Corry wins Flashing Blade Trophy for a fourth occasion
JONATHAN Corry won the Orsted sponsored Grimsby, Cleethorpes & District Table Tennis Association’s annual hard bat tournament for the Flashing Blade Trophy.
The event, held in memory of Don Newton, attracted 16 entries who were placed in four groups of four, with the top two qualifying for the knockout stages.
Jon Corry, who was runner-up to Mike Thornley in the inaugural event in 2016 but had held the title since 2017 was hot favourite to win again.
He cruised through Group One with three straight set wins. Colin Woodford also qualified from the group with wins over Omar Aldeek and Kay Ward.
Group Two showed the unpredictably of the event, with some players adapting to the hard bats, which were provided by the Association, better than others.
Bethany Ardern, 16, who plays for Three Generations in Division Two topped the group.
She lost her first game to Mick Corry, Jon’s father, in five sets, but then defeated very good Premier player Mike Bailey in four sets. Bailey then defeated Corry in five sets and with them all getting the better of Kareem Aldeek, this left Ardern first and Corry second on set ratio with Bailey losing out.
There was a similar situation in Group Three where three players, Ab Aldeek, Isaac Gibney and Tim Smith, finished with two wins each.
They all defeated newly crowned Ladies Champion Elliot Ashford. Aldeek, who plays for the Terminators in Division Three with his two children, finished top on set ratio with Premier players Gibney runner-up and Smith losing out on qualification.
Group Four was more straight forward: Rob Sampson winning the group with three wins and Jacob Ardern also qualifying following victories over Brian Allison and Millie Smith.
Bethany Ardern’s dream run continued in the quarter-final when she defeated Gibney, who plays for the Premier champions Orsted A, in straight sets 11-6, 11-4, 11-9. The other quarterfinals provided wins for Jonathan Corry over Jacob Ardern, Mick Corry over Ab Aldeek and Rob Sampson over Colin Woodford.
Jon Corry brought Ardern’s run to an end with a comfortable win. The other semi-final was a fascinating encounter with 2017 runner-up Mick Corry against 2018 runner-up Sampson with Corry trying to outwit his younger opponent. It was Sampson who came out on top in a tight match winning 12-10, 12-10, 11-6.
This set up a repeat of the 2018 final and Jonathan Corry looked on course for a comfortable victory when he led 11-3, 9-11, 11-3 and 8-3.
Sampson fought back to lead 10-8 in the fourth set before a relieved Corry came back to win the set and the match 13-11.
Corry was winning the title for the fourth time, the event not being held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.