2017-18 Senior British League R2 Results
By ATTC Webmaster on Nov 07, 2017 with Comments 0
Matches are played across four rounds (weekends):
- 7/8 Oct 2017
- 4/5 Nov 2017
- 21 Jan 2018
- 14/15 Apr 2018
Ashford TTC has two teams competing in separate divisons:
- Ashford I in National C-5
- Ashford II in National C-4
Our region’s matches are played at Cippenham TTC in Slough.
Ashford I & II SBL Teams
Ashford I
The Round 2 matches took place over the weekend of 4th & 5th of November 2017.
Team: James Sprackling, George Long, Farhat Rasul (“Raz”), Sammy Kaye, Moises Ballad Jr (“Jun”)
Match 1: Going into the 2nd weekend of Senior SBL, Ashford I were in joint 2nd place on 6 points with Cardiff city, their 1st opponents on Saturday morning. Cardiff won 5-4 with James & Jun picking up 2 each and Sammy unlucky to lose in the 5th to Cardiff’s Ryan Owen.
Match 2: For the Saturday afternoon match, Raz played instead of George against Urban TTC, consisting of talented upcoming juniors. Ashford won 9-0 with the only real challenge coming from Urban’s Jake Grayson who took Raz to 5.
Match 3: On Sunday morning the opponents were Archway Peterborough. Ashford lost 5-4, each player winning a game each. James narrowly beating Archway’s chopper Alan Cherry, deuce in the 5th, after being 2-0 up!
Match 4: Sunday afternoon’s opponents were Table Tennis Fight Club. Ashford won 7-2, the only real fight put up was by Fight Club’s Krastan Stefavov against Sammy and Krastan & Yoddha Sood in the doubles, winning the 2 games for Fight Club.
Fight Club were unlucky not to win another 2 more games as Fight Club’s Stefanov was 10-6 up against Raz in the 5th but lost 12-10 and George Sokol was 2-0 up against Raz but lost 3-2.
Summary: The losses against Cardiff & Archway place Ashford I in 3rd place on 10 points (along with Dartfordians). This has dented hopes of promotion as the top team, Greenhouse, lie in wait in the next weekend of SBL matches.
Thanks to Raz for the above report.
Results & Table:
Ashford II
The Round 2 matches took place over the weekend of 4th & 5th of November 2017.
Team: Tommy Cheang, Sarah Horsnell, Artur Lopata, Michael Silver and Alex Gough
Match 1: With the first 3 singles matches lost, all in 4 games, things were not looking good for Ashford against a weakened and eminently beatable Fusion side.
Alex Gough playing at 4, and setting a trend for the weekend, stopped the rot with a 4 set victory over one of Fusion’s more excitable characters and with a score on the board he then combined with Tommy Cheang to win what proved to be the crucial doubles set.
At 2-3, and with the reverse singles to come, Tommy beat the Fusion #1 11-9 in the 5th. Michael Silver then beat the #2 in straight games and Alex beat the Fusion #4.
So a creditable 5-4 victory in the end and a great fightback.
Match 2: Playing the unassailable division leaders, expectations against Ellenborough were not high and were confined more to achieving a level of competitiveness rather than thoughts of victory.
Despite the score line, Ellenborough were made to work in each match and Tommy scored a notable win against England #1 woman’s veteran, Sara Williams, while Alex lost 12-10 in the 5th to Jamie Fisher in arguably the game of the weekend.
Match 3: With Artur Lopata replacing Sarah, this match was most notable for two epic encounters which Artur and Tommy had with the Cippenham #1, Shae Thakker.
Having accounted for Artur 15-13 in the 5th, Shae then came from 2 games down to beat Tommy 11-9 in the fifth to account for 2 of the 3 Cippenham points.
Alex won both his matches (again) and with the doubles secured too, it was a significant victory against one of the teams Ashford should beat in order to achieve a mid-table position.
Match 4: Another narrow victory was achieved in the reverse fixture of the first round of matches of the SBL season against perennial opponents, Newton Abbott, who for once were at full strength against us.
Although it didn’t seem so at the time, another narrow victory in the doubles for Tommy and Alex (11-9 in the 5th) would prove critical.
The match was most notable for Tommy’s devastating form and a barrage of unreturnable looping forehands which saw him beat both Newton Abbots’ #1 & #2 in straight games.
A 5-2 score line was pegged back to 5-4 in two very close 5 game encounters at the end (and in an otherwise empty hall), which may have gone the other way had the match not already been won.
Summary: Ashford II won three of their 4 matches played thereby moving into the security of a mid-table position.
Results & Table:
Filed Under: British Clubs League • News
About the Author: Published by the ATTC Webmaster
