What a lovely bunch Halifax Table Tennis League Division 3 players are! We played Old Town Robins on Monday and once again the match was played in an excellent spirit. This is not to say that we are not competitive -  there was plenty of huffing and puffing and tutting when errors were made or edges of the table and net cords where brought into play - but as usual everyone was very supportive and friendly. I discovered for instance that the father and son combo, Fred and Simon Rothwell, had been to the World Series cycling track racing event at the Manchester Velodrome over the weekend and saw the GB team do brilliantly as usual. In fact our women won every one of the 8 women’s events and thus 8 gold medals. I tried to get tickets for this event but it was sold out months ago, no doubt because of the GB cycling team’s spectacular results at the Bejing Olympics this summer. I’m very keen on  cycle track racing as I used to race in the Herne Hill and Paddington track leagues for Tooting Bicycle Club in the  60s and 70s. It turns out that Fred rides in cycle speedway events still and we both rode on the same track at Tolworth in the early 60s but not at the same time.

Any way, we won the match 6 sets to 3. John played at no. 1 and won all 3, Terry played at no. 2 and won 1, and Derek played at no. 3 and won 2. It was a closer game than the final score shows as 5 of the sets went to 5 games of which we won 3 and the Robins won 2.  This is the second match we have won, out of the 4 we have played so far. Not bad. But no doubt we have even sterner tests to come. There are 11 teams in the division and our ambitions are beginning to take shape. It would be nice to finish somewhere in the middle of the division and, so far at least, this looks a possibility. Next week we play the Evergreens. It may not be the same players but this could be the team that played in Division 2 last year. It looks lke they have won all their matches this season so far convincingly. Should be quite a challenge for our next intrepid three.