Individual Handicap

The 2009/10 Individual Handicap Tournament was held on Sunday 3rd January 2010 at Kingfisher Table Tennis Club.

Despite an increased handicap to try and counter his continued rapid improvement, Liam McTiernan managed to retain the trophy after holding off a valiant effort from Nigel Maltby (+5) in the final.

In the opening group stages two competitors qualified for the knockout stages. In Group 1 twice winner Lee Calcutt managed wins over all his opponents to top the group, although he needed every ounce of his battling qualities to see off Alan Pack (+6) 21-17 19-21 21-21 and Hanson Xu (+5) 21-17 23-21. The battle for runner-up went to Hanson Xu after he beat Alan Pack (+1) 22-24 21-18 21-9 in their deciding encounter.

Group 2 had only three players. Colin Dyke won a long match against Pete Bennett (+1) 21-17 22-20, but found 11-year old Daniel McTiernan’s starting handicap of +6 just too much to cope with as the youngster won 21-12 22-20. In the final match of the group Daniel (+5) beat Pete 21-15 21-19 to top the group, leaving Colin as runner up courtesy of his victory over Peter earlier.

Daniel Moses won a tough Group 3, beating Eric Holmes (+8) 21-16 21-12, Jeremy Willis (+8) 22-20 19-21 21-19 and Adam McTiernan (+15) 21-17 19-21 21-17. Jeremy Willis finished as runner-up after beating Adam (+11) 21-19 21-15 and Eric Holmes off scratch 26-28 21-17 21-15.

In Group 4 Liam McTiernan won all his matches to finish top, winning a great match with Andy Yon (+5) 19-21 21-16 21-14 and finishing off with a 21-19 17-21 22-20 win over Chris Moses (+12). Nigel Maltby emerged as runner-up after a great win over Andy Yon from scratch 21-17 21-4, which followed his earlier close tussle with Chris Moses (+8) 12-21 21-15 21-18.

Group 5 was a close one to call before a ball was hit with four evenly balanced mainly defensive pushers taking part with some close sets guaranteed. Wendy Porter finish top of the pile after grinding out victories over Mike Dorrington (+1) 19-21 21-17 21-15, and Jim McClure (+3) 18-21 21-14 21-17 and completing the job with a two-straight win over John Evans. John had already done enough to secure the runners-up position with wins over Jim McClure (+4) and Mike Dorrington (+2) 21-18 16-21 21-18.

There was a three-way tie in Group 6 with Ian Ayres, Leo Long and Derek Brooke-Wavell each winning twice. Ian’s two-straight victory over Derek Brooke-Wavell (+2) proved key in a very close second game 21-16 22-20. This left Ian as runner-up and Leo Long as group winner after his early wins over Jade Fudge (+2) 21-10 21-9 and Ian Ayres (-8) 21-19 21-19. Derek unfortunately missed out on games count back.

In the first knockout stage Daniel McTiernan (+2) saw off OLOP club team mate Hanson Xu 21-19 21-17, Lee Calcutt won an entertaining tussle with Jeremy Willis (+2) 21-18 21-19, Nigel Maltby proved too much for Ian Ayres (+5) 21-19 21-15 and John Evans (+5) defeated Colin Dyke 13-21 21-14 21-9.

Quarter Finals
Daniel McTiernan’s starting handicap of +12 proved enough to defeat Daniel Moses in the first Quarter-Final, Daniel securing a relatively comfortable 21-17 21-17 win. Liam McTiernan also earned his semi-final place after victory over fellow Division 1 player Lee Calcutt (+2) 16-21 21-14 21-12, while youngster Leo Long (+10) coped well with the awkward style of veteran John Evans to win 21-13 21-19. The last Quarter Final could have gone either way, but Nigel Maltby just finished the stronger to snatch a 21-16 19-21 21-18 victory over Wendy Porter (+4).

Semi Finals
Leo Long had a +15 point start against Liam McTiernan in his semi final and he managed to win the first game 21-17. In a nail biting second Liam grabbed a 21-19 victory to set up a tense decider, which Liam also won 21-18 to book his place in the final. The other semi-final saw the mainly attacking style of Daniel McTiernan (+4) up against the mainly deep defensive style of Nigel Maltby, and in a very entertaining match Nigel recovered from 9-15 down in the 2nd game to win 21-17 21-17.

The Final
The final was a repeat of their opening group encounter between Liam McTiernan and Nigel Maltby (+5), which Liam had won comfortably 21-16 21-13. Liam started brilliantly with his crisp attacking shots quickly pulling him level at 7-all. A brief late rally from Nigel brought some respectability to the score line but Liam took the first fairly comfortably 21-16. In the next Nigel held his starting handicap well early on, playing some fine tight defensive strokes to try and pin Liam down. It looked as if a third game was on the cards, however Liam stepped up a gear to come from 16-12 down to level at 16-all. Liam’s attack proved just too good for Nigel’s resolute defence in the end as he closed out the match 21-16 21-18 and clinch his second successive Individual Handicap title.

Thanks are due to co-organisers on the day Nigel Maltby and Paul Jarvis.