THE climax of the Malvern Table Tennis League is reached when the finals of the handicap competitions are played.

These finals took place at the Foley Institutes, Poolbrook when two outstanding matches were played.

In the main competition, Ripple recorded their first handicap success when beating Ledbury Lions by 13 1/2 points and in the secondary competition Manor Park Express came out on top by a mere 1/2 point in a see-saw victory over CSSC Nomads.

Ripple had the benefit of a 140 1/2 handicap over Ledbury Lions who chipped away at reducing the total throughout the evening. This was not easily done.

Ripple’s Pete Nash took a game off Paul Smyth 14-12, Roger Davies took a game off Gordon Staples 11-9 and Brian Gregory, making a rare appearance, took games off Mike Morgan, Gordon and Paul.

The critical phase of the evening, however, was the doubles when Ripple conceded very few points to their Division One opponents 7-11, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11.

It was an enjoyable contest with the result in doubt until the final game of the evening.

It looked as though Kevin Howard was going to win the final for CSSC Nomads when, at 5-5 in the final game of the evening, he needed just one more point to give his side victory.

But Pete Griffiths of Manor Park Express had different ideas and reeled off the next six points to gain an unexpected success.

It was a thrilling conclusion to a match that seemed to be going Nomads’ way when Dave Hayes took points off Ray Page 11-1, 11-9, 8-11, 5-11 early in the evening but Ray, Pete and Dave Woodyatt fought back well to reduce their 219 1/2 point handicap to set up the grand finale which left everyone stunned.

League trophies will be handed out at the presentation evening at Malvern RFC on May 15.