THE North Cornwall Table Tennis League held their annual presentation evening at Trethorne Golf Club on Thursday, April 26.

The 2017/18 season saw 20 teams compete across three divisions, the most in the league’s history.

However before the season had even got underway, the league was rocked by the news that Division One champions Blisland had pulled out.

In the end, of the three-man team that had won it, Bob Thompson joined North Hill A and Jim Rickwood moved to Helland B.

Despite their withdrawal, there were six teams in the league with eight in Division Two and seven in the third-tier, which was again played as two-a-side.

With just ten games in the top-flight, teams often went a couple of weeks playing but it didn’t affect Helland A, who won the title for the first time in their history, finishing six points clear of runners-up North Hill A.

The trio of Ingus Abolnieks, Mike Fisher and Ritchie Bartlett later thrashed Budehaven 5-0 in the Division One Knockout Cup, which was played once more as a doubles competition.

At the bottom, newly-promoted Helland B found the huge jump in standard difficult to negotiate, losing all ten games.

However, with the league committee yet to finalise the make-up of the divisions, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be given a reprieve.

The undoubted star player was Torridge’s Dave Streak, who won all 27 of his outings and was unsurprisingly named as the Senior Player of the Year.

In Division Two, Budehaven B dropped just 21 matches out of a possible 140 as they romped to the title with a perfect record from their 14 league fixtures.

Despite playing just eight of those fixtures, Owen Salisbury won all 24 of his matches while the other three members of the squad?— David Sillifant, Ashley Taylor and Nathan Jukes — all had averages hovering around the 80% mark.

Newcomers Whitstone Wanderers enjoyed a brilliant debut season in the league, winning 11, drawing one and losing two of their outings as well as winning the Division Two Knockout Cup against Crackington B and a tense Handicap Cup final against Division Three champions Budehaven E.

At the bottom, Bridgerule A failed to win a game all season with only skipper Alan Quilter picking up any points, while North Hill, Launceston and Altarnun made up the rest of the bottom half.

Budehaven E duo Tim Orchard and Robin Worden dropped just two points from a possible 60 in their 12 league games to cruise to the Division Three title before beating Budehaven F in the Knockout Cup event.

Crackington C finished as runners-up in their first ever season while Budehaven F came last by just a point from North Hill C.

The David Viggers tournament was held at Budehaven in February with players split into three categories depending on their league, form and ability.

Frank Barnes (Crackington A), Ross Paynter (Crackington B) and Cayden Gill (Budehaven D) were the respective winners of their classes with Barnes’ victory over the vastly-improved Ingus Abolnieks, which went to sudden death in the last game, arguably the match of the season.

The league’s Individual Championships were held over successive Thursdays at the end of March.

The first night saw the Handicap Singles, Super Veterans and Junior Singles tournaments held.

Crackington C’s Simon Patterson utilised his 10-point headstart to defeat Budehaven B skipper David Sillifant in the Handicap Singles decider while Budehaven A’s Keith Bradshaw cruised past team-mate David Ewen to take the Super Veterans crown.

Owen Salisbury dropped just 13 points in beating Sam Jennings in the Junior Single final.

The week after saw the more prestigious events with the Open Singles, Restricted Singles (for Division Two and three players only), Open Doubles, Mixed Doubles and the Ladies’ Singles all competed for.

The Open Singles attracted an entry of 27, but it was league chairman Shirley Luckhurst who emerged victorious — winning all six of her games on the night to take the crown, including a victory over David Ewen in the final.

However she couldn’t add to her collection as she lost the Ladies’ Singles showpiece against club-mate Angharad Beman.

The Restricted Singles was the main event to win for the non-Division One players with up to seven or eight players confident of success.

In the end, Budehaven C captain Anthony Ward took home the trophy, beating the Budehaven B trio of Salisbury in the last eight, Taylor in the semi-final and Sillifant in the decider.

Sillifant finally tasted success at the end of the night as he paired up with Crackington B’s Robin Evans to win the Open Doubles, beating North Hill A’s Martin Hynes and Budehaven E’s Robin Worden in the final.

The other event played for, was the Mixed Doubles, which was contested by three teams — Dave Salisbury and Helen Murgatroyd, Trevor and Shirley Luckhurst and Angharad Beman and Michael Kinger.

However the Bude pairing of Salisbury and Murgatroyd proved too strong, beating the husband and wife combination of the Luckhursts.

The presentation evening itself was a great success with nearly 50 people, including players, partners, coaches and family members turning up to celebrate.

Once a delicious carvery and dessert had been eaten, league treasurer Martin Hynes made a speech before announcing the trophy winners and special awards, which were presented by league chairman Shirley Luckhurst before the night concluded with photos and a chat.

The full roll of honour for the 2017/18 season is as follows:

Division One

League winners: Helland A; League runners-up: North Hill A; Knockout Cup winners: Helland A; Knockout Cup runners-up: Budehaven A

Division Two

League winners: Budehaven B; League runners-up: Whitstone Wanderers; Knockout Cup winners: Whitstone Wanderers; Knockout Cup runners-up: Crackington B

Division Three

League winners: Budehaven E; League runners-up: Crackington C; Knockout Cup winners: Budehaven E; Knockout Cup runners-up: Budehaven F

Handicap Cup

Winners: Whitstone Wanderers; Runners-up: Budehaven E

Open Singles

Winner: Shirley Luckhurst; Runner-up: David Ewen

Open Doubles

Winners: David Sillifant and Robin Evans; Runners-up: Martin Hynes and Robin Worden

Ladies Singles

Winner: Angharad Beman; Runner-up: Shirley Luckhurst

Mixed Doubles

Winners: Dave Salisbury and Helen Murgatroyd; Runners-up: Trevor Luckhurst and Shirley Luckhurst

Junior Singles

Winner: Owen Salisbury; Runner-up: Sam Jennings

Super Veterans Singles

Winner: Keith Bradshaw; Runner-up: David Ewen

Handicap Singles

Winner: Simon Patterson; Runner-up: David Sillifant

Restricted Singles

Winner: Anthony Ward; Runner-up: David Sillifant

David Viggers (Class One)

Winner: Frank Barnes; Runner-up: Ingus Abolnieks

David Viggers (Class Two)

Winner: Ross Paynter; Runner-up: Paul Seez

David Viggers (Class Three)

Winner: Cayden Gill; Runner-up: Sam Jennings

David Viggers (Juniors)

Winner: Owen Salisbury; Runner-up: Sam Jennings

Senior Player of the Year — David Streak

Junior Player of the Year — Owen Salisbury

Most Improved Player — Ingus Abolnieks

Sportsmanship — Dave Aplin

Services to Youth — Bob Bevan