Table tennis: Travelers A and Ramsey A battle at the top

The eighth round of play in the Fun88-sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association competition took place last week.

Tower B (0) Travelers A (9)

Travelers A remain firmly in first place in Division One after a 9-0 thrashing of Tower B, who were largely powerless in the tie.

All matches were settled in three points in favor of Paul Mathieson-Nelson and Liam Chan, with the exception of Steve Curtis' gutsy performance against Malcolm Cumings.

The tenacious Tower veteran pushed the Travelers player all the way to the fifth end before bowing out on 4/11.

Mathieson-Nelson played for the A team and acquitted himself very well with good wins in all his matches.

Arbory ​​B (1) Ramsey A (8)

Ramsey A stayed within reach of Travelers at the top with a further well-deserved eight points.

Only John Magnall could break Ramsey's stranglehold as he defeated Becky Taylor in four runs. Arbory's Amit Lanin had a close match with Duncan Alexander, going in favor of the Ramsey player with the score 15/13 in the fourth.

Arbory's third player Mike Levine played for the B team. Adam Teare was again in top form for Ramsey, beating Lanin and Levine in three runs and Magnall in four.

Arbory ​​​​As Mike Tamarov and Jason Quirk were as solid as ever and remained undefeated on the night.

Towers Ken Mitchell, Dave Parsons and Mike Bayley all managed to beat Sonja Shaw who played well but ultimately could not thwart the Tower trio.

Strathallan (5) Travelers B (4)

John Shooter was undefeated for Travelers with three well-crafted wins over Andy Patterson, Julian Briercliffe and Wayne Taylor.

He defeated Briercliffe in four points, while Taylor and Patterson fell in three points. Malc Lewis and Taylor had an epic battle, with the Travelers player narrowly taking the lead in the fifth end (11/9).

Taylor had a very good win against Will Shooter, beating him in four runs. Briercliffe added to Will's misery with a five-end victory, while Patterson also secured two victories for Strathy, with Will and Lewis falling victim to him.

Arbory ​​D (5) Ramsey B (4)

Wael Kassim continued his excellent form with three brilliant victories over Liav Lanin and Bob Borland in three runs, and JP Banaag in four.

Roland Bouchat added another point for Ramsey with a three-end win over Borland, while 11-year-old Liav is improving week on week and he scored two points for the home side with good wins over Darren Shaw and Bouchat.

Banaag added two more points for the home side and Borland another one to take the home win that evening.

Peel continued their excellent form with this emphatic win over hapless Ramsey trio Keith Herrington, Martyn Howard and Geoff Birchall.

Jon Taylor Burt was again in top form and received good support from Stu Perry and Ken Hegarty.

That said, Martyn Howard was involved in some extremely exciting matches – not least in his five-setter with Hegarty, with the Peel player coming back from 1-2 down to take the win.

Howard's four-setter with Perry looked even closer, with a score of 3/11, 10/12, 14/12, 11/13.

JRTE A (3) Travelers C (6)

JRTE could only field two players for this, but Darren Smethurst was his usual efficient self and recorded three wins against Keeran Chan, Luke Begley and Dave Buck.

The match of the evening was Smethurst against Chan, with the JRTE player storming back after losing the first end to take the next three and the match.

This result means that Travelers C are now just one point ahead of Peel A at the top of Division Two.

Tree C (2) Desmonds Douglas (7)

Brandon Montgomery and Neil Ronan were the stars of this tie, both recording three wins.

Russ Kent was a bit off, losing to Rob Wright in five and to Kevin Drewry in four – all credit to Wright and Drewry for their well-deserved wins.

It was unusual to see Dave Bufton get away without a win for Arbory, but he pushed Montgomery all the way and only lost 9/11 in the fifth end. Drewry's match against Neil Ronan was also very close, with the latter just giving him 9/11, 11/7, 11/9, 12/14, 11/9.

Desmonds remains firmly in third place in Division Two.

JRTE B (0) against Travelers D (5)

Unfortunately the home side were unable to field any players for this tie and therefore had to forfeit the match to Travelers' Maurice Campbell and Margaret Forsyth, who gratefully accepted five points and an early elimination.

It is increasingly looking like Travelers D will gain promotion to Division Two if they continue their good form, even at this early stage.

Travelers G (1) Travelers E (4)

Thomas Taylor Burt picked up an excellent win over Eban Moore to take the point over four points.

Moore managed to pass Max Doyle in three attempts for some compensation. However, his teammate Henry Weaver was player of the match, with two solid three-end wins over Taylor Burt and Doyle.

Weaver and left-hander Moore combined well to take the doubles in four Ends to close out the 4-1 match score.

Ramsey D (0) Travelers F (5)

Rhys Bufton and Sydnie Weaver again combined well to record an excellent 5-0 win against experienced duo Pat Helliwell and Tony Sewell.

Bufton was impressive and largely carefree in both of his singles, as was Weaver. The youngsters then took the doubles 11/6, 11/5, 11/3 to make it a 'clean sweep'.