Star Paving Services North Norfolk Table Tennis League

It is with sadness that the league has learned of the death of former player Mick Myhill.

Chris Pooley, league chairman, remembers Mick from his playing days in the little village hall at Paston. He played for the village team for a number of years until it disbanded. He always played with enthusiasm and willingness to win but was always a gentleman of the sport. The league's sympathy goes to his wife and family.

Results. Knockout Singles Cup semi-final: Beta 2, Delta 6.

Handicap Singles Cup quarter-finals: Barracudas 5, Sharks 4; Poachers 3, Crosscourts 6; Alpha 1, Cobras 5.

Handicap Singles Cup semi-final draw: Cobras v Barracudas, Crosscourts v Outlaws/Echoes.

Handicap Doubles Cup first round: Outlaws 5, Pirates 1.

Players of the week: Making an impression in a mixed week of matches were Tom Baldock-Yaxley, Rex Parfitt, Mike Toye, John Welsh, Andy Woods, Adam Brown, Alex Spragg, Ray Howe and Henry Yeung.

The first semi-final of the Knockout Singles Cup took place as Beta's Simon Halliday, David Beane and Philip Stone hosted Delta's John Vaughan, Jack Morton and Tom Baldock-Yaxley at North Walsham Sports Centre. Delta won 6-2.

An error-strewn start from Halliday saw Vaughan take the first two sets, but the Beta fought back to take the third. Halliday had chances to force a decider at 10-7 in the third, but Vaughan took the next five points to close out the win.

Beane levelled the tie in a tremendous five-set contest against Morton.

Baldock-Yaxley then made it 2-1 to Delta against Stone. Beane's topspin and angles won him the third set against Vaughan.

But the Beta's inconsistency granted the Delta points at crucial times during his four-set win and then a clinical display from Baldock-Yaxley against Halliday moved Delta one win from the final.

Stone kept Beta in the tie as his quick style sent Morton scurrying all round the table but the four-set win only delayed the inevitable as Baldock-Yaxley sealed his maximum in straight sets against Halliday.

A dead rubber saw Vaughan beat Stone in four but the 6-2 win means that Delta will appear in both of this season's Knockout Cup finals.

It was quarter-final time in the Handicap Singles Cup with a Seaflames derby seeing Barracuda's Derek Philpott, Rex Parfitt and Mike Toye take on Shark's Keith Register, Peter Betts and Steve Hudson.

Register's accurate returns saw him to an opening win in two, despite a lot of pressure from Philpott (+6). Parfitt (+13) shared sets with Betts, before the Shark levelled at 17-17 in the decider. The Barracuda levelled the tie by taking the 'golden point' 21-20, however later the reverse was true as Parfitt (this time +11) fell 21-20 in the third to Register.

However, with Toye (+4) defeating Hudson in straight, it meant the tie was locked at 2-2. The next two battles saw the Barracudas start eight points ahead, but the two wins went Shark's way as Hudson attacked against Philpott and Betts restricted Toye's hits.

Hence Barracuda's found themselves one loss away from exiting the Cup as Parfitt took on Hudson. The players won the same number of points each, but the handicaps meant Parfitt (+12) won 21-9, 21-9. Toye (+2) then took the tie to 4-4 and forced a decider with a 21-12, 20-21, 21-14 win over Register.

The deciding match saw Philpott start 11 points ahead of Betts, but it was the Shark who clawed back the deficit to take the first set 21-18. However, Philpott attacked and varied his game more to take the next two sets, both 21-6 to close out the narrowest 5-4 win for Barracudas.

In the other quarter-finals of the Handicap Singles Cup, Crosscourt's John Welsh, Clive Smith and Eric Dolden all took braces to defeat Poachers 6-3 while Cobra's Adam Brown, Alex Spragg and Bev Baldock-Yaxley were too consistent for Alpha as they won 5-1.

The final first round match in the Handicap doubles was a Hunworth derby as Outlaw's Colin Humphries, Jamie Craig and Steve Patterson overcame Pirate's David Thompson, Andy Marsh and Stan Munn 5-1 in a game of narrow starts and four deciding sets.

In the first division and in the replay of the match abandoned due to power failure two sets in, Special's John Paul, Martin Lawes and Ray Howe hosted Alpha's Dennis Elliott, Dave Johns and Andy Beane (playing up).

Elliott beat Lawes in straight but otherwise Specials were totally dominant in their 9-1 win, just one more set dropped by Howe to Lawes.

And in the second division, Backhander's Teucer Wilson, Rod Goffin and Murray Shanahan caught up at Gresham School against the team of Roy Lau, Ian Darricott and Henry Yeung.

Darricott took a maximum but was made to work for it as he loop-attacked well to force a way through to come back from 8-10 to close out his win against Wilson 13-11 in the fourth and also won a tight tactical contest against Shanahan 11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 1-11, 11-5.

Backhander's took the remaining games 7-3 but Lau did have a solitary match point chance against Wilson — the Backhander winning the first game of the night 14-12 in the fifth.