travellers E (3)

It was good to see such a closely-contested match between four young improving Travellers players.

Sydnie Weaver was superb once again with a hard-fought win over Eban Moore 11/7, 11/9, 6/11, 13/15, 11/7, before impressively defeating her brother Henry in the fourth.

Rhys Bufton backed her up well but could not get past Eban or Henry, losing out in four in both matches.

The doubles was a little topsy turvy, but Henry and Eban combined really well to take it 11-3 in the fifth end. Another really good win for Henry and Eban.

- The next practice/drop-in session is Friday, January 10 between 7 and 9pm. Follow local table tennis via the association’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TableTennisIOM or at www.tabletennis365.com/IOM

KEM MITCHELL