SOUTH Devon & Torbay Table Tennis League held their finals and awards night, the showpiece event of the year, at Stover School last week, reports Tony Halse.

Some events were completed prior, at the Torbay Leisure Centre. These include the ladies double event won by Sonja Ryland and Sarah O’Leary, Jim McIvor’s successful retention of the super veteran’s title and Olivia and Blake’s wins in the U11 and U13 opens respectively, to name a few.

On to the finals & awards night and, after a welcome and introduction from the league’s new chairman Peter Moretta, the evening got underway with the first of seven matches.

Match one was the veterans’ final between Brixham’s Chris Harper and Newton Abbot’s Paul Davey, a close competitive match which could’ve gone either way. Paul eventually won it in the fifth set 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7.

Next up was the Division Two singles. The top two players in the division, Torbay Academy’s Alex Fialho and Brixham’s Stuart Shipley, had battled their way to the final from a large, top quality, pool of players at the Torbay Leisure centre on Sunday.

Both players’ instinct is to attack which led to some fierce hitting with Stuart coming out on top as Alex struggled to get his attacking game together. Stuart winning 13-11, 11-7, 11-9.

The third event was the mixed doubles which saw the experienced pair and current holders of the title Sonja Ryland & Kevin Nicholls (Newton Abbot) defeat the newly formed partnership of Issy Brown and Chris Harper (Brixham) 12-10, 11-8, 11-7.

It was the turn of the juniors next and what a match they put on. Torbay Academy’s Gustaw Adamczak was up against Albie Andrews from Newton Abbot. In arguably the match of the night, which included some amazing points, Albie triumphed 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10.

Match five was the men’s doubles and the current holders of the title Brixham’s Aarish Maharjan and Chris Harper were too sharp for the Newton Abbot pairing of Kevin Nicholls and Paul Davey, winning fairly comfortably 11-4, 11-7, 11-9.

New to the South Devon and Torbay League this season, Sarah O’Leary was up against the rapidly improving Issy Brown in the Ladies’ singles final for the Knight Cup. Both players looking to attack it was Newton Abbot’s Sarah who got the upper hand after Brixham’s Issy took the first game. Sarah eventually lifting the Knight cup winning 12-14, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.

The final event of the evening, the men’s singles for the Burton Cup, was a repeat of last season’s final but with a different outcome.

Hard-hitting Aarish Maharjan (pictured) from Brixham was up against the guile, spin and defence of Newton Abbot’s Kevin Nicholls.

It was always going to be an entertaining game to watch with top quality rallies abundant, and so it proved. This time though it was the attack that won through as Aarish lifted the Burton Cup 11-7, 11-8, 2-11, 11-4.

In between the finals, the league season’s awards were handed out to all the successful players and teams by the league’s main sponsor Sonja Ryland of Albany Florists.

An excellent evening’s table tennis enjoyed by a decent crowd in Jubilee Hall, Stover School.

Many thanks to the school, and particularly the Estates manager, for staging the event and to many others who assisted throughout. A big thank you to all the players and their friends and family who took part, collected their awards and came to support the occasion.