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Finsbury vs Ish KC – 7/3
Fabien 3/3 3-1 vs Tom, 3-0 vs Oliver, 3-2 13/11 at the 5th vs Jide
Alec 2/3 2-3 vs Jide, 3-0 vs Tom (demonstration of what is an efficient backspin serve -) ), 3-0 vs Oliver
Chris who was sick and in a very bad day, 1/3 3-0 vs Oliver, 0-3 vs Jide and ohhh 2-3 vs Tom (9-11 at the fifth …)
Fabien + Alec won the double despite 4 MP lost on the third set, 11-7 in the 5th .
So 7/3 final result not a bad result even if I think we could have won 8/2. Brian Li was not there which was a good news for us but Jide Owelabi, his substitute was just so good .. I was really lucky to beat him, playing my best table tennis of the season for sure.
Ish Mix vs Finsbury : 4/6
It was the first game of Dave R since his shoulder injury. With only 2 trainings before the game, not an easy game for him.
The opponent team had his strongest squad possible with Iken the german girl, Gilles the French (was ranked better than me and equal to Kevin in the past in France) and the blocker David Bottomley.
Fabien 2/3 : 3/2 vs Iken (was in trouble in the 4th), 3-1 vs Gilles playing well and … 2-3 vs David horrible game 2-1 up and then nothing really really disappointing.
Kevin 3/3. Man of the match without any doubt. 3-1 vs David, 3-0 vs Iken and 3-2 vs Gille. Never really in trouble, efficient despite the fact that he said he was playing bad !
Dave R 0/3. 2/3 vs Gilles, 1-3 vs David and 2/3 9/11 at the 5th vs Iken. No luck in the last one, a bad hedge at 9/8. Has tried everytihng and done his best.
Kevin had to leave slightly before the end but the double Dave + Fabien is still efficient. Despite 2 first sets lost 10-12 and 10-12, we won 3-2 to conclude the game on a 6/4 win.
A really though game, 7 games at the 5th, we finish at .. 23.00 !!!! With Dave coming back from injury, their strongest squad and me playing shit, not a bad result.
Finsbury vs Stepney green 2 : 9/1
Again they put their strongest squads against us ! While they postpone the first one, and we accept to play home game at their place !
Fabien 3/3 3-0 vs Petko, 3-0 vs Jim, 3-1 vs Reuben
Alec 3/3 3-0 vs Petko, 3-0 vs Jim (twice came back from 8-10 to 12-10 with a very good fighting spirit) and an AMAZING game versus Ruben. 11-5 in the first set and then 9-11, 9-11, 1-7 in the 4th …. Nothing was going on the table but suddenly Alec became Alec HULK Bartlett. Suddenly focus, encouraging himself after each point, an amazing comeback 11-7, 11-3 with some amazing shots : counter spin backand , flip, …. So good
Dave R 2/3 3-1 vs Ruben with some very very good point, 0-3 vs Jim and 3-1 vs Petko. A really good attitude, wanted the wins, still hard after the injury.
And the usual double Dave R + Fabien easy win 3/0 11-3 11-3 11-6
So a 9-1 win. Very good result which send us in the second position of the table with one less game !!!!
08/05/2010. Warne Cup, Quarter finals.
After a win by 1 point against ISH 5 in the third game of the group stage, Finsbury 1 qualified for the quarter final. The defeat in the last game vs Olympic Kamarama did not have consequence insofar as it was surefire we finished at the top of the group 1. 2 other Finsbury teams qualified for these quarter finals : Finsbury 3 led by his captain Tom Lodziak which ranked 2nd in the group 1 and the "war machine" Finsbury 5 led by Tyrone Cato and John Pollard which finished 1st of the group 3, winning all their games by a margin of over 60 points !!
The quarter finals have been played yesterday. All the Finsbury teams were playing at home as Finsbury 5 was receiving ISH 6 and Finsbury 1 was opposed to... Finsbury 3 in a new derby!
Finsbury 1 was playing with his usual home team: Fabien Mauroy (Rating 22), Dave Ridout (Rating 20) and Tyla Anderson (Rating 17). For Finsbury 3 it was Tom Lodziak (Rating 14), the manager Sanket Shah (14) and Rakesh Patel (rating 18) - in replacement of Po Heng.
A slow start for Fabien against Rakesh as he lost the second set 6-11 and who despite then winning 11-5 and 11-4 finally lost the game, (handicap was 14 points, game lost by 4 altogether). Then 2 convincing wins for Tyla, not so annoyed by the idiosyncratic style of Sanket (win by 7) and for Dave against Tom (win by 7). The 4th game was opposing Tyla to Rakesh. Tyla displayed numerous signs of nervousness as he was not finding any solutions against the blocks and shots of Rakesh: a win by 8 points for Rakesh. In the 5th game, Fabien, who was not playing at his best level in forehand, used a lot his short pimple and lost by 3 points against Tom. The 6th game between Dave and Sanket was an matchup of styles (offensive for Dave, defensive and counter attack for Sanket). Some amazing points later, Dave eventually triumphed by the narrowest margin, i.e. 1 point! After 6 games, it was a draw! Both teams had an equal aggregate of points!!
The 7th game was the turning point. Tyla, really motivated after his defeat against Rakesh, played dramatically well, using very good serves and top spins to win 44-24 against Tom who was not able to find any solutions. After this game, everything was easier for Finsbury 1 as morally, the confidence had changed side. A win by 9 for Dave against Rakesh and by 5 for Fabien against Sanket finally gave Finsbury 1 an access for the semi finals, winning by +36 this quarter final.
In the other semi final, John Bergman (rating 11), Tyrone Cato (rating 10) and John Pollard (Rating 15) did not let any chance to ISH players. After three games, there was already a margin of 50 points with 3 impressive victories (44-32, 44-26 and 44-24)! All the other games were won by Finsbury 1 and it finally ended with a 97-point gap. Finsbury 5 is definitively the big favorite of the Warne Cup 2010 and we here dream of seeing a derby in Final: Finsbury 5 vs Finsbury 1. See you in one week for a recap of the semi-finals!
24/04/2010. News Finsbury 4.
Wow! We won a match! Misako was a surprise throughout all of her games. Starting with her powerful silence she stole the limelight
completely from a confident ISH 5. Tyrone continued to destroy his opposition with a wonderuful re-direction of body gestures that simply move the
oppostion into a wicked backhand. Stephen presented Ish with some tricky serving and managed to pull in the points needed to create a convincing
victory!
27/03/2010. Warne cup, Round 2.
For this second round of the Warne Cup, the first team of Finsbury was playing against Irving 5, in their venue, near New Cross gate station. Led by their two usual players Dave Ridout and Fabien Mauroy, the team was completed by Blaise Fru (Rating 18). Another game with huge handicap against our players as the opponent team was composed of Gary Grimshaw (Rating 10), Kush Bopari (rating 9) and Laurie Casserley (Rating 18). For example, Fabien had a handicap of -31 against Kush, so … no room for a lot of mistakes for him!
2 convincing wins to start (Dave by 7, Fabien by 4) before the games between the 2 players with an equal rating, Blaise against Laurie. A really tight game finally won 11-3 11-10, 11-10, 8-11, 11-6 by Blaise who has returned better and better Laurie's serves. Another victory of Dave by 7 points and it was the game Blaise vs Gary (handicap 23 for Blaise). A little fright after the first game only won 11-10 by Blaise but some changes in his serves eventually ensured a draw (44-44). The 2 convincing victories of Fabien and Blaise by 10 points should ensure us the win, despite a surprising defeat of Dave vs Laurie by 8 points. The last game was marked by a big fear with the fall of Fabien (caused by water on the floor), at 6-3 for him in the first set. However, despite a pain at the left knee, he managed to win the last game. A great game in a good atmosphere! And a good result for Finsbury 1 as this 25 point win put our team in a good position to access the quarter finals!
And this is not the only good news for Finsbury. Indeed, Finsbury 5 looks very impressive with 2 big wins by more than 50 points!, the last one against the team of ISH1 and their division 1 players! Congratulations to the team of Tyrone Cato which should climb to the quarter finals.
The last game of the day at home was Finsbury 3 (Tom Lodziak - captain - 14, Po Heng – 18, Sanket – 14) vs Irving 4 (Ken Brady - 14, Rob Chalk - 17, Tony Brown - 14). It was the first game of this Finsbury team in the Warne Cup 2009-2010 as their first game was postponed last week. A very tight game, as Irving was leading by only 5 points before the end of the last game, Tom vs Tony. Same rating so no handicap and the contract was easy for Tom: win by more than 5 points. Not an easy task against the experience and the two pimples of Tony. However, thanks to the support of some Finsbury players and the coaching of Fabien, the captain of Finsbury 1, Tom finally succeeded in his task: 11-10, 11-8, 11-6,11-9 and a 11 point win, sufficient to win the encounter!
Neat job guys!
21/03/2010. The Warne cup, a particular competition which levels ratings !
Friday 19th was the day of the first Warne Cup game 2009/2010. In this competition, each player has a rating and the difference of rating is converted into a handicap before starting each game. A match is always made of 4 sets of 11 points (11-10 possible) and at the end the sum of the points and the handicap gives the results. All the points are important as the total of points of each match gives the final results! Focus and intensity are of utmost importance in this competition.
It was a derby today as Finsbury 1 was playing Finsbury 4 in the Group 4 (the first two teams of the group climb into quarter finals).
Finsbury 1 was led by its French captain Fabien Mauroy (Rating 22) and its usual double partner Dave Ridout (Rating 20), completed by the promising and risen player Tyla Anderson (Rating 17). For Finsbury 4, the players were Stephen Wilson (captain, rating 13), the always-motivated Stephen Vasilliou (rating 17) and Maxime Teisseyre.
An easy win for Finsbury 1 with 8 games won out of 9. A good game in a sympathetic atmosphere but the gap was too deep to be bridged for Finsbury 4 in spite of the handicap!
