Malabar serves up highlight of Bay table tennis calender

WITH the third round of the Nelson Mandela Bay Table Tennis Union league nearly completed, the year-end highlight on the calendar, the NMBTTU Closed tournament, takes place at the Malabar Community Centre tomorrow.

Due to varsity exams and the recent Vets and Para interprovincial, there are a few league matches still to be played.

In the Closed event, last year’s singles champion Dipal Bhana will be back to defend his title.

However, he will get good competition from other contenders such as Michael de Kock, Kurt Adams and Monde Cola.

Both De Kock, who has shown good form lately, and Bhana represented EP at the SA Senior tournament in Cape Town.

The tournament gets under way at 9am.

Last week, the SA interprovincial was held in Pretoria and the Eastern Cape Vets and Para teams did exceptionally well.

Cola won the gold medal in the men’s over-50 singles category when he beat Simond Diamant from Gauteng Central 3-1 in a thrilling final.

In the men’s open doubles, Cola and Tiger Pather reached the semifinals and each earned a bronze medal.

The vets over-40 team of Rajesh Bhana, Neil Hendricks, Shahied Mamoojee and Robert Kuscus secured a bronze medal when they beat Western Province in the third place play-off.

In the Para team, Claud Lawack secured a gold for the most matches won – he took silver in the singles event and a bronze medal in the team event.