WITH only the Knock-Out final to be played, the Beccles and District Table Tennis League held its tournament week at Hales Village Hall this week.Different events were contested on each evening.

WITH only the Knock-Out final to be played, the Beccles and District Table Tennis League held its tournament week at Hales Village Hall this week.

Different events were contested on each evening. The finals night, which begins with the two open singles semi-finals, is next Thursday.

The week began with the open handicap, over-60s handicap and under-60s handicap events.

Each player was given a handicap that they began each game on and played two games up to 25 points with the player gaining the most points going through to the next round.

In the open event Joe Herne (+17) beat Alf Stubbs (+12) 25-22 25-18 and will meet Steve Griffee (0) who overcame Phil Thirtle (+19) 25-20 25-21. Griffee also made it to the final in the under-60s event by beating Jason Peck (+2) 23-25 25-12 and will play Tom Herne (+12) who beat Joe Herne (+17) in his semi 25-22 24-25. In the over-60s, Adrian Key (+5) will meet Doug Cheer (+14). Key beat Alf Stubbs (+12) 25-23 25-19 while Cheer beat Barney Garrod (-5) 25-16 24-25.

The junior U21 singles was played on a round robin basis between Tom and Joe Herne and Luke Glaysher. The Herne brothers will meet in the final although Glaysher was unlucky as he narrowly lost to Joe 12-21 21-18 18-21.

The pot-luck doubles event saw a stronger player matched with a weaker player and, after the two groups were complete, James Skilleter/Doug Cheer beat Barry Fortune/Tom Herne 21-18 21-12 and will meet Greg Collett/Alf Stubbs who overcame Steve Griffee/Joe Herne 21-14 21-5 in the final.

In some table tennis leagues games are played up to 11 points, best of five legs and so this year the league decided to have an unseeded event where all participants were drawn out of the hat on the night. James Skilleter beat Barney Garrod 11-1 11-9 9-11 11-5 and will meet Greg Collett who squeezed past Steve Griffee 11-2 11-8 11-8.

The two main events, open singles and open doubles, were played on the Thursday night. Four groups of three were the round one matches in the singles with the winner and runner-up advancing to the quarter-finals.

The four seeds had comfortable passages to the semi-finals which sees James Skilleter (1) play Mark Durham (4) and Greg Collett (2) will meet Barney Garrod (3). One notable performance in the groups, and that was Colin Westney losing to Barry Fortune 21-12 21-13 but then beating Garrod 23-21 in the third and ending up failing to qualify by virtue of legs won/lost!

In the open doubles two groups and three pairs were contested, with the winner and runner-up progressing to the semi-finals.

Barney Garrod/Adrian Key fought well to overcome Jason Peck/Colin Westney 21-17 18-21 21-5 in their semi-final while James Skilleter/Oliver Howes easily beat Mark Durham/Greg Collett 21-12 21-12.