Father and son battle decides tie

DEIGHTON D and E teams produced an exciting cup contest in the Huddersfield League’s Table Tennis Direct Cup – with the result decided by a father against son battle.

The D team came out on top, but were taken all the way by their clubmates who were defeat by 623-621.

The D team featured Keith Sandiford, James Woodbridge and Kai Spencer and they had to fend off a determined display by the E team made up of juniors Kayden Oates, Robert Sandiford and Sarah Amin.

With the D team players enjoying a total match handicap advantage of 12 points, it was destined to be a close fought affair.

In the opening match Keith Sandiford and Oates won two games each, with Sandiford gaining a four-point advantage after handicaps were taken into account.

Match two went in favour of the E team as Robert Sandiford won three of his four games against Woodbridge to gain an overall lead of three points.

In the third match, Sarah Amin extended the E team lead to nine points beating Kai Spencer in three of the four games.

In match five Keith Sandiford won his four games against Amin to establish a 10-point lead for the D team, and Spencer extended the lead by a couple of points in the next match.

Amin won her four games in match seven to swing the tie back in favour of the E team by four points, but match eight saw the D team turn the tables again as Spencer won three games against Oates to give his team a two-point lead.

In the deciding match, Robert Sandiford needed to beat his father Keith to stand any chance of his E team progressing to the next round of the competition.

He won the first game 11-6 but lost the second 11-3, then Robert won the third game to leave the match all square.

Both players were desperate not to make a mistake in this final game and nerves began to show as points went in favour of the server with scores level at 9-9.

Keith forced his son into a couple of errors to claim the game 11-9.

The scores for the match were 34-34 but as both players had the same handicap, the two-point advantage from the previous matches ensured the D team progressed to the next round.

Also in the Table Tennis Direct Cup there have been wins for Kingsmith Engineering B and New North Road Baptist Church A over Kingsmith Engineering D and U3A B, respectively.

Woodfield Park B progressed to the next round due to their opponents conceding the match and Paddock A received a bye to the next round.

In the second round of the Royds The players from the Deighton D and E teams (from left) James Woodbridge, Keith Sandiford, Kai Spencer, Robert Sandiford, Sarah Amin and Kayden Oates Hall Printing Trophy, the senior knockout competition, Kingsmith Engineering C had a narrow 16-point victory over Marsh Con C.

In an even closer match, Woodfield Park A came back from a losing position to beat New North Road Baptist Church B by six points.

Division Two league leaders Scissett WMC A beat the third division league leaders Kingsmith Fountain Of Youth by 45 points, with nett points contributions by Clive Standen (25), Stewart Clarke (2) and Brian Armitage (18).

Marsh Con A and B teams had mixed fortunes.

Marsh A beat Scissett WMC B but their B team were well beaten by an in-form Greetland side.

Marsh Con C 449 Kingsmith Engineering C 465, Scissett WMC A 505 Kingsmith Fountain Of Youth 460, Marsh Con A 449 Scissett WMC B 400, Woodfield Park A 444 New North Road Baptist Church B 438, Marsh Con B 402 Greetland 493

Kingsmith Engineering D 417 Kingsmith Engineering B 478, U3A B 532 New North Road Baptist Church A 580, Deighton Leisure Centre D 623 Deighton Leisure Centre E 621