THERE was a record turnout of nearly 30 for the final night of the North Cornwall Table Tennis League’s Individual Championships at Budehaven Sports Hall last Thursday.

The week before saw the Handicap Singles, Super Veterans Singles and Junior Singles played for with five further events — the Open Singles, Open Doubles, Restricted Singles (for Division Two and Three players only), Mixed Doubles and Ladies’ Singles — up for grabs.

The Open Singles saw 27 players split into nine groups of three with the winners going into three further pools for the right to reach the semi-finals.

Three competitors advanced as the winners of the group, with the best runner-up also going through.

The event was a keenly-contested affair but it was the number one seed on the night, Shirley Luckhurst, that took the honours.

The North Hill A player navigated her way through groups with David Sillifant and Simon Patterson and then Martin Hynes and Nathan Jukes before having to come from a game down to defeat the consistent David Stone in the last four to set up a showdown with Budehaven A’s David Ewen in the final.

However, Luckhurst showed her bottle to win in three straight games.

The match of the night in the Open Singles came in Ewen’s semi-final against Angharad Beman as he beat the super-talented teenager 14-16, 11-6, 11-8, 15-13.

The Restricted Singles drew an entry of 20 with the top seeds, Owen Salisbury and Zach Parker, automatically being placed in the last eight.

The remaining 18 players were split into three groups of six with the winners advancing into the quarter-finals.

Once the groups had been completed, all the favourites were through with anyone capable of winning the event.

That was proved in the quarter-finals as the number one seed and defending champion Owen Salisbury, who hadn’t lost a match in Division Two all season for champions Budehaven B, was sensationally knocked out by Budehaven C skipper Anthony Ward in a repeat of the 2016/17 final.

The closest match on paper was between the in-form player in the division over the last few months, Ross Paynter, and Salisbury’s team-mate, Ashley Taylor.

However, Taylor, who himself finished with a win percentage of over 80%, showed his mettle to edge through two games to one and set up a semi-final with Ward.

In the other half of the draw it was a battle of the team-mates as Budehaven B’s Nathan Jukes and Sillifant squared off while Crackington’s Paul Seez took on Parker.

Jukes against Sillifant was a back-and-forth contest with Sillifant coming from a game down to move into the last four against Seez, who comfortably got the better of Parker.

Taylor had beaten Ward in both league games during the season, but when it really mattered Ward showed all of his experience to fightback from a game down and win 3-11, 11-4, 11-7.

Seez was bidding for his second final of the season after reaching the Class Two final at the David Viggers Tournament in February, but it was Sillifant who gained his revenge after being dumped out of the competition at that stage by the same player, as he took the spoils in straight games (11-7, 11-5).

Ward has had the edge over Sillifant throughout the season — winning both league meetings in straight games — and so it proved again as his slow, consistent style proved too good for the Budehaven B captain, who failed to make any meaningful impression in the game despite a late comeback, as Ward won three games to one and go one better than last year.

The Open Doubles was played on a ‘top and bottom’ basis with the best player in Division One paired with the lowest seed from Division Three, while it was played as a straight knockout.

Sillifant and Crackington B’s Robin Evans were one of two lucky teams to be given a bye straight into the quarter-finals, and it was they who went on to take the title as they edged past Ward and Seez and Paynter and Keiron Chatterjea in close contests before beating North Hill A’s Martin Hynes and Budehaven E’s Robin Worden in three straight games in the decider.

Despite just three entries, the Ladies’ Singles was a high quality event with Luckhurst, Beman and Budehaven A’s Helen Murgatroyd playing in a round-robin event.

All games in each of the three matches were close with Beman’s 11-6, 6-11, 12-10 victory over Luckhurst proving decisive.

Luckhurst was again a runner-up later on in the evening as her and husband Trevor teamed up in the Mixed Doubles against Beman and Mike Kinger and Murgatroyd and Dave Salisbury.

However the consistency of the latter pairing won the day as they snuck home 14-12 in a thrilling decider.