Dale comes out on top in Koslowski competition

DALE Ballard clinched victory in the Newbury & District Table Tennis Association’s annual Koslowski Trophy.

The individual handicap competition made a welcome return to the competitive calendar after a four-year absence and nine groups of three players battled it out at Kintbury’s Jubilee Centre.

The match format was two games to 21 points and the first round produced some very close matches.

Guy Goldsworth had an 18.1 point headstart over Bill Stamatiou and ended up winning by a single point.

Philip Jones gave John Panting a 9.4-point headstart and with the match score 21-9, 20-21, ended up winning by just 1.6 points.

Christine Milne gave 13.1 points to Aran Curcher and won 21-12, 21-15, a net difference of just 1.9 points.

The closest match, decided by less than a point, was Jenny Tanner versus Antony Baker.

Tanner started with 25.8 points and although the final score was 7-21, 10-21, she emerged the winner by 0.8 of a point.

The semi-finals also produced some close matches with Tanner, despite a headtstart of 10.1 points, losing out to Celia Hooker 20-21, 11-21, a net difference of just 0.9 of a point.

The final group of three matches was contested by three Division 1 players – Fallon Thompson, Dale Ballard and Jamie Cole.

On paper, Cole was the strongest player, giving Ballard a 10-point headstart and Thompson four points.

Thompson was the second strongest player and had to give away six points to Ballard.

Thompson lost to Cole by just three points, 16-21, 19-21 while Ballard played very consistently in both his matches, beating Thompson by 21 points, 21-11, 21-16 and edging past Cole 15-21, 21-19, a winning margin of six points, to secure the Koslowski trophy.