Galbraith crowned king of Lecale after taking Carson Cup

24 October 2018

STEVIE Galbraith confirmed his number one seeding for the first of the Lecale Table Tennis League’s Gerry Carson Memorial Cup when he beat Marek Shotkevitch to the coveted title.

There was a double success for for the De La Salle club with club mate Jim Ritchie victorious in the subsidiary event winning the Pat Morgan Cup.

With all clubs represented in was another successful competition, with all proceeds going to Marie Curie Cancer Care, the tournament was intended to kick start the new season. While many competitors had little opportunity to get in much-needed practice before the event, it nevertheless produced an evening of high quality table tennis.

As expected, Galbraith came through his group in first place as did Jimmy Sterling in group two with Arnold Ennis in second place. In group three Adrian Brown secured top place, but the best match of this group was his clash with the popular Ray Fleming who led the Killyleagh man by two sets before Brown sealed victory in the fifth.

Marek Shotkevitch, seeded two, had perhaps the most difficult line-up in group four which included Rodney Simmons and the attacking prowess of John Huyton to contend with, but secured his top finished with the Simmons in second spot.

Arnold Ennis retired injured which gave Adrian Brown his passage into the semi-final in the first contest of the evening in the main event. Galbraith needed five sets to see off Simmons, Shotkevitch booked his place with a straight set victory over Joe McConville and Sterling reached the last four with 3-0 win over Matthew Dorozoala, another talented Polish national who will line out for St John’s this season.

Galbraith then faced Stirling for a place in the final. If Galbraith had not been at his best in the previous rounds he was in awesome form in this match, hitting winners from every angle to come home in straight sets.

Brown, who is no stranger to latter stages of competitions, had to contend with the big-hitting Shotevitch. This was a close contest with the first two games shared before the Polish national won close third and fourth sets to claim his first final place.

This was Galbraith’s third final appearance. He knew that Shotevitch was a formidable opponent and he would have to be at his best to counter the big hitting and athletic retrieving of theSt John’s player.

Shotkevitch won the first set 11-8, Galbraith took the second and third sets 11-9. The fourth was a real nip and tuck game with both players arriving at deuce. But two big forehands from the number one seed secured victory.

It was a fitting success for the Downpatrick man who took full advantage of the platform created at Patrician Youth Club by none other than Gerry Carson.

In the subsidiary event, Ritchie, playing in his first singles in four years, found himself in the quarter final line-up which included Huyton, Ray Fleming, and the St John’s contingent of Jim Mills, newcomer Billy Milligan, Tom Garvey, Richard Hamilton and Vincey Poland, always a dangerous opponent, despite his injuries.

When the dust settled on this group the semi-final line up would be Ritchie v Huyton and the St John’s club mates Jim Mills and Richard Hamilton.

Ritchie has not played a lot of competitive table tennis in recent seasons and in his words, was making up the numbers. He reached the semi-final of the subsidiary event with a win over a blow par performance from Fleming, the big-hitting Hamilton booked his spot with a straight set win over club mate Garvey.

Poland was pleased with his performance against Huyton, now odds-on favourite to win this event, and Billy Milligan, playing in his first competition, went home delighted with this efforts against Mills before losing in four sets.

When two club mates play each other the outcome is always unpredictable as they know each other’s game inside out.

Both Hamilton and Mills and are attack-minded players and usually consistency wins the day, and so it proved with Hamilton’s big forehand proving too much on this occasion for Mills, who lost in straight sets to book his second competition final place.

Huyton and Ritchie are old Belfast & District campaigners and this contest would prove a real close affair.

Huyton started well, his bold and aggressive play finding gaps in the Ritchie-chopped defence to take the first two sets.

The third was nip and tuck before Ritchie just managed to get over the line to pull one back.

Ritchie took the fourth with a mix of defence and well-placed attack, and although Huyton continued to play his usual bold play that makes him such a feared opponent, Ritchie held on to book his final place

Last season Hamilton reached the final of the Sean Magee Shield competition and Ritchie knew that if his big forehand was on songm he was a formidable player. But Hamilton didn’t relish having to contend with the long pimple rubber of his opponent and despite hitting a string of big forehand winners in the second set, never really got felt he could win this match with the veteran Ritchie winning in straight sets.

The organising committee would like to thank De La Salle High School for the use of the hall to stage this event, all the competitors who took in the event and contributed to the charity fund and of course Peter Deeny for his usual efficient job as tournament referee.

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