Individual Handicap

The 2011/12 Individual Handicap Tournament was held on Sunday 8th January 2012 at Kingfisher Table Tennis Club.

Report by Nigel Maltby.

As Reading table tennis mourned the loss of Our Lady of Peace stalwart Alan Dines, the popular Reading Individual Handicap tournament took place last Sunday with the trophy previously presented to RDTTA by Alan in memory of his son Nick at stake.

Perhaps fittingly it was an Our Lady of Peace player who won, with Daniel Moses showing his usual calm and abundant talent to win through to a final against Milestone’s John Evans where Daniel won a highly entertaining final 18-21, 22-20, 21-18.

In the earlier group stage Julian Telford won Group 1, recovering to beat Tim Raby (+4) 15-21, 21-14, 21-13 and then clinching top spot by beating Danny Ricks (+5) 21-15, 21-14. Danny had earlier made sure of the second qualifying place by beating Tim 21-18, 21-19. In Group 2 Sam Ricks beat both Diane Taylor and John Evans to finish top while John was runner up after beating Diane (+2) in a lengthy battle 21-17 19-21, 21-16.

Norman Swift showed his class to defeat both Nigel Maltby and Steve Ricks to win Group 3, Nigel finishing runner-up after defeating Steve 21-19, 21-19. Roger Woolven-Allen won Group 4, defeating Jim McClure (+8) 23-21, 22-20 and Steve Purchase from scratch 21-17, 17-21, 21-18. Steve just edged out Jim for second place 30-28, 19-21, 21-17.

Youngster Siad Cole finished top of Group 5, ahead of Malcolm Gregory after both players managed wins over Ian Ayres. Jon Willis won a tough Group 6 after holding off young Joshua Gallen (+8) 18-21, 21-14, 21-15 and Josh finished second after a good win over Derek Wavell. In Group 7 Ian Cole needed all his experience to hold off Melanie Griffiths (+14) 21-18, 19-21, 21-19 and Jeremy Willis (+6) 21-16, 11-21, 21-18 with Jeremy qualifying as runner up after comfortably beating Melanie. Finally Daniel Moses won through from Group 8 with Denise Weller also making it through after beating Paul Treadgold (+2) 21-8, 20-22, 21-13.

In the last 16 John Evans (+7) beat Julian Telford 21-15, 21-16, then Siad Cole (+1) won a tense battle with rival junior Joshua Gallen 21-17, 17-21, 12-16 while Denise Weller (+7) just held off the challenge of Ian Cole 21-19, 22-20. Norman Swift won a good match with club mate Steve Purchase (+5) 24-22, 21-17 and Nigel Maltby won through against Roger Woolven-Allen 18-21, 21-17, 21-10 from scratch while Daniel Moses made light of his 11 point deficit against Jeremy Willis to win 21-18, 21-16. Malcolm Gregory won an all Division 2 battle with Jon Willis (+1) 21-15, 21-19 while Sam Ricks was up against his brother Danny from scratch, Sam just winning through 21-18, 19-21, 21-19.

In the Quarter finals John Evans had just too much for young Siad Cole (+4) to win 17-21, 21-17, 21-15 and Norman Swift saw off a determined challenge from Denise Weller (+6) 21-16, 22-20 while Daniel Moses had too much in the end for Nigel Maltby (+11) to win 21-16, 15-21, 21-14. Sam Ricks (+4) also breezed through to the semi finals after he defeated Malcolm Gregory 21-12, 21-10.

In the semi-finals Daniel Moses needed all his concentration to win the first against Sam Ricks (+12) 21-18. Sam excelled right from the start in the next game, holding almost all of his starting 12 point cushion to go 20-11 ahead. A snatched backhand and a missed smash from Sam however saw Daniel close to 20-15 and as nerves started to gather Daniel closed even further to 20-18. However a good serve from Sam clinched the game 21-18. In the decider Sam continued to block Daniel’s attacking shots very effectively as he continued to pick up the odd point to lead 14-5. Daniel rallied to close to 15-10, when two quick cheap point for Sam looked to have given him a great chance at 17-10 ahead. Daniel however rallied again and some amazing play, mixed with some good fortune saw him level at 17-all. One final good serve from Daniel ended Sam’s challenge 21-18.

In the other semi final John Evans had a 9 point start against Norman Swift. Great play from Norman saw him quickly level at 13-all before going on to win the first 21-16. At 9-4 ahead in the next John incredibly won the next seven points in a row to leave him 16-4 ahead. Norman finally ended that terrible run but it was too late to save the game as John clinched it 21-11. In the decider an excellent start from Norman saw him take the first six points to leave him 9-6 behind. Norman was constantly trying to get in with his attack against John’s awkward blocking style. John managed to hold on to his lead to 14-10 and then actually increased it to 18-12 as the pressure mounted on Norman. With some good fortune near the end it was John who held on to win 21-16.

In the final John Evans had a 13 point head start against Daniel Moses and he just held on to a lead with his incredible blocks against Daniel’s highly spun topspins to still lead 20-18. A good serve from John saw him win the first 21-18. In the next Daniel looked more than troubled at 16-6 down. He noticeably slowed his game down, happy to push and wait for errors from John and the tactic worked as he clawed back to level at 17-all. John wasn’t finished through and he was still in it at 19-all and then 20-all, before he was finally undone by a stylish forehand from Daniel.

In the deciding game Daniel again found himself 16-6 behind. After John missed what looked an easy forehand kill Daniel was only 16-13 behind and soon he was level again at 17-all. This time John couldn’t live with him and Daniel was able to relax slightly as he clinched the game 21-18 to become the Individual Handicap winner for the first time.

The trophy was presented by Reading Chairman Nigel Maltby, who also thanked tournament organiser Duncan Abbott and his assistant on the day Paul Jarvis.