North Devon Table Tennis League 2019/20 — latest results

BRIDGERULE remain in with a shout of winning the Division One title after playing twice last week.

Following Smugglers’ 10-0 success over a weakened Balls of Fury on Monday (February 24), the night after saw Bridgerule lose 7-3 at fourth-placed Blazing Paddles who reeled out the two best players in the league in Kevin Taylor and Ben Taylor, who both were unbeaten all night in the singles and doubles.

The Bridgerule trio of Steve Cragg, Peter Freeburn and David Streak all eased past Steve Richardson but it meant they were nine points behind Smugglers going into their rearranged clash at Bridgerule Village Hall on Friday night.

Knowing they needed to win, and win well, Bridgerule got off to a superb start as Peter Freeburn fought back from 2-1 down to beat Matthew Thomas in the fifth. Steve Cragg then got the better of Pete Hedge in a decider and David Streak proved too steady for Martin Babulik and Cragg beat Thomas in straight ends as they went 4-0 up.

Although Babulik defeated Freeburn in four, Cragg and Streak completed outstanding trebles to go 7-1 up.

Hedge beat Freeburn to make it 7-2 before he joined forces with Babulik to pull off a surprise in the doubles against Streak and Cragg.

Holsworthy D remain bottom of the table after losing 7-3 at home to Spin Doctors.

David Sillifant kept up his good recent form for the hosts by defeating David Ewen and David Morgan in straight games, while Nathan Jukes picked up just his second win of the season by fighting back in the last end to beat Ewen.

The hosts were left disappointed as Morgan battled back from the brink to defeat Jukes, while regular Division Two player Doug Genini played superbly and pushed both Ewen and man-of-the-match Michael Sussex extremely hard.

Holsworthy A’s clash at Herons last Wednesday was postponed and rearranged for last night.

Holsworthy C are into the Ramsey Cup final for the second successive year after defeating Holsworthy A 5-1.

Although Holsworthy C have struggled in the league which saw them finish last after ending their Division Two campaign with an 8-2 defeat at West Buckland last Thursday despite wins for Shaun Collins and Bob Montague, the handicap-based Ramsey Cup saw them given the ideal chance to progress as they were given headstarts of over 10 in every single match.

In the opening match, Sumiyo Berkeley and Ezra Jukes started 12-0 up on Sam Jennings and Owen Salisbury but scraped through 21-20 in the third end.

Shaun Collins utilised a 15-0 lead to beat Dave Salisbury before Owen Salisbury defied an 11-0 disadvantage to beat Berkeley in straight ends.

But from there, the C team kept their nerve the better to go through.

To view all the latest results, fixtures, player averages and more, visit www.tabletennis365.com/NorthDevon