TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE
News Bulletin / Spring 2002
Clean Sweep for Caroline
Finals night for Wembley & Harrow Table Tennis League Closed Championships saw Caroline Seaholme, twice before ladies’ champion, take a clean sweep of titles. The evening, held at the Harrow Leisure Centre, was the culmination of two weeks of fierce competition with over eighty players competing for 14 titles.
In a hard-fought match Caroline beat Sally Bax three games to one. She then teamed up with Sally to beat Hazel Williamson and Hilary Birmingham. In the doubles, she joined her uncle Stuart to capture the mixed doubles title with a win over Sally and Geof Bax.
The men’s singles was equally as exciting with Costas Papantoniou playing patiently and consistently and counter attacking on the backhand side to win in a thrilling match against Eli Baraty. Costas’ victory came despite an emergency during the second game, with disaster only averted when one of his family applied a safety pin to hold his shorts up! Eli played some brilliant shots but missed some crucial winners, especially at the start of the decisive fifth set.
In the men's doubles, however, Eli paired up with James Sprackling to retain their title, defeating the brothers David and Stuart Seaholme in a classic attackers-versus-defenders confrontation. The large crowd was further entertained by David Seaholme's capture of the men's veterans title, edging out Gary Morgan after a terrific five-set battle.
There was also competitive play in the junior and minor events, with 14-year old Michael Persaud winning the junior boys' title for the first time, and Amruti Siyani winning her fourth consecutive girls' singles event. Nikunj Patel won the intermediate singles and Mehul Malde the minor singles, events both open to seniors, proving that the junior game is prospering in the League.
Guest of honour at the Finals Night was Harrow’s Immediate Past Mayor Keeki Thammaiah, who presented the trophies to the winners and runners-up. League Chairman Michael Close thanked all players and spectators for contributing to an excellent evening of table tennis, with special thanks to the team of organisers and especially tournament secretary Steve Dunn for their running of the event.
Team Knockout Cups
The finals line-up for the Team Knockout Cups are now finalized. The matches will take place on Monday 25th and Wednesday 27th March at the Harrow Leisure Centre.
Here are the results of the semi-finals:
Elvin Senior Cup
Eastcote 2nd 3, Vagabonds 5
Hatch End v Vagabonds 2nd (to be played)
Elvin Senior Plate
Eastcote 5, Lowlands 3
Lowlands 2nd 5, Vagabonds 3rd 4
Elvin Junior Cup
Eastcote 5th 2, Maccabi 6
Vagabonds 5th 5, Lowlands 4th 1
Elvin Junior Plate
Vagabonds 7th v London Progress 4th (to be played)
Sudbury Hill 3rd v Harrow CC 2nd (to be played)
Harry Finch Trophy
Pinner CC 2, Eastcote 9th 5
Kenton 3rd 5, Lowlands 8th 2
Harry Finch Plate
Lowlands 10th 0, Apollo 4th 9
Edgware 5th5, First National Bank2
Umpires' Course
The course held at Eastcote on 15 December was attended by five hopefuls, who all passed their Level 1 umpires' exams at the end of the day.
Congratulations to Perry Fung (Hatch End), Paul Squires, John Thirkettle (both Eastcote) and Russell Sutcliffe (Sudbury Hill), plus Alan Radford from the West Middlesex League.
Perry and Russell both underwent their practical umpiring assessments during the Closed Championships, and both umpired games on Finals Night — how’s that for getting close to the action! They can now look forward to bigger and better matches in the future. Table tennis is crying out for volunteers for all sorts of things - umpiring included - as the future of the game tomorrow depends on the people playing it today.
For those of you who missed it, the course will be repeated in the not-too-distant future. Details will appear in this bulletin and on the League website.
Rules of the Game
Russell Sutcliffe reports on the Level One Umpire (Club Standard) qualification course in December
The advert said “why not be the ‘know-all’ in your club”. So at the risk of further damaging my reputation I signed up for a one day seminar and test to learn how to be a club standard umpire.
Five of us attended the seminar, which was ably led by Richard Scruton (chairman of ETTA Umpires and Referees committee). We were all asked our reasons for attending before being taken through the laws of table tennis and the competencies required of an umpire. We had broadly similar reasons for attending and we all were surprised at various times about different laws and how our understanding was incorrect!
My main area of interest was the service. I’d heard that the rules would be changing in September 2002 and wanted to ensure I understood the current laws.
The final test had some tricky questions, as you would expect from a wily table tennis player, but the handouts provided all the answers so there were no excuses. After passing the test we learned that we would have to undergo a practical test. This was the more nerve-wracking part of the qualification. Umpiring/scoring for a normal club game is fairly relaxed, but being observed on accuracy, control and presentation of your umpiring is a challenge. It’s a challenge that I would encourage more players to attempt.
The spin off for my club has been to highlight the quality and legality of the service. All the top players have signed a new year’s resolution to improve their serves. This will be good preparation for the changes that are coming. It also helps when playing with new and younger players. We will be able to teach and demonstrate to them the correct method of serving rather than passing on our bad habits.
Commonwealth Games 2002—Manchester
Table tennis will be featuring amongst the 17 sports for which medals are up for grabs at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Team, individual and wheelchair events all take place at the Indoor Tennis Centre, which is adjacent to the main City of Manchester Stadium on the Ashton Road about 15 minutes' walk from the centre of town.
Will the current Commonwealth champion, Matthew Syed, overcome the challenge from the Far East, with Singapore and Malaysia sending their top players? Can Li Jia Wei of Singapore achieve her goal of a clean sweep of gold medals?
The team events commence on Friday 26 July, with the finals on Tuesday 30th. The individual events begin the following day, with the mens and ladies' doubles finals on Saturday 3 August and the remaining finals on Sunday 4th.
It's another chance to see top table tennis in this country, and tickets are still available for all days, ranging from £5 for the qualifying events to £20 for the best seats at the finals.
Junior Factfile
Name: / Michael Persaud / Mehul MaldeAge: / 14 / 14
School: / BuckinghamCollege, Harrow / Park High, Stanmore
Club: / London Progress / Kenton
Division: / Four / Six
Took up TT: / 1996 / 2000
Favourite subject at school: / Mathematics / English
Favourite TV programme: / The Simpsons / ITTF ProTour
Other sports: / Football (supports Arsenal) / Golf
11+ or 21+ ? / 11+, definitely / 11+, definitely
Best win: / 2002 Wembley & Harrow Junior Boys' Final / Once beat the England junior no.98 and hopes to be ranked higher than that one day!
Closed Championships Roll of Honour
Men's Singles
Costas Papantoniou beat Eli Baraty 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7
Ladies' Singles
Caroline Seaholme beat Sally Bax 11-8, 11-4, 6-11, 11-3
Men's Doubles
Eli Baraty and James Sprackling beat David Seaholme and Stuart Seaholme 16-14, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9
Ladies' Doubles
Sally Bax and Caroline Seaholme beat Hazel Williamson and Hilary Birmingham
Mixed Doubles
Stuart Seaholme and Caroline Seaholme beat Geof Bax and Sally Bax 11-6, 11-7, 13-11
Veteran Men's Singles
David Seaholme beat Gary Morgan 8-11, 11-6, 14-12, 8-11, 11-8
Veteran Ladies' Singles
Sally Bax beat Hilary Birmingham
Intermediate Singles
Nikunj Patel beat Roy Hames 12-10, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9
Minor Singles
Mehul Malde beat Nigel Wong 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 12-10
Junior Boys' Singles
Michael Persaud beat Mehul Malde 11-9, 11-8, 11-4
Junior Girls' Singles
Amruti Siyani beat Nyuti Patel
Junior Boys' Doubles
Mehul Malde and Nikunj Patel beat Michael Persaud and Yan Xue
Cadet Boys' Singles
Michael Persaud beat Jonathan Lau
Cadet Girls' Singles
Nyuti Patel beat Jacqueline Lau
Inter-League results
Victor Barna Trophy (Senior Men)
Wembley & Harrow 2, West Middlesex 7
Wembley & Harrow 7, Staines 2
Wembley & Harrow 1, North Middlesex 8
Norman Pegg Competition (Senior Ladies)
Wembley & Harrow 4, North Middlesex 1
There were only two teams entered, so congratulations to Caroline and
Sarah Seaholme for bringing back the winner's trophy to Wembley & Harrow!
News in Short
At the veteran stage
League Vice-president Michael Papantoniou was heard to ask at the Closed Championships whether he was the oldest player in the League. Michael was there competing at the Leisure Centre and troubling us all with his loopy backhands. He claims to be 81 years old, which makes him older than the ITTF and the ETTA, and even older than my dad's old bat, probably. Anyway, if there's anyone out there still playing who can beat Michael for longevity, please let us know!
County representatives
Middelsex honours to League players this season have gone to Eli Baraty, Aparna Narendran, Christian Hundhausen, James Sprackling (seniors), Leanne Preston (juniors), Paolo Cheng, Geoff Grange, Ian Mablin, Laikram Persaud, Steve Gennari, Tony Taylor, Hazel Williamson, Gerry Hawkins and Ian Buchanan (veterans).
Bringing people closer
The surname Seaholme may be a familiar one in local table tennis circles, but it's not one of the world's most popular. In fact, there's very few of them around. So much so that when Jane Seaholme, from Victoria, Australia, did an internet search on her surname, she detected that she might have some long-lost relations playing in the Wembley & Harrow League. A quick e-mail to the website followed, which resulted in Jane being put in touch with Caroline Seaholme.
Apparently, there is a family link between them, too, although Caroline maintains that her ancestor who emigrated did go of his own accord and not at His or Her Majesty's pleasure!
Get well soon to Peter Higgins of Lowlands, who despite an Achilles tendon injury - suffered whilst playing table tennis - managed to hobble along to the finals night at the Leisure Centre with ankle in plaster.
Enquiries about this bulletin should be made to: / Steve LevenTel: (01923) 227457
Wembley & Harrow Table Tennis League
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