{"id":2507,"date":"2023-12-19T13:44:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T12:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2507"},"modified":"2023-12-19T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T12:44:08","slug":"teamwork-the-key-for-brotherhood-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/2023\/12\/19\/teamwork-the-key-for-brotherhood-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Teamwork the key for Brotherhood C"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Brotherhood C are looking good for a last sixteen place in the<br>Clacton League\u2019s Knock-Out Cup after defeating fellow-Division<br>Two side Windsor Kestrels in their Group B match. No-one stayed<br>unbeaten but a solid team performance from Mark Boyland, Mark<br>Beckham and Paul Metcalf saw them to a 5-2 victory.<br>The Brotherhood trio took the first four matches and a whitewash<br>looked on the cards, but the Kestrels battled back, Debra Found<br>and Jackie Bunce (+1) winning the middle doubles 11-9 in the<br>fifth against Boyland and Metcalf (-6), and Found (+1) edging<br>past Beckham (-1) 13-11, 11-13, 11-5, 10-12, 11-8 in match six,<br>before Boyland settled the tie for Brotherhood.<br>In the second match in this Group, an all-Division One clash<br>between Walton A and Nomads Lions ended 5-1 in favour of the<br>Walton side, Kevin James the only unbeaten player on the night.<br>In Group A Brotherhood G defeated their Second Division<br>opponents Nomads Jaguars 5-2. Gary Simpson was unbeaten in<br>his two singles and one doubles, the closest match of the tie<br>seeing Dan Grindrod (+1) edge out Chris Petrou (-8) 8-11, 8-11,<br>11-5, 11-7, 11-7.<br>Brotherhood D defeated Windsor Penguins 5-2 in Group C to<br>virtually ensure a place in the Knock-Out stages. They crucially<br>won both doubles, the opening doubles being the closest contest<br>of the tie, Kevin Pryor and James Smith-Daye (-3) beating Neil<br>Chegwidden and Sharon Gowlett (+1) 11-7 in the decider. Simon<br>Smith-Daye remained undefeated for Brotherhood.<br>Windsor Hawks beat Brotherhood B 5-2 in the second match in<br>this Group, Daniel Young leading the way with an unbeaten<br>performance after Brotherhood had taken the opening doubles.<br>Walton D made it two wins out of two in Group D with victory<br>over Windsor Buzzards, the score-line again 5-2. Andy Foster won<br>his two singles and one doubles, although it was a tense 11-7 in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the fifth against Dave Martin in a match played off scratch.<br>It was a good week also for a second Walton side in Group E<br>where the \u2018C\u2019 team lost just one individual match against Nomads<br>Tigers to win 5-1. The Tigers avoided the whitewash by the<br>narrowest of margins, Dave Miller (-1) beating Paul Meikle (+1)<br>13-11 in the fifth.<br>Windsor Eagles could only field two players in their Group F<br>match against Nomads Panthers, who took the one match they<br>needed to win 5-0, the Panthers\u2019 second whitewash Cup win after<br>beating Windsor Magpies by the same score in their opening<br>match.<br>And the Magpies were on the wrong end of a 5-0 score-line for a<br>second time, this time against fellow-Division Three side<br>Brotherhood F. However, like their first tie, three of the individual<br>matches went the distance, the closest this time Dave<br>Sweetland\u2019s (-6) narrow defeat by Ruby Gallagher (+1) 11-9 in<br>the decider.<br>Group G saw a battle of two top-flight teams, with the honours<br>going to Walton B who beat Brotherhood A 5-2. John Marshall<br>(+1) sealed the victory in match seven with a 9-11, 11-9, 7-11,<br>11-8, 11-5 win against John Cleasby (-6), a result which ensured<br>Marshall stayed unbeaten on the night.<br>Finally, an all-Third Division encounter ended in a straightforward<br>5-0 win for Nomads Leopards against Windsor Harriers, none of<br>the matches extended to a fifth set. The result leaves the<br>Leopards almost certain of a last-sixteen place and an opportunity<br>to go one better than last season when they finished as Cup<br>runners-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The League was sorry to learn this week of the death of Walton<br>player John Rankin at the age of 86.<br>John started playing League table tennis in 2005. With his Red<br>Triangle B team-mates Mark Gale, John Morley and Paul Meikle,<br>he achieved immediate success, finishing as Division Two<br>runners-up, losing out to champions Windsor Kestrels by just a<br>single point. Thereafter, John played all his table tennis in<br>Division One, initially for Red Triangle and latterly for Walton.<br>John would never claim to have been a top player, but he always<br>gave a good account of himself in the First Division, a dependable<br>and competitive team player who could be relied on to pick up at<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>least one vital point every match.<br>Over the last three seasons, he had become an occasional for his<br>Walton side, stepping in when a regular player was unavailable.<br>But when he did play, he was proud to be able to say that, by<br>several years, he was the oldest registered League player in<br>Division One, and one who could still hold his own at the top<br>level.<br>John did have a brief moment in the sun when he was a member<br>of Walton B, alongside Paul Newbould and Gavin Price, in the<br>2014 Knock-Out Cup final. Alas, he finished with a runners-up<br>medal but, whilst winning obviously mattered to John, the playing<br>of a competitive game of table tennis and being in the company<br>of like-minded friends was just as important.<br>Above everything else, when we remember John, we will<br>remember a caring, decent and friendly man who enjoyed his<br>table tennis. We offer our sincere condolences to his family.<br>RESULTS<br>Knock-Out Cup : Group stage<br>Group A<br>Nomads Jaguars 2 Brotherhood G 5.<br>Group B<br>Nomads Lions 1 Walton A 5;<br>Brotherhood C 5 Windsor Kestrels 2.<br>Group C<br>Brotherhood D 5 Windsor Penguins 2;<br>Windsor Hawks 5 Brotherhood B 2.<br>Group D<br>Walton D 5 Windsor Buzzards 2.<br>Group E<br>Walton C 5 Nomads Tigers 1.<br>Group F<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Windsor Eagles 0 Nomads Panthers 5;<br>Windsor Magpies 0 Brotherhood F 5.<br>Group G<br>Brotherhood A 2 Walton B 5;<br>Nomads Leopards 5 Windsor Harriers 0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-0 is-cropped\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brotherhood C are looking good for a last sixteen place in theClacton League\u2019s Knock-Out Cup after defeating fellow-DivisionTwo side Windsor Kestrels in their Group B match. No-one stayedunbeaten but a solid team performance from Mark Boyland, MarkBeckham and Paul Metcalf saw them to a 5-2 victory.The Brotherhood trio took the first four matches and a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2509,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions\/2509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}