Bolton Table Tennis League Sponsored by CE Tollady & Sons Ltd

Twelve-year-old Matthew Fields was the surprise winner of the Second Division competition of the divisional singles played at the Hilton Centre in Horwich.

It is his first season in Division Two but, the Hilton youngster beat some experienced players along the way to become probably the youngest player to win such a competition.

After winning through the group stages, he beat the top Nomads player Dave Holden in the quarter-final over four games, and followed that with a semi-final win over Hilton D’s Alan Bradshaw 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5.

In the other semi-final, Nomads’ Brett Haslam came out on top against Jimmy Hewitt of Coburg 11-3, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9.

But in the final Fields, who played perhaps his best table tennis so far this season, scored an excellent victory, once again over four games, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7.

In the Premier Division competition, nine payers were split into two groups. Wharton’s Barry Elliott was unbeaten in his group and went on to beat Phil Biggs from Hilton Tameside 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 in the semi final.

In the other group, Hilton Tameside’s Bolton Closed Champion Jake Shaw, won through to the semi-final despite losing to Nigel Hallows, along with Ron Durose of Little lever A.

In the semi final, Shaw lost the first game and was 1-5 down in the second before rallying to beat Durose over five games.

The final was a repeat of last season’s Closed Championships with Shaw again beating Elliott in three games 11-9, 11-9, 11-8.

Only six players played in the Division One round robin competition. The winner was Nomad’s Dennis Collier, with Marc Townsend of St Catherine’s B the runner-up.

Nine players entered the Division Three competition which was split into two groups.

In the semi-finals, Hilton F’s Garry Hibbert beat Jean Smart of Hilton G in straight games 11-6, 11-6, 11-6, and Alan Hibbert of BEN B also won straight games 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 over Adam Smart.

In the final, Alan beat Garry 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.

Division Four was the best supported with an entry of 20 players, the majority juniors. Played in five groups, two juniors made it through to the semi- finals. Matthew Leach of Farnworth TTC lost to Hilton I’s Malcolm Rose 11-2, 11-6, 12-10, while Sam Evans, also a Farnworth TTC junior, put in a creditable performance before losing to Andrew Morey of Hilton J over five games 11-4, 5-11, 10, 12, 11-8, 5-11.

In the final, Morey came out on top, defeating Rose in three straight games 11-5, 15-13, 11-5.

Farnworth table Tennis Club is based at St James Sports College, Farnworth under the guidance of Andrea Holt, the ETTA development officer for the North West.

It operates a Friday night session from 7pm-9pm, and anyone interested in playing table tennis is welcome to attend.

There are three resident ETTA qualified coaches in attendance, and Andrea is looking to develop more coaches, so if there are any players in the Bolton league interested in gaining their coaching qualification they should contact Andrea at the centre RESULTS Premier Division: 1 Jake Shaw; 2 Barry Elliott.

Division One: 1 Dennis Collier; 2 Marc Townsend.

Division Two: 1 Matthew Fields; 2 Brett Haslam Division Three: 1 Alan Hibbert; 2 Gary Hibbert Division Four: 1 Andrew Morey; 2 Malcolm Rose.