Isle of Man Table Tennis Association’s annual Divisional competitions took place at the NSC last week and, as ever, the events were keenly contested.

Number two seed Sean Drewry came out top in Division One, while up-and-coming youngster Ronan Thompson was victorious in the Division Two competition.

Division One

In the Division One competition, play started with 21 participants playing in seven groups of three, with the top two from each proceeding to the knockout stages.

The top two seeds received a bye into the quarter-finals. In the knockout stages, Malcolm Cummings was the first player to win his place in the quarters when he beat Dave Parsons in straight sets.

Having a tougher time was team-mate Liam Chan who had a five-set tussle with Ken Mitchell. Having taken the first two ends 11/6, 11/4, Mitchell fought back to take the next two 11/8 and 12/10, but then lost his momentum and went down 11/3 in the fifth end.

Chris Holland took his place after beating Mike Tamarov 6/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/8, while John Shooter had a tough match against Tim Baker before coming out as the winner in the fourth end 6/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/9.

Scott Lewis beat Khayee Vinas in straight sets and the final first-round match between Jason Quirk and Andy Patterson also went the distance, with the latter emerging as the winner 13/15, 11/7, 11/5, 4/11, 11/7.

In the quarter-finals, top seed Duncan Alexander took his semi-final place by beating Cummings in straight sets.

Chan had another five-set battle, this time against Holland, but came through 11/4 in the deciding set, while Shooter knocked out third seed Lewis 4/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/5.

The number two seed Sean Drewry had a struggle to contain Patterson in their match with some tremendous rallies being seen, but he came through as the winner after battling back from two sets down to take the next three ends and his place in the semi-finals.

The first semi between Drewry and Shooter saw the former through to the final, eventually winning 12/14, 11/8, 11/7, 11/8.

The second semi-final between Alexander andChan was yet another five-set battle for the latter and eventually Chan clinched his place in the final 7/11, 11/9, 4/11, 11/6, 11/5.

The final was a straight sets win for Drewry 13/11, 11/8, 11/7, sealing a wonderful evening for him.

Division Two

There was a lower-than-usual entry in Division Two with some withdrawals because of illness, therefore only nine players started the evening, playing in two groups.

Group A was closely fought, with only one of the 10 matches being won in straight sets. Emerging as the winner was Paul Nelson with Kevin Drewry in the runner-up spot.

Group B was just as tight with again only one match out of six being won in straight sets. There was a tie at the top with both Ronan Thompson and Sonja Shaw winning two matches each.

Where there is a tie between two in a group, the match between the two affected players decides who is placed first and second. In this case, Thompson had beaten Shaw in their group match 9/11, 11/8, 11/8, 11/13, 11/8, so won the group with Shaw as runner-up.

The first semi-final between Nelson and Shaw was decided in the fourth end, with the former going through to the final with a 11/7, 8/11, 11/7, 11/7 win.

The second semi between saw Thompson beating Drewry 11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 12/10 in a tense match.

The final was a creditable straight sets win for up-and-coming youngsterThompson 11/8, 12/10, 11/9.

l The Division Three competition took place earlier this week and a report will follow.