Week three of the Fun88-sponsored table tennis league season saw the first round of doubles-only matches in Divisions One and Two, plus the usual singles and one doubles in Division Three.

Doubles matches in Division One and Three are now the best of three games, instead of five.

Division One

Travellers A (9) Tower A (0)

Division One champions Travellers A were highly successful last season at doubles as well as singles, so it was always going to be a tough challenge for Tower A.

Scott Lewis, Liam Chan and Malcolm Cummings won all their matches, but Tower battled hard. Lewis and Chan edged past Mike Bayley and Jakk Limungkoon 11-8 in the third, and Lewis and Cummings pipped Bayley and Dave Parsons 11-9 also in the third.

Chan and Cummings also had a close one with Limungkoon and Bayley, just squeezing through 14-12, 12-10.

Ramsey A (7) Strathallan (2)

Ramsey A consolidated second place with a valuable seven points in this tie against a tough Strathy trio of Andy Patterson, Wayne Taylor and Neil Quane.

Adam Teare and Becky Taylor were victorious for the home side in their first two matches, but were stopped in their tracks by a fine performance from Patterson and W. Taylor who battled their way back after Ramsey won the second game.

Patterson and Quane also had an impressive win 12-10, 14-12 against Duncan Alexander and B. Taylor to take the away side’s second point.

Arbory A (5) Travellers B (4)

This was a close match as reflected in the scoreline, with five matches going to a third end. Arbory’s Mike Tamarov and Sonja Shaw had a tremendous win over Malc Lewis and Will Shooter, taking the final two ends 15-13, 11-8.

Tamarov and Jason Quirk then had a superb win over John Shooter and Lewis in thi ends. Sonja was also involved in another of Arbory’s wins, teaming up with Jason. They did really well to outplay the Shooters 11-8, 10-12, 13-11 to take the win.

Arbory A occupy fourth place in the table, with a gap opening up between the top four and bottom four teams.

Tower B (1) Arbory B (8)

Tower B played well in this tie, with four matches going to three, but ultimately they were only able to convert that into a single point.

Steve Curtis and Simon Radcliffe did well to overhaul John Magnall and Dan Levine, taking the third end 11-6 and a valuable point. Curtis and Radcliffe had a very close match against Levine and Amit Lanin who squeezed through 15-13, 12-10.

Newcomer Mark Webster-Smith did well in his first fixture for the home side, suffering a narrow loss alongside Radcliffe, losing out 11-8, 10-12, 9-11 to a relieved Levine and Magnall.

A really welcome eight points then for Arbory B who are now fifth just ahead of Strathallan.

Division Two

Ramsey B (8) Ramsey C (1)

Ramsey B were without Tim Baker in this tie so Lisa Lord kindly stepped in to deputise for him alongside Wael Kassim and Adrian Slater in this tie with their C team.

Lord did well paired with Slater to defeat Keith Herrington and Pete Roberts 12-10 in the final game. Kassim and Lord also went to three games against Herrington and Darren Shaw, but pulled through 11-7 in the final end.

All other games were won in two games, with the exception of Slater and Lord versus Herrington and Shaw who narrowly won 11-9, 13-11.

Travellers C (9) Arbory C (0)

Keeran Chan, Paul Mathieson-Nelson and David Buck made short work of this tie against a stunned Arbory C side comprising of Kevin Drewry, Rob Wright and Bob Borland.

Six matches were won in straight games, with only three going to three ends, all being closed out 11-7.

That said, Travellers won a few close games along their way to a victory which takes them to the top of the table.

Peel A (8) Desmond’s Douglas A (1)

Jon Taylor-Burt, Stu Perry and Ken Hegarty continue to chase down Travellers C and are only one point behind them after this very impressive win.

Despite being without Brandon Montgomery, Desmond’s were still formidable opposition as Sasha Thomas made a welcome return to table tennis as Montgomery’s replacement.

Perry and Taylor-Burt had a close scrap with Russel Kent and Thomas, just edging it 11-9 in the third end.

Perry and Hegarty also had a close one against Neil Ronan and Thomas, narrowly losing out 8-11 in the third end. Thomas was also victorious alongside Kent against Hegarty and Taylor-Burt who they managed to defeat 11-4, 11-8.

Arbory D (4) JRTE Marketing A (5)

Malcolm Lambert and Mike Levine claimed two points for the home side against JRTE’s Darren Smethurst and Cameron Millar plus Paul Mitchinson and Millar.

Levine and young Liav Lanin came ever so close against Smethurst and Millar, losing out 9-11, 11-9, 9-11. Smethurst had another strong week, being involved in all five of the matches that JRTE won, ably assisted by Millar and Mitchinson.

Division Three

Travellers D (5) Travellers G (0)

Jackie Gill and Margaret Forsyth again proved to be a winning combination for the D team against youngsters Max Doyle and Tom Taylor-Burt playing for Travellers G.

Gill was pushed all the way by a determined Taylor-Burt, but used all her experience to ease through 11-6 in the fifth end after being 2-1 down.

Forsyth also faced a stiff challenge from Taylor-Burt and she too found herself 2-1 down, but then steeled herself before taking the final two games 11-5 and the match.

The doubles was taken by Gill and Forsyth in four ends to grab their fifth point.

Travellers E (1) Travellers F (4)

Eben Moore and Henry Weaver were a successful duo in this tie but it was Sydnie Weaver who dented Moore’s record with a superb five-end win over her young opponent 11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-7.

Sydnie came close to making it two out of two, but narrowly lost out in five to Henry.

JRTE Marketing B (3) Ramsey E (2)

Cameron Millar and Gary Skillicorn did well to see off Sean Tumblety and Teddy Clayton by winning some close games on their way to victory.

Millar won both his singles in four ends and combined well with Skillicorn to take the doubles 11-6, 5-11, 11-8, 11-9 in four ends.

KEN MITCHELL