Isle of Man Table Tennis Association’s annual Barry Callister Top 12 Tournament was played last weekend, with the island’s top 12 ranked players all competing.

Scott Lewis was triumphant after an exciting final against John Shooter. The match was settled 11/5, 11/6, 7/11, 11/3, with Lewis retaining his trophy in fine style.

This was fitting as Lewis has been a key player for Travellers A this season and also helped secure the Division One title last week for his team with two weeks still to go.

This result meant that, as expected, Travellers A retained their title.

Scott Lewis was in imperious form yet again with three magnificent wins against John Shooter, Malc Lewis and Henry Weaver who was playing up from Division Three.

This was a valuable experience for the youngster who acquitted himself well and he will no doubt have learned much.

Will Shooter and Malcolm Cummings added two wins apiece for the home side, which ensured another glorious title-winning season.

Lewis’s match against Shooter was settled 8/11, 11/6, 11-3, 15-13, with some magnificent counter-attacking rallies being witnessed by the remaining spectators.

Ramsey all but secured second place with these four points, with Arbory A in third. Having said that, they will have been disappointed to have lost this match.

Chris Holmes continued his good form for the home side with two great wins over Sonja Shaw and notably over Mike Tamarov who lost only his fourth match of the season. It was tight though with Holmes only snatching victory at the death 11/9 in the fifth.

Adam Teare and Becky Taylor were a tad subdued for them, but added a point apiece. Star of the night was Jason Quirk for Arbory who used all his skill and guile to take three wins. The closest of those was against Teare who was denied in the fifth end 9/11.

John Magnall’s match against Strathallan’s Wayne Taylor was quite simply epic.

Taylor looked to be playing really well and coping with Magnall’s awkward anti spin.

The fourth end went to and fro between the two, culminating in a net and an edge for Magnall to enable him to steal it 17/15 before going on to also take the fifth and victory.

Elsewhere, Dan Levine controlled Neil Quane’s attacking style well and only just lost out to the Strathy player 9/11 in the final set. Taylor had better luck in his other matches, adding a further two points.

Mike Bayley extended his good run with three very solid wins in this tie against Dario Mazzotta in five ends, Steve Curtis in three and Simon Radcliffe 13/11 in the fourth.

Ken Mitchell was unable to cope with Radcliffe’s serves and attacking style and was outplayed in three, before adding wins against Mazzotta in three and Curtis in four.

Dave Parsons continued his excellent form for the away side, adding another three wins without being troubled too much.

Despite adding eight points, Tower A are virtually certain now to join their B team in relegation.

This was an important win for Desmond’s who are chasing promotion.

Wael Kassim was Ramsey’s star player alongside Adrian Slater, both taking two wins. But Russ Kent and Neil Ronan took two wins for Desmond's to maintain their team’s momentum and take another important win to keep them on track for promotion.

This was a dominant performance from Arbory players Malcolm Lambert, Liav Lanin and JP Banaag.

Having said that, Banaag struggled to contain a battling Keith Herrington before seeing him off 11/5 in the fifth end.

Eleven-year-old Liav Lanin improves week-on-week and must surely have benefited from the recent Cooke and Deaton coaching sessions.

He put his newly-acquired skills to great use in taking three very good wins against Herrington in four ends, Darren Shaw in five and Martyn Howard 11/9 also in the fifth.

Malcolm Lambert was in tremendous form for Arbory and didn't lose a single game.

Darren Smethurst and Brian Crellin were in top form once again for JRTE, taking three points each against Arbory’s Dave Bufton, Kevin Drewry and Rob Wright.

Bufton and Drewry salvaged a couple of points by defeating Paul Mitchinson, with the latter fighting off Rob Wright to claim JRTE’s seventh point.

Sadly, an under-strength Travellers C was pitted against table-topping Peel A and suffered a whitewash to dent their promotion hopes, assuming Desmond’s continue as they are.

Dave Buck did push Ken Hegarty hard though, taking him to a fifth end before being closed out 6/11.

Peel A look almost certain now to finish top and make a welcome return to Division One.

Mike Chapman made a rare and welcome appearance for Travellers, filling in for Maurice Campbell in the D team who himself had stepped up to play for the C team.

Pitched against the youngsters Sydnie Weaver and Rhys Bufton, they proved to be testing opponents.

But Chapman swept aside Sydnie and Rhys in three ends, while team-mate Margaret Forsyth was taken to a fifth end by Rhys before edging it 12/10.

The doubles was close too but the experience of Forsyth and Chapman was too much for the youngsters and they nudged through 11/4 in the fifth.

Cameron Millar and Gary Skillicorn both managed to defeat Max Doyle, while Tom Taylor-Burt took maximum points for the away side.

Doubles went to the JRTE pairing in four ends which enabled them to take the match win.

Saul Tumblety and Teddy Clayton were pushed hard by Pat Halliwell in each of their matches, but both of the youngsters managed to defeat her in straight ends.

Unfortunately for Halliwell, she was without a playing partner so had to forfeit the other three matches.

- Practice sessions at the NSC Secondary Hall take place Fridays 7-9pm. League players and newcomers are all welcome - £5 per adult or £3 per junior.

KEN MITCHELL