POPPS played Keighley On Tuesday 23rd June. Due to illness POPPS found themselves a man short although fortunately were able to find a last minute replacement: Alan2. We onlly managed 1 win courtesy of Alan2, the final score being 8 – 1 to Keighley.

David and Alan found themselves fighting a vertically rearguard action against players from Keighley’s first division and although they had some good rallies and some close games were unable to muster a set between them. Still, it was another learning experience and they burnt some calories and enjoyed the match which is after all the main objective.

Headline – Partington Wins his 1st Match–crowd goes crazy! ( All 3 of them ) However POPPS lose 6/3 – John and Peter put on their usual fine display of vintage table tennis with lots of encouragement to rookie Alan – who said on leaving the arena that his agent’s negotiations with the Chinese were at an early stage and we should ‘watch this space’

Alan Partington

Friday 29 May saw the majority of the team in the elegant surroundings of Villa McMullan at the 4th in a series of social events for the POPPS table tennis team since its formation in the autumn of 2008. Armed with various contributions of food and drink, the members arrived in a variety of garb to celebrate the end of the winter season and the start of the summer league. Alan’s golf-inspired sweater, sponsored by PING immediately drew the response of PONG from the smarter members there. You can’t beat a bit of original wit now and then, but preferably not all night. Gale brought a taste of the Indian sub-continent, while Derek came with an elegant and historical Oxfam creation. The rest the womenfolk oozed style, while the remainder of the men blended into the background with their understated sartorial flair.

The drinks were taken in the majestic garden in this exclusive area of Halifax and guests were able to relax in the warmth of a May evening. The massive food spread miraculously appeared, plates were filled to the brim and conversation ceased as the assembled throng sank their teeth into food which would not have disgraced a top restaurant.

Then the conversation resumed, mixing table tennis exploits and hard luck stories with life stories and family exploits. Then, as the evening slipped by and the darkness fell, the guests disappeared into the night, grateful for the hospitality of Peter & Pam and realising the need to get plenty of table tennis in during the following week to work off any excesses. Once again POPPS showed itself to be champions at socialising, whilst not yet reaching those heights on the green table.

We know that the summer league will be tough, but we approach it with confidence, knowing that some defeats will not slow down our learning curve.

Monday night saw Popps first match of the summer league, against Spartans. This, we are told, is a rather more relaxed and sociable affair compared with the cut and thrust and naked ambition of the winter league. Our team was made up of two of our stars. John and Peter, and Terry playing his first competitive match since January.

Peter got us off to a flying start beating Scott 3 games to one, 11-6, 11-6, 4-11, 11-9. It was a good game with Peter’s consistent defensive style, springled with the occasional attacking shot winning through despite a flurry of aggressive play form Scott winning the 3rd game quite comfortably.

However, reality kicked in with Terry being beaten comfortabley by Steve 5-11, 4-11 and 7-11. Lack of match practice, in fact any sort of practice, was evident in Terry’s liberal spraying of the ball all around the table but rarely on it. Things could only get better, hopefully.

John nearly got us back into the match but just failed going down in a 5 game set, 11-9, 6-11, 4-11, 11-9 losing the 5th game 12-14. This was a long debilitating set on a very warm night and John was suffering badly from the heat at the end of the set so did very well to come back from 1 -2 down to get so close. Terry’s next match got us back on scedule by losing in 3 straight games again but showed signs of improvement by losing the first game to Scott 10-12, but then losing the next two 4-11, 7-11.

Peter struggled in his next set against Mick losing in 5 games, 10-12, 11-3, 11-8, 3-11, 7-11. Mick also had a mainly defensive game that proved to be a bit more reliable than Peter’s.A pattern was emerging with Popps losing all the close games from 10-10. This was followed by yet another 5 game set Popps lost with John losing to Steve 11-8, 6-11, 12-14, 11-7, 8-11.

Terry then played his last set against Steve and at last seemed to get back to something close to his pre-christmas form, but still losing 2 games to 3, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 12-14. This was another long hot game that needed a little mor eluck at the end to pull of a win.

We had already lost the match now with Spartans having already won 6 of the 9 sets. However, John manged to beat Scott quite easily in 3 straight games, 11-1, 12-10, 11-9 with Scott recovering well from and error strewn start. Hwever, despite his over-heating, John kept his focus to round off his evening’s campaign with a flourish. The last set, Peter against Steve, saw Spartans get the final win, 11-2, 8-11, 10-12, 7-11, finally beating us by 7 sets to 2.

All in all not too bad but we lost 6 of the 7 games that went to 10-10 and all 4 sets that went to 5 games. This rather suggest with a bit more consistency, patience (or luck) we could have done better.