Barella takes place at head of the table
TABLE TENNIS
THE Northumberland Table Tennis Association’s annual Closed Tournament was again a great success.
The competition, at the Sporting Club of Cramlington, was open to any player affiliated to a club in the Northumbria Table Tennis League.
Sunderland’s Graeme Barella claimed the men’s singles title - and the Alan Morpeth Memorial Cup by defeating Gateshead’s Eddie Smith 3-1.
The women’s honours and the Philomena Clark Memorial Trophy went to Lynne Herrington - but only on countback ahead of Linda Pinkham and Lynsey Storey.
The top seeds in the men’s singles were last year’s winner Andrew Wilkinson, Barella, Smith, Jim Stamas and Steve Penman.
For the most part, the script went to plan – the top four seeds all made it to the semi-finals and fifth seed Penman was put out in the quarters by Wilkinson in an enthralling fiveset encounter.
The biggest upset, however, came in the following round when Smith beat Wilkinson 11-8 in the deciding end of their semi-final.
Smith, who once reached the considerable heights of ranking 13th in senior men and second veteran man in England, is no stranger to tournament finals - having won the Newcastle Open, the Newcastle Grand Prix and the Sunderland Masters’ veterans’ title on three occasions as well as 12 Northumberland Closed open singles titles.
In the other half of the draw, Barella’s determination to regain the Alan Morpeth Trophy was clear as he waltzed through assorted Premier Division players without so much as dropping an end.
In the quarter-finals he beat Paul Baines 3-0, then in the semi-finals quickly dispatched No 4 seed Stamas 11-7, 11-5, 11-4.
In the final, Smith stopped the Sunderland-born Barella in his tracks by winning the first set 13-11.
It was neck and neck all the way but Barella misread two of Smith’s notoriously tricky “lefty” serves and tentatively threw one too many forehands off the end of the table, giving his opponent the advantage.
The second end started in a similarly fashion, a recurrence of Barella’s 3-0 loss to Wilkinson in last year’s final possibly weighing on the player’s mind.
However, Smith’s unforced errors then handed Barella the initiative.
Smith switched on halfway through the end to retrieve a few points but Barella’s ability to read the game and control the play was starting to come together, proving enough to win the end and tie the match at one set each.
Once this end was won, Barella settled into the match and looked like a different player, coming out on top of the majority of some genuinely excellent rallies.
The player’s form from earlier in the tournament returned and Smith had no answer, losing the next ends 11-4 and 11-7 respectively.
Despite a poor turn-out in the women’s event, the Philomena Clark Memorial Trophy was still hotly-contested.
In the end, Herrington’s style of close-to-the-table control with short pimple rubber on her backhand gave her the title – though it was incredibly tight as she won on countback.
Pinkham beat Storey, Storey overcame Herrington and Herrington defeated Pinkham, meaning the referees had the job of working out who had lost the fewest sets.
Wilkinson, meanwhile, battled his way to the final of the veterans ‘ singles where he again faced Smith.
A combination of Wilkinson’s return to form and desire for revenge was not what a tired Smith would have wanted to face in the final, having played hours of table tennis already.
In the end those factors proved too much for the NESLC player and Wilkinson clinched two tight ends before cruising to victory in the third to win the title.
The handicap singles crown went to Sreeraag Kanakala (pictured right) who saw off Adam Hardiman 18-21, 21-16, 21-18.
There were five banded singles events, the winners Penman (band one), Mohinder Rawat (band two), Hardiman (band three), Kanakala (band four) and Paul Lupton (band five).
Hardiman teamed up with David Cutler to triumph in the doubles’ competition.
Kanakala and Hardiman were named joint players of the tournament.
A TOURNAMENT for junior players affiliated to local table tennis clubs or local schools will be held on Friday, also at the Sporting Club of Cramlington. Watch out a report on the event in Grassroots Sport.