Isle of Man Table Tennis Association’s annual Harold Wilcock Hard Bat Tournament was held at the NSC last week.

The late Harold Wilcock was a keen exponent of the ‘pimples out’ hard bat playing style, which tends to result in longer rallies and is more akin to old-fashioned ping pong - but nevertheless produces some exciting play.

The tournament was first played in the early 2000s, with the trophy having been donated by the Wilcock family.

This year’s event drew a good entry of 26 players, which were split into six groups of three and two groups of four, with the top two from each group going through to the knockout stages.

In group one, top seed Scott Lewis went through as runner-up after sensationally losing in straight sets to David Lovelady.

Group two saw Jason Quirk winning both his matches, with Neil Ronan taking second place. John Shooter was top in group three with Ege Niyazi as runner-up, while group four saw Chris Holland finish top with Ale Ramirez taking the second spot after beating Steve Curtis 11/7, 11/8.

Top of group five was Khayee Vinas, with Sasha Thomas in second place. In group six past champion John Magnall finished top, with Amit Lanin narrowly pipping Becky Taylor for the runner-up spot having defeated her 13/11 in the third set.

Group seven saw two junior players go through, with William Shooter top ahead of runner-up Ryan Holland. In the final group, Malc Lewis finished top with William Dalugdugan in second place.

In the knockout stages, Lovelady defeated R. Holland 11/3 11/4, Malc Lewis beat Ronan 11/4, 12/10, Magnall got the better of Ege Niyazi 11/7 11/2, C. Holland got past Thomas 11/8 11/3, J. Shooter beat Lannin 11/4 11/3, Vinas ousted Ramirez 9/11, 11/6, 11/6, Scott Lewis beat W. Shooter 11/4 11/3 and Quirk got the better of Dalugdugan 11/9 11/6.

The quarter-finals saw M. Lewis get past Lovelady 7/11 11/9 11/5, Magnall knocked out C. Holland 11/2 8/11 11/6, J. Shooter beat Vinas 11/5 5/11 11/4 and S. Lewis swept aside Quirk 11/9 11/3.

In the semi-finals, M. Lewis got the better of Magnall 7/11 11/8 11/9 in an extremely tight, cagey match, while S. Lewis then beat J. Shooter 11/7 11/6 in the other semi.

So, in a notable repeat of the 2009 final, Malc Lewis was drawn against his son Scott. Unfortunately for Malc it was the same outcome, with Scott taking the title 11/3, 11/7, 9/11, 11/9. The final two games were closely fought and highly skilled.

Players who were knocked out at the group stage went through to a consolation event in which in-form JP Banaag took the title after beating Wilma Dalugdugan 11/9 11/6.

Thanks go to Kevin Drewry for arranging this event as he does each year.