The POPPs B team (John M, Terry W and Alan P) took on Northowram MPM (Martyn H, Paul M, and Oliver B) and, after a spirited match, lost 3 sets to 6. The unlikely top POPPs player this time was Terry with two wins of 3 – 0 but, along with the rest of the team, found Northowram’s no. 1 player, Martyn, too hot to handle winning all his sets 3 – 0 fairly comfortably, his service and consistency making the biggest difference. The other POPPs win was John who overcame Oliver 3 – 1. Alan played consistently throughout the match and is becoming more at home in competitive play. He took a game off Oliver and, despite losing 0 -3 to their no. 1 in his last set, played his best table tennis of the evening. Altogether a promising start to the season and with a good chance of improvement from all our players as the season progresses.

The POPPs A team continued their excellent start to the season with an 8-1 win over Rams 2.

The new season in the Halifax Table Tennis League started this week with a new look setup for the POPPs table tennis teams. Yes, teams, in the plural. We now have two teams which we have imaginatively named POPPS A and POPPS B. This reflects a welcome growth in the number of members who want to play league table tennis so we have two squads of 4 now rather than one squad of 6. This means that each each player will play 3 weeks out of 4 rather than every other week as last season. Overall we did pretty well last season and finished 8th out of 11 teams in division 3. This year we hope our A team, made up of our strongest and now battle-seasoned players will finish in the top half of the division and the ‘Academy’ team of youngsters (average about 60) will try to do as well as we did last year. The build up for 2012 is now well under way!

The following match reports have been provided by two of our more articulate team members (they bend in the middle better than some of the other players), Robin and Peter.

POPP A versus Old Town Robins 9 – 0 (Robin)

The first game of the Winter League season was between our A team (Peter, Terry A & John T) against Old Town Robins. We are glad to report a comprehensive victory, 9-0, with our opponents only winning one game. One of their team found John’s wily serves hard to cope with and slightly lost the will to live. New boy, Terry   had a comfortable wins, which is a good way of welcoming him to this league and indeed, both Peter and John won by good margins. Let’s hope their confidence will have received a boost, but there will be tougher opposition as the season unfolds.

Peter added a short report, spilling the beans on the activities of team Lothario, John. We assume Doris doesn’t read this.

Thanks to a polished performance on his debut from Million Pound Transferee Terry A. and good supporting roles from John T and Peter Mc, Popps A achieved a  sound 9-0 win in our first match of the winter session.  John even found time to give our opponents some free coaching (to the 2 attractive lady visitors of course ! ).  He also did some canvassing to get them to come down to Club Lane for regular sessions — an idea we should all follow up on to get our numbers up and enable our club to keep going. (whether or not they are attractive young ladies of course).

POPPS B versus RAMS 2- 7 (Robin).

The B Team, (Alan, Robin and Derek, substituting for John M & Terry W), met some of tougher opposition in the shape of Rams on Tuesday 22 September. Derek had 2 good wins, but struggled in match 3 as his arthritis kicked in. Alan and Robin struggled and lost their matches; the former showing patience but the inability to put away winners whilst the latter, despite winning some good points, played in a generally reckless manner and squandered many points. However, the game was played with good humour and sportsmanship.

When we considered taking part in the summer league, it was made clear that we would find the competition even tougher than  Winter  league 3, on the basis that we would come across some league 2 players. So it has proved and we have found life difficult in this league. However, the games have been played in a good spirit of sportsmanship and we have learned by exposure to a wider selection of players.

Our last match in this League was against Keighley. We had read about the recent spate of attempted murders in this  brooding town of ancient mill buildings and rugged moorland views, but in the event the Keighley team were civilised guys, playing with humour and warmth whilst giving us a  table tennis  lesson.  Keighley won the event  9-0 .

Derek  scored 6,1 and 4 against Steve Rutherford, probably their best player;  he scored  9, 7 and 6 against Stef Slezur and 4,9 and 7 against Jerry Harkaway. When the smashes worked, they won points, but sometimes they didn’t work and the greater consistency of Keighley meant safe victories.

Alan played steadily, perhaps needing to sharpen up the attack part of his game. He reached 7 in each match against Jerry,  3,5 and 7 against Steve and  4,5 and 5 against  Stef.

Finally, your esteemed Team Secretary, Robin, had to turn out in the absence of other choices, and  in his unbiased view, probably played above expectations. Against  Stef, he scored 8,9 and 6, against Jerry he registered  4, 5 and 5  and  finally ran out of steam against Steve, registering 5, 2 and 1.

With the minimum number of games played, it meant that the Team Secretary was able to get home in time to see the second and final episode of ITV’s Wuthering Heights, where most of the characters seemed to die agonising deaths in the final stages of the drama. Keighley’s team returned home, triumphant, probably skirting the very moors which inspired the Brontes, but with no loss of life in either team.

POPPS now look forward to the Winter League. We have high hopes with our strengthened ‘A’team, who could achieve a respectable position. Our ‘B’ team may struggle, but they will have realistic expectations. The frustrating thing is that we are largely being beaten by consistency rather than skill. However, aspects of technique which will need attention include dealing with spin services and initiating serves which place opponents under pressure.

Let’s see as many as possible at our get-together at the Sowerby Bridge station Jubilee Refreshment Rooms on Thursday September 10  at 8.00 pm, when we can discuss any issues pertaining to the new season.

Robin Thomas