Herefordshire County Table Tennis Invitation Cup
"Allensmore Retains The County Invitation Cup"
The Allensmore team of Mark Owen, Richard Owens, Bob Marshall and John Clarke beat the Hereford team of Harry Jutle, Alistair Dawson, Sharon Powell and Ian Cooper by 2-points to retain the Herefordshire County Table Tennis Invitation Cup for the second year running. Eight teams enter this event and players need to be living near the team venue to be eligible to play. Four players in a team ranked 1-4; 1 & 2 play against 1 & 2and 3 &4 play against 3&4; Games are played up to 11-points, best of 5; a single point is scored for each 5 points won; A set of doubles is also played, the remaining players only play doubles in the event of a draw. In the first round Allensmore beat Malvern, Leominster beat Ledbury, Hereford beat Woolhope and Ross beat Bromyard to reach the semi-final stage. To reach the finals Allensmore beat Leominster and Hereford beat Ross.
A fierce encounter of the first match between John Clarke and Ian Cooper set the competition to a good start, with John winning in the 5th set to lead by a point at 9-8. Sharon Powell played against Bob Marshall next and Bob could not keep up with Sharon who was on tremendous form to put Hereford in front at 14-12. Richard Owens also started in cracking form to beat Ali 11/3 in the first game, but then Ali fought back to win the second 11/3, followed by the third at 11/7. Richard responded by using his experience to win the fourth 11/8, but was unable to contain him in the fifth loosing it 4/11. This put Hereford 21-17 ahead. Harry Jutle put up a tremendous fight against Mark Owen, but Mark proved to be too strong bringing the scores level to 23 each. Mark and Richard beat Harry and Ali 12/10, 11/4, 11/3 to lead by 4-points at 29-25. Sharon went into action against John and found his sidespins tricky at times, but beat him in straight sets to narrow the gap to a point. Ian went on to play a great game against Bob to lead by a point at 41-40. Harry and Richard played a cat and mouse game with Harry winning in the 5th set to lead 50-47. Mark and Ali went on to play the final set. Ali showed why he is the vastly improved Number One Junior in the first game by narrowly losing 11-9 in thrilling long rallies of touch, spin, speed and power, but then Mark showed why he is the undisputed Hereford champion in the next two games by stepping up a gear to gain a 5-point advantage, thus winning the match by 2-points.