Lillington Free Church Table Tennis Club hold its third tournament of the season

The Senior event pitched Steve Bertie of Continental Stars in Birmingham against Church’s Harry Purewal in the semi-final. Bertie won a close encounter 10,9 and 9 and went on to face Marius Matei of Kidlington in the Final. Matei had beaten Mark Rose of St Georges in the semi 3-1. In a tense final Bertie took the title 11-9 in the 5th.

The Junior Final produced a local semi-final with Eathorpe’s Toby John defeating Deva Bakthisaran of Free Church 3-1. In the other semi, Jack Ganderton of Stratford beat Shaun Yan Lee of Kidlington in a 5 setter. Toby John triumphed 3-1 in the Final.

There was an all Free Church semi in the Cadets (U15) with Toby Roe getting the better of club mate Johan Pretorius. In the other semi, Aleksander Anchev of Continental beat Harry Hunt. In a close Final, Anchev succeeded in 5.

The under 13s semis were contested by Leo Roope of Kidlington who overcame his club-mate, James Lee, 3-1 and Samuel Lee of Colebridge who accounted for Dylan Soo of Tamworth by the same margin. After losing the first 8-11, Roope upped his game to win the next three sets comfortably.

In the afternoon events the host club’s Harry Purewal reached his first ever A Graded Final when posting an excellent straight sets win over WCC’s Simon Griew in the semi. He had to face Colebridge’s Craig Allen in the Final who had beaten Mark Rose 12-10 in the 5th. Despite having beaten Allen twice in the morning’s events Purewal had to settle for runner-up as Allen landed the spoils.

In the B grade Toby John ended a good day by beating Warwick University’s Billy Leppard in the Final. Earlier John had overcome Mark Van Hoorebeek, of Sheffield, whilst Leppard defeated Church’s Michael Khovanov.

In the grade C semi finals Liam Conland of Coventry beat Stratford’s Leigh Ganderton 3-0 whilst Robert Tkaczyk of Stratford beat Zdravco Anchev of Continental., also 3-0. Conland took the winner’s trophy.

It was an all Kidlington final in the Improvers. James Lee had overcome Lucas Yim of Kidlington 3-1 in his semi whilst (Claudia) Sheung Yan Lee defeated Church’s Toby Roe in her semi. James Lee won the Final.

The Free Church club were delighted to see Keerthi Bakthisaran reach the semi final of the Beginners but she found Simona Vassileva of Continental too strong. Peter Vassilev made it an all Continental Final when beating (Adrian) Yau Shing Ng of Kidlington 3-0. Simona made age count when beating her younger brother to take the title.