Senior Multimedia Reporter
nigel.simon@guardian.co.tt
The reigning men’s and women’s champions in the T&T Table Tennis Association Men’s Division One and Women’s Team competitions, Queen’s Park Table Tennis Club, Carenage Blasters, and WASA all won their opening matches when the T&TTTA Premier Division 11-team league competition served off with three matches on Monday night.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for QPCC as they got off to a shaky start in their encounter with Hillview Renegades with Classified Men’s A-1 Division finalist Yuvraaj Dookram falling to Dennis Webster 6-11, 8-11, 12-14 for the underdogs to take a 1-0 lead.
But, that was the only bright spark for Renegades on the night as Guyana’s Shemar Britton, the recent Classified A-1 men’s champion came from behind to beat Franklyn Seechan 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 to level the contest at 1-1.
National youth player Joshua Maxwell then put the Parkites 2-1 up courtesy of his 11-4, 11-4, 7-11, 11-8 victory over Jonathan Cottoy before Britton won his second match of the night, 11-3, 11-8, 11-8 against Webster to seal his team win.
Also at St Joseph, host club WASA registered the most convincing win on the first day of competition with the trio of Alaric Humphreys, his brother and former top local player Curtis Humphreys, and Jean-Marc Lee Fai whipping Servivors 3-0.
The older of the Humphreys’ brothers, Alaric defeated Servivors’ Musaahib Newaj 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 14-12 for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series while Curtis swept Riad Abasali 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, and Lee Fai battled past Isa Mohammed 10-12, 11-6, 6-11, 12-10, 11-8 to clinch the win.
Down at the Carenage Community Centre, Haig Street, Carenage, Nicholas O’Young defeated Edwin Humphreys in a deciding clash 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 to earn Carenage Blasters an entertaining 3-2 triumph over D’Abadie Youths.
Recent national senior men’s trials for the Caribbean Championship winner, Luc O’Young had earlier handed Blasters a 1-0 lead after he outlasted Humphreys 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5 while Abhai Lal made it 2-1 when he dispatched Shaquille Mitchell 11-3, 11-9, 11-9 before O’Young (N) came up trumps when needed.
Everton Sorzano had earlier drawn D’Abadie Youths level at 1-1 by beating O’Young (N) 11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8 while he also got the better of Luc 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 11-5 to even up the fixture for the second time, at 2-2.
Last night, Smalta Crusaders and Arima Hawks clashed at Himalaya Sports Club, Barataria while WASA Table Tennis Club went after their second win at home this time to Powergen. The other participating teams in the competition are the University of T&T (UTT), and Trailblazers.
