North Devon Table Tennis League 2019/20 (week three) round-up

BRIDGERULE showed that they could compete for the Division One crown by defeating last year’s champions Misfits on Friday night.

Bridgerule eased to a 10-0 success over Chumleigh in their first ever game in North Devon seven days earlier, but would have expected a tight encounter against their Monkleigh-based visitors.

Keith Le Milliere got the better of Peter Freeburn in the opening match of the night before the hosts won the next three.

Martyn Beer won two of his three matches to keep the visitors in contention at 4-3, but with David Streak, Freeburn winning their singles and Streak and Cragg coming from 2-0 down to claim the doubles point, the hosts took it, 7-3. Cragg claimed a brace with Streak notching a well-deserved treble.

Holsworthy A’s tough start continued as they lost 8-2 at home to Spin Doctors.

Keith Bradshaw made his North Devon debut for the hosts, and although he won two, the visitors, who like Misfits are based in Monkleigh, proved too strong.

That said, youngster Sam Jennings could have beaten David Ewen and Dave Morgan on another day, while skipper Dave Salisbury was left to bemoan his luck as he lost in five against Morgan and one of the league’s best players in Michael Sussex.

The final singles of the night saw Sussex show his shot-making ability to eventually wear down the superb defensive skills to beat Bradshaw.

The doubles to conclude the evening saw Morgan and Ewen fightback from the brink to make it 8-2.

It was a bad night for promoted Holsworthy D as they were whitewashed 10-0 at Instow against Smugglers. Last year’s runners-up are a tough proposition for anyone, and although David Sillifant made Martin Babulik work hard and fought back to take Peter Hedge to a deciding game, Hedge edged home 11-9.

Both Holsworthy teams in Division Two met at Sutcombe Village Hall with the B team thrashing their C counterparts 9-1.

With veteran skipper Bob Montague having the week off, the C team called in Doug Genini. And although he beat Jeremy Rickman, he was unable to get the better of Barry Stearman and Jill Knightley, who also proved too good for Shaun Collins and Ezra Jukes.

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