Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Knights and Sputniks win
TWO Dundee and District Table Tennis Association cup finals were decided.
Division One champs Knights defeated their nearest league rivals, Up4it, to win the Stanley Doubles Trophy.
Sputniks won the Handicap Cup Final against Prefects after a closely-fought contest that went to the final match.
David Hunter was inspired for Sputniks when he held his nerve to win 31-30 twice against Howard Lee with the overall scores tied at 5-5.
Then, under great pressure, he held off Clyde Johnson to secure the winning game for Sputniks.
Knights 5 (Robert Toth 1 ½, Stuart Halliday 1½, Ally Rennet 2), Up4it 1 (Gillian Edwards ½, Ryan Docherty 0, Paul Monteith ½).
Knights got off to a good start when Stuart and Ally defeated Gillian and Paul 3-1.
The next three matches were all decided in the final game but Knights won two of them to take command.
Stuart and Robert beat Ryan and Paul after they had been 2-1 down.
Then Ally and Robert defeated Gillian and Ryan 11-9 in the fifth game and finally Gillian and Paul got Up4it on the scoreboard after they beat Stuart and Robert 11-8.
In match five, Stuart and Ally beat Gillian and Ryan 3-0 but the third game went to 14-12 before it was decided.
Knights had one hand on the trophy and, in match six, Robert and Ally dominated to overcome Ryan and Paul in three games and secure the overall victory and trophy for Knights.
Prefects 7 (Clyde Johnson 2, Michael Hahn 4, Howard Lee 1), Sputniks 10 (David Hunter 3, Daniel Russell 4, Sandy Bertie 3).
In the opening match Daniel put Sputniks ahead after he beat Clyde but Michael soon levelled when he defeated David.
Sandy then beat Howard to put Sputniks in front again.
However, Michael and Daniel took one game each to make the score 5-3.
Then a great show by Clyde to defeat Sandy 31-26 and 31-30 levelled the overall score at 5-5.
In match six, both games went to the wire but it was David who held his nerve to win 31-30 twice against Howard.
Michael then won the first game against Sandy but a fine recovery from Sandy in the second game kept Sputniks ahead.
In match eight, Howard won the first game 31-29 but Daniel kept ahead throughout the next to win it 31-27.
In the final match, Clyde had to win to keep Prefects in the tie and he seemed to have the edge over David and was rapidly closing in on him.
However, David kept his focus and registered the 31-27 win which won the tie and trophy for Sputniks.