BERKSHIRE INTER TOWN REPORT
The first phase of the '09-'10 Berkshire Intertown Tournament at Kingfisher Club hosted the 1st Division Seniors and Veterans teams, and Maidenhead, Reading and Bracknell fielded their strongest players to attempt to take on Newbury, the winners of last season.
The first round of matches in the Seniors saw two whitewash victories for Maidenhead and Reading against Newbury and Bracknell respectively, but not all matches were as straightforward as the final result seems to make out. Both Steve Murgatroyd and Ray Powell (Newbury) lost out narrowly in five, just as Ian Cole (Bracknell) did against Daniel Moses (Reading).
The Veterans division turned out to deliver more evenly matched games, and it was Reading and Newbury that edged out 4-2 wins against Bracknell and Maidenhead respectively. David Streak was the main man for Reading with two wins, matched by Graham Outrim for Bracknell, while Paul Rattue took Newbury over the finish line with a 100% record. John Cooper came close to take 2 wins home for Maidenhead, but lost out in a 5-game battle against Paul.
The Maidenhead and Reading Seniors went head-to-head in the second round, and it seemed to go Reading's way when Hari Gehlot and Daniel Moses gave the team a 2-0 lead with 3-0 victories over Stuart Williams and Charleigh Kirby, but it was Mark Banks who brought Maidenhead back into contention with a hard-fought win over Ramesh Gehlot, while Stuart had a great victory over Daniel. Mark looked to become the surprise winner over Hari when he went 2-0 ahead, but Hari was not to be denied and battled his way to victory in 5. Charleigh earned a deserved draw by beating Ramesh in 4, but it was the 12-11 games ratio in Reading's favour that could prove to be the decisive factor in who was going to be the overall winner. Meanwhile, Newbury and Bracknell still had all to play for, and a win could keep them in contention for the Barbara Peisley Cup. The first two games promised another tight result, with Ray Powell (Newbury) the winner over Ian Cole and Mike Burrow (Bracknell) edging out against Ian Langley. From then onwards, it went Newbury’s way with three straight victories, only for Sue Johnson to soften the loss with a nice 3-0 win over Ian. 4-2 the result in Newbury’s favour.
Back at the Veterans' tables, Newbury took on Bracknell, while Reading looked to continue their winning streak against Maidenhead. However, David's winning Streak came to an end against Derek Wood, who won both his matches in five games (Bob Davis being his 2nd victim) to earn Maidenhead a draw. The Reading boys contributed each with 1 win to keep their team in the running for 1st place. However, Newbury took the lead in the Vets division by claiming a 4-2 victory over Bracknell. Again it was Graham Outrim who held Bracknell's spirits high with 2 wins, but Dave Gilham and Sharon Mitchell were unable to follow it up with a draw-earning victory. It was John Barclay for Newbury who kept a clean sheet and assured that the team topped the table going into the final round.
It was time for round 3, and Bracknell's Seniors were looking for their first win and hoped to clinch it against Maidenhead, who themselves had to seek a victory and hope that Reading wouldn't win against Newbury. But soon it became clear Maidenhead was the stronger team and ran a second 6-0 victory of the day. A tough result for Bracknell, but with a sneak preview of their 2nd and 3rd teams for the next weeks, I am sure they will return with a vengeance. Reading pulled out all the stops to deny Newbury a second victory and seemed to do so with a 3-1 lead after four games. Ray, however, staged a minor comeback by overcoming Daniel Moses in four games, and gave Ian the hard task of upstaging Ramesh for a draw. With 2-all in games, it seemed it was Reading's game to lose, but Ramesh showed he has nerves of steel and knocked out Ian in the final game (11-3). Reading and Maidenhead closed the day's proceedings with each 5 place points (2 wins and a draw each), but it was Reading's 12-11 games ratio against Maidenhead that put them in first place.
The third round saw Newbury and Reading meet each other to decide the winner in the Veterans division, with Reading needing a win to jump over Newbury into first place. John Barclay showed his good form all day and put Newbury in pole-position with a 3-2 win over Clive Banham, but it was David and Bob who reversed the preliminary standings by getting 3-0 victories over Tony Brown and Paul Rattue respectively. Tony redeemed himself by getting the better over Clive before John, again, earned Newbury the all-important third game. A 3-0 win from David over Paul resulted in a deserved draw for both teams, but Newbury went home as 1st Division champions.
Bracknell and Maidenhead ended the day with a fine display of table tennis matches, which, unfortunately for Bracknell, went Maidenhead's way up to 5-0, despite Bracknell's good efforts: Graham lost his 100% record after losing out twice in five – credits to John Cooper and Derek Wood – and also Dave couldn't put Bracknell on the score sheet against the two Johns (Kaufmann and Cooper). Step in Sharon Mitchell, who admitted finding it tough going all day, but showed true character in edging out John Kaufmann 13-11, 13-11, 11-9, a deserved win that ended the day's with Maidenhead in 3rd and Bracknell in 4th, but with a promise from Bracknell to make up ground next week in Division 2.
The individual heroes of Phase 1 were:
For the Seniors:
Hari Gehlot with 6 wins out of 6, with a special mention for the Maidenhead members (Mark Banks, Stuart Williams and Charleigh Kirby) with 5 wins each.
For the Vets:
No untouchables here, but three players with 5 victories; John Barclay (Newbury), David Streak (Reading) and Derek Wood (Maidenhead), showing the evenly
matched strength of the Vets division.
A recap of today’s games:
| SENIORS | READING | BRACKNELL | MAIDENHEAD | NEWBURY |
| READING | - | 6-0 | 3-3 | 4-2 |
| BRACKNELL | 0-6 | - | 0-6 | 2-4 |
| MAIDENHEAD | 3-3 | 6-0 | - | 6-0 |
| NEWBURY | 2-4 | 4-0 | 0-6 | - |
| VETRANS | READING | BRACKNELL | MAIDENHEAD | NEWBURY |
| READING | - | 4-2 | 3-3 | 3-3 |
| BRACKNELL | 2-4 | - | 1-5 | 2-4 |
| MAIDENHEAD | 3-3 | 5-1 | - | 2-4 |
| NEWBURY | 3-3 | 4-2 | 4-2 | - |
The Barbara Peisley Ranking as it stands after phase 1:
| TEAMS | VETRANS | SENIORS | TOTAL PEISLEY POINT TALLY |
| READING | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| NEWBURY | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| MAIDENHEAD | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| BRACKNELL | 1 | 1 | 2 |