Holders fall in the final as Eagles complete the double

Eagles raced into a 13-3 lead after four games with Chris Warliker whitewashing both Nicole and Kevin Bird to leave Westfield looking at a heavy defeat.

But the Premier Division champions fought back from that disastrous start and won three and halved two of the next five games to reduce the deficit to 20-16.

Kevin Bird and Steve Silk needed a 4-0 win over Warliker and Ian Donaldson in the doubles to force a play-off.

They took the first end 13-11 for a 20-17 overall scoreline but Donaldson’s defence and Warliker’s attack comfortably won the next end 11-4 for the winning point.

Result: Thrapston Eagles 21 (Donaldson (+6) 5/7, Warliker (+6) 10/2, Stockley (+5) 5/7, Donaldson/Warliker (+6) 1/1) Westfield A 17 (N Bird (SCR) 4/8, K Bird (SCR) 5/7, Silk (SCR) 7/5, Bird/Silk (SCR) 1/1).

There was joy for Westfield in the Borough Trophy as their B team claimed a 6-3 success over Rothborough Dakotas in the final.

Only two of the 10 games needed a deciding end but they proved decisive as victory in these would have resulted in a 5-4 win for Dakotas instead of the 6-3 loss.

Westfield skipper Sam Wildman beat Anthony Yeomans 12-21, 22-20, 21-18 and Peter Rowbotham 7-21, 21-17, 23-21.

And Dan Smalley’s straight-games treble cancelled out Matt Rushton’s whitewash over Peter Rowbotham, Cathy Fleming and Anthony Yeomans.

Result: Rothborough Dakotas 3 (Rowbotham (+13), Fleming (+14), Yeomans (+14)) Westfield B 6 (Smalley (SCR) 3, Wildman (SCR) 3).

It was a remarkable end to the season for Westfield D as they beat Harborough E 447-403 to lift the Shirley Everard Points Cup.

The Westfield team had failed to win a league match all season and finished 49 points adrift at the foot of Division Two, but their fifth consecutive win in this competition secured some silverware.

The all-female trio of Sidney Wright, Evie Elliott and Bronwen Grigg played well above their league form and after this performance probably wished that every week was a cup match.

John McGowan only conceded 79 points in his four games to star for Harborough with Ben Baker and Ron Palfrey only managing to make up 26 and 21 points each.

The three girls maintained a healthy advantage throughout and were never behind in the match.

Providing this season’s cup performances are transferred to their league results, next season will surely see a much improved league position.

Result: Harborough E (SCR) 403 (McGowan 126/61, Baker 119/93, Palfrey 116/95, McGowan/Baker 42/18) Westfield D (+180) 447 (Wright 99/118, Elliott 107/117, Grigg 43/126 Wright/Grigg 18/42).

New style Regional Championships were held in Draycott in Derbyshire in February with the winners going on to represent the East Midlands in the National Inter-Regional Championships at the Kettering Sports Arena on May 21 and 22.

The East Midlands Region Committee has selected three players for five of the six National Events with four for the U/15 Boys.

Representing Northants will be Anna Wilson from the Malcolm Arnold Academy TTC in Northampton and Virat Patel from WDHA TTC based at the Hindu Centre in Wellingborough, which is the largest club in the county.

Both players represent the County Cadet first team in the Table Tennis England (TTE) County Championships and are coached by the former county champion Graeme McKim, a winner of over 50 titles.

This year’s final of the Wellingborough & District League’s Challenge Trophy will be an all-WDHA affair after the Challengers and the Knightriders came through their semi-final clashes.

The club rivals will meet in the final on Monday, May 9 at the Old Grammarians Memorial Ground, starting at 7pm with the evening also incorporating the annual presentation of trophies for the season.

Hosts Chesterwell E started disastrously in their clash with WDHA Challengers with Gavin Birmingham only gaining two points in his opening encounter with Kyle Ghanie.

But Chesterwell fought back with Peter Atkins and Stuart Rae gaining 69 points in the next eight ends.

However, game nine saw the unfortunate Birmingham gain only nine points against Tarun Mistry to reduce the deficit to 18.

Rae and Atkins fought hard in the doubles but went down 7-11, 5-11, 4-11, 4-11 to Ghanie and Manav Pandya, which saw the visitors run out winners by six points.

In the first six games of the other clash between Wanderers E and WDHA Knightriders, five were spot on handicap and, in game four, Rishan Ganatra gained 33 points in a 7-11, 11-10, 11-4, 4-11 share with Derek Shears to give the visitors a big fillip.

However, Shears redeemed himself with a win over Ansh Shah to restore parity.

Ganatra and Kavish Dodhia rose to the challenge, gaining 58 points against Steve Hoole and David May before Ganatra and Dodhia duly delivered the final points needed in the doubles defeat to May and Shears.

Results: Chesterwell E (220) 428 (Gavin Birmingham 30/132, Peter Atkins 74/126, Stuart Rae 84/132) WDHA Challengers (0) 434 (Kyle Ghanie 132/43, Tarun Mistry 126/71, Manav Pandya 132/74), Wanderers E (0) 431 (David May 132/78, Derek Shears 123/65, Steve Hoole 132/66) WDHA Knightriders (220) 453 (Rishan Ganatra 81/124, Kavish Dodhia 74/131, Ansh Shah 54/132).