David Walton (32832/3)

The West Wilts Table Tennis League season came to an end when officers, players and their wives came together for a the annual presentation evening.

League vice-president Roy Griffin presented the trophies to the winners and runners-up in each division and team competition.

Jeannette Ford also attended to present the John Ford Handicap Shield, which had been bought and named in memory of her late husband.

In the Premier Division, another new name appeared on the cup when Bradford Airborne took the title.

It soon became clear that the race for the top honour would be between two teams, although two others would keep the pressure on them. Hilperton A led the pack from the start and, at the end of the first half of the season held a slender two point lead over Bradford Airborne, although the latter team had a game in hand.

However, by the end of January, Airborne had taken over the lead and continued to set the pace, but Hilperton were always close on their heels and keeping within a few points of them.

Results in the last few weeks of the season were always going to be the determining factor and with Airborne continuing to drop fewer games than Hilperton each week, they flew onwards to take the title by a convincing 17 points.

There was a similar battle for third position, where only a few points separated the teams. It was probably due to an easier run-in in terms of teams played that gave Trowbridge I the edge by a single point over Westinghouse A (formerly known as Heywood and PSP Westinsure) who, until a few years ago, had held a 17-year domination of the league.

In Division One, Westbury Premier White Horses showed their determination to shrug off the disappointment of not gaining promotion to the Premier Division by taking an early lead, due mainly to their new captain Chris Watkins (formerly of Trowbridge I) and an outstanding performance by the ever improving David Walton.

Although it may have been expected that they would be under no pressure for top position, this was not the case as Westinghouse B who, although regularly some 20 points behind, always had a game in hand, and were keeping in touch with them.

By the end of the season, White Horses had secured the title from Westinghouse but their lead had been cut to only five points. Trowbridge II had occupied second place for a good part of the season, but with Westinghouse dropping only three points from their last six games, they had to settle for third place.

In Division Two, the top position changed on a number of occasions with it being shared by Avon B and Warminster B.

Westbury Premier Fighters were always in the top three, but at no time could they find those extra few points to lead the pack.

The second half of the season saw a reversal of fortunes for two of these teams with the challenge of Avon beginning to falter while Warminster continued their surge and took the honours by a margin of 12 points.

The consistency of Westbury was rewarded and they secured second place, 11 points ahead of Avon.

The team competitions saw the winners of each of the divisions looking to make it a league and cup double and, in one case, a treble.

The final of the Melksham Shield was one of the best for a number of years when Bradford Airborne played Trowbridge I. As soon as it was known that these two teams were to contest this final, a close and highly competitive encounter was anticipated, and it did not disappoint.

Airborne went into an early 2-0 lead, but Trowbridge fought back to level the score at 3-3 and then 4-4. Airborne held out to win the final game to give them a 5-4 victory and a league and cup double.

The Phillips Shield was, as usual, a contest between the top two teams in Division Two, and also saw Warminster B achieve a double with a comfortable 7-2 victory over Westbury Premier Fighters.

The John Ford Handicap Shield saw Bradford Airborne looking to make it a treble when they met Devizes Dynamos. Despite a spirited effort, Airborne could not recover from a 15 point deficit after the first game, and Devizes emerged as winners by 239 points to 222.

Devizes Dynamos were looking to make it a cup double when they played Bradford Academics in the Premier Division competition, but it was not to be as Academics proved to be far too strong and won the game by a comfortable 272 points to 206.

The Division One competition also saw a team looking to make it a league and cup double when division winners Westbury Premier White Horses took on Bradford Perrys. Perrys got off to an outstanding start when they amassed a 29 point lead from the first game.

White Horses never recovered from this disastrous start and Perrys secured the win by 264 points to 220.

The Division Two competition was a club and bottom of the division contest when Westbury Premier Villains played Westbury Premier Wizards. It was good to see youth at the fore with five out of the six players being juniors.

The Villains gained a 13 point advantage from the first game, but the Wizards fought back to gain a 19 point lead after five games. However, fortunes were then reversed again as the Villains recovered to win a close encounter by 246 points to 237.

League chairman Noel Sewell announced the winners of the special awards, which were presented by league secretary Malcolm Phillips.

The Vice President's Trophy was awarded to Alan Walton for his services as chairman of the Westbury Club for a number of years, the League Merit award went to Richard Clode (Bradford Airborne), the JC Trophy to Barbara Roberts (Devizes Dark Horses) and the Bill Williams Young Player of the Year to Alex Maclachlan (Westbury Premier Fighters).

The final award of the evening was the Westbury Shield, which recognises services to the league. This year's recipient was Bryan Perry who was not only a player and team captain with the Bradford Club for many years, but also the honorary auditor of the league from 1960 to 1993.

In recognition of these services he was made an honorary life member in 1996. Unfortunately, due to ill health, he was unable to be present to receive his award.

10:25am Friday 2nd May 2008

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