TABLE TENNIS

GILLIAN RETAINS TITLES

The senior categories at Dundee and District Table Tennis Association Championships at Ward Road gym produced a day of fine play and enough surprise results to keep the spectators buzzing.

Gillian Edwards retained the three titles she won last season, beating Fiona Kinloch in the final of the ladies’ singles and teaming up with Fiona against Emma Bissett and Tanya Kapelyukh to add the doubles trophy to her haul.

In the mixed doubles, Gillian and Ryan Docherty survived a close semi-final and in the final were match points down to Callum Riddoch and Emma in the fourth set before coming through to win in five. In the men’s singles, Robert Toth progressed steadily in his quest for “three in a row.”

In the semi-final he inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Pete Yearworth who had rolled back the years in making it through to this stage.

In the bottom half of the draw, Ryan Docherty was the man in form, beating three higher seeds in Stuart Halliday, David Hay and Callum in quick succession. However, he could not find a way past Robert’s determined mix of attack and steady play and it was the Mylnefield player who was crowned champion yet again.

The men’s doubles turned out to be the top event of the afternoon. Robert and Stuart were expected to win the title for the third time but they suffered a shock first round exit at the hands of juniors Andrew Nimmo and David Hay. Andrew and David then won a thrilling semi-final against Ryan and Paul Monteith, coming back from 2-1 down to win the 4th and 5th 13-11 and 11-9.

On to the final to face the tricky pairing of Peter Aird and Callum, the boys again staged a recovery from two sets down to win the next three -8,-9 and -8 to get their names on a senior trophy for the first time.

There were no such surprises in the veterans’ singles with Peter Aird fulfilling his top seeding with a final win against Iain Martin, although Peter did survive a scare in the semi-final against Brechin’s Andy Crawford. The veterans’ doubles title went to Iain and Pete Yearworth when they defeated John Anderson and Andy. The Silver Bat was won by Grant Williams and Andy and Pete paired up to take the last title of the day when they beat Mohammed Alrubayee and Iain in the final of the ballot doubles.