Finals Night 2015

Kevin Satchell, (pictured right) Bronze medalist in the 1988 Commonwealth Games in the Men's Doubles was Guest of Honour at this

year's Finals Night held at Gambier Parry Hall, Highnam on Saturday 2nd May 2015.

Lee Bruton, the Club's Chairman introduced Kevin to around 60 club members, their family and friends of the Club who attended the evening. Les Smith, President of the Gloucestershire Table tennis Association, was congratulated in receiving a lifetime achievement award for services to Table Tennis from Table Tennis England.

Graham Slack, Chairman of Gloucestershire Table Tennis Association, then led a 1 minute's clapping in memory of Ken Bridle, who organised tournaments on a local level and also nationally, as well as being the county treasurer. He passed away on 1st May, and will be sorely missed by all.

After introductions, play began with the first of five finals - the Handicap Doubles, in which Kim Benson-Bunch and Pete Humble (below left) lost to Agustin Romero and Michael Pang (below right) who were given a 2 point lead. Scores were 10-21, 15-21.

Kim then played his second final against Ben Roberts (pictured right) in the Handicap Junior event. With Ben being a division 1 player and Kim playing in Division 4, the handicap was 9 to Kim. Ben came out on top winning 21-16, 22-20.

Agustin (below, left) then played his second of 3 finals, playing Lee Bruton (below) in the Handicap Veteran Singles. Lee had to give a 2 point start to fellow division 2 player Agustin. This was a closely fought battle in which Agustin won in 3 sets; 19-21, 21-18, 21-17.

In the final handicapped event, Ben played Agustin , with Agustin receiving 4 points advantage. This was a very tough match, with Ben just winning 19-21, 21-8, 23-21.

The evenings matches concluded with the Open Singles event against fellow team-mates Darren Griffin (pictured below left) and Gordon Shaw, a re-run of last year's final. The same result occurred with Darren easily beating Gordon 11-5, 11-3, 11-8.

Kevin Satchell kindly played a game of round-the-table with some of the Juniors during the break for refreshments (in his suit!)

Awards for other events played previopusly were given:

Novice Singles - a strong entry of 9 players with 19 matches played on 2 tables, the runner-up was Tom Mann, just losing out to Alex Greenough (pictured far right).

Handicap Ladies Singles - Runner-up Margaret Pang, Winner Ann Barnes (below)

Consolation Singles - Runner-up Agustin Romero, Winner Ben Roberts

Quelch Awards (Highest League Averages)

Bronze: Gordon Shaw (88.10% Division 1)

Silver: Rob Deeley (94.34% Division 2)

Gold: Darren Griffin (100% Division 1)

The Ann Barnes award for Junior of the Year awarded to Owen Berry (left) who was part of the Division 1 team who came runner-up in the league gaining 82.05%.

The Glyn Lloyd Award for Service to the Club went to Ken Smith (pictured left), who is always willing to give a helping hand and has not been previously recognised for all his hard work not only over the past year but for many before.