Brighton’s hope to make it a historic third successive title looked to fade away as they went down to a very impressive Fusion side in round 11 by the narrowest of margins, 4-3. Larry and Lorestas Trumpauskas’ victories over Felix Thomis, combined with the father and son duo’s doubles win, plus Larry’s 3-2 comeback victory over David Andersson, which saw the start of his impressive weekend, helped Fusion take the victory.
Ormesby got off to a slow start themselves, but ended the round on the right side of a 4-3 scoreline, recovering from 2-1 down at one stage against North Ayrshire. Hugo Torngren got North Ayrshire on the board defeating Ben Piggott 3-1, and a win in the doubles saw the Scottish side take a 2-1 lead before Enio Mendes levelled the score with a win over Chris Main. With the score poised at 2-2, David McBeath’s 11-8 in the fifth victory over Torngren proved pivotal. As Mendes then defeated Main whilst Colin Dalgleish bounced back for North Ayrshire, defeating Piggott.
Bottom of the table eBaTT launched their fight for survival with a huge victory over third-placed BATTS. Nahom Asgedom put eBaTT ahead, defeating Isaac Kingham, with Czech international Simon Belik able to double their lead, defeating Haotian Chen 3-1. The doubles made it 3-0 to eBaTT, before BATTS launched a comeback of their own, taking the next three singles, including a 14-12 in the fifth victory for Kingham over Ismaila Akindiya. But Belik excelled over Josh Bennett to secure victory for eBaTT.
All eyes were on table 1 for the opening round of the weekend, as seventh-placed Drumchapel Glasgow took on sixth-placed Ormeau, with just two points separating the two – a victory for the Scottish side would see them overtake their relegation rivals. Anticipation for this match was also building due to the star spearheads of each team.
Par Gerell, 12-time Swedish national champion and former World Championships bronze medallist, was first up on the table and put Ormeau ahead with victory over Paralympian Aaron Mckibbin. Then it was the turn of Drumchapel Glasgow’s landmark signing, Paul Drinkhall, seven-time English senior national champion, who defeated Sophie Earley in straight games. Drinkhall’s reputation as a doubles expert, being a 15-time national champion in Men’s Doubles, helped Drumchapel take a 2-0 lead, before a huge comeback from Paul McCreery & Gerell saw Ormeau take the all important victory.
The two number threes then went head to head, with McCreery beating Xinliang Sun, to leave a match advantage in the hands of Gerell. Gerrel took on Drinkhall in a repeat of the 2016 Olympic Qualification final, and it was Gerell who took the win 3-1. The match was decided after this victory, yet the scoreline went from bad to worse as McCreery defeated McKibbin, before Sun hit back for the Scottish side over Earley to seal a 5-2 scoreline.