Kwame Rodriguez was the toast of his Carenage Blasters team-mates as he overcame teenager Arun Roopnarine in four sets to secure his team a 4-3 win in the latest round of matches in the Table Tennis Super League organised by the East Zone Table-Tennis Association on Monday night. Rodriguez got the better of Roopnarine, 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 in the seventh and final match at the Himalaya Sports Club, Barataria to the delight of his team-mates. Rodriguez had earlier on the night swept past Terry Corbin 11-3, 11-8, 11-6 to get his team level at 1-1 after Kenwin Small was beaten by Roopnarine, 8-11, 1-11, 8-11.
Andrew Alexander restored Crusaders' 2-1 cushion with an 11-8, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 triumph over teenager Aaron Wilson.
But another teenager, Ashley Quashie, a member of the national senior women's team got Blasters level yet again, at 2-2 after she outlasted fellow teenager and former senior women's team player, Catherine Spicer, 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6. Small then paired with Wilson to beat Alexander and Corbin in the men's doubles 5-11, 11-8, 11-8, 16-14, to put their team on the brink of victory at 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. However, Small and Quashie could not seal the deal and went under to Alexander and Spicer, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 5-11 to set up the winner take out clash where Rodriguez showed his experience in beating schoolboy Roopnarine.
With the win, Blasters moved off the foot of the standings and into fifth spot with five points from three matches, while Crusaders gained a point to join University of T&T 'A' and national champions, Arima Hawks on nine points at the top of the table.But while UTT 'A' and Hawks have played five matches each, Crusaders' has played a match more. Meanwhile, a number of local coaches are currently involved in an International Table Tennis Federation Level I Coaching Course being conducted by American ITF expert, Richard Mc Kafeeat the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Athletes Lounge, Mucurapo until Tuesday. This will be followed by a three-day training camp for the national table tennis teams which are set to compete in a number of tournaments over the course of the next two months.
super league standings
Teams P W L GW GL GD Pts
UTT A 5 4 1 19 11 8 9
Hawks 5 4 1 18 10 8 9
Crusaders 6 3 3 20 5 5 9
Gladiators 4 3 1 14 10 4 7
Blasters 3 2 1 10 9 1 5
UTT B 4 0 4 7 16 -9 4
D'Abadie 4 0 4 2 16 -14 4