CRACKINGTON?C’s Simon Patterson was crowned the 2017/18 Handicap?Singles champion at Budehaven Sports Hall last week in the first night of the North Cornwall Table Tennis League’s Individual Championships.

The Handicap Singles is a tournament open to all players in?divisions one, two and three with players given a handicap, depending on their league status ranging from -11 for the best player in the top tier to plus 13 for the lowest-ranked player in Division Three.

Matches were played as best of three, first to 21 basis, with the headstart determined by the respective handicaps.

Twenty-four players took part in eight groups of three with the winner of those groups going through to the quarter-finals, where it then became a straight knockout.

Patterson beat five Division Two players in total, including getting the better of Andrew Ward and Ross Paynter in the group stage.

Using a +10 headstart in a race to 21 against all but one of his opponents, Patterson beat Ashley Taylor, Doug Genini and then David Sillifant 21-11, 21-19 to take the title.

The Super Veterans Singles (for players born in 1962 or earlier) were also played with number one seed Keith Bradshaw easing to victory.

Despite only playing one league match throughout the season in?Division One, he proved far too good for the rest of the field as he beat Martin Hynes in straight sets before doing likewise to David Ewen in the final.

The other event of the night was the Junior Singles (for players aged 17 and below) and predictably it was Owen Salisbury who cruised to the title.

After winning all 24 of his singles matches in Division Two, he had no trouble in defeating Ezra Jukes in the semi-finals before losing just 13 points in the final against Sam Jennings.

Tonight sees the rest of the Individual Championships events take place with the Open Singles, Open?Doubles, Restricted Singles (for Division Two and Three players), Ladies Singles and Mixed Doubles all up for grabs.

See next week’s Post for a full round-up of the night’s proceedings.