Moot Mavericks dethrones Centurion Snipers in table tennis final
A new champion was crowned in Pretoria's local table tennis league last week.
Last week saw the final match in the Sports Challenges Table Tennis Inter-Venue League, the second of its kind, take place at Fanie’s Place in Centurion.
Defending champions the Centurion Snipers were firm favourites, having won their last ten matches. But the Moot Mavericks had come prepared, with three in-form players determined to prove their worth away from home.
The Mavericks always knew they had to get a good head start on the singles matches, because the Snipers have very strong pairings on the doubles matches to follow. That is exactly what they did, winning eight of the nine singles matches. This achievement left them with a goal of winning only a single set in the doubles to win the championship title, which they achieved in the first set of the second of three doubles matches.
Being good sportsmen both teams decided to play on and finish the match, resulting in a final score of 22-12 to the Mavericks.
The standout players of the final had to be Fanie Slabbert and Al Troskie from the Mavericks, who won all their singles matches as well as their doubles match – no mean feat in such a tough setting.
Winning Mavericks captain Fanie Slabbert also now tops the Sports Challenges Table Tennis rankings, becoming the first ever player to reach level 22 on the revolutionary level-up ranking system.
“The league is a great way of getting people to enjoy and learn more about table tennis. I think this is the kind of thing that really gets a community engaged,” said Snipers captain Brendon Poonsamy.
Poonsamy and both teammates Prevlin Naidoo and Ronald Lawrence have been selected to represent the Globetom Challengers in the Gauteng North Table Tennis Board’s First League, together with Stephan Kruger from the Moot Mustangs.
“We are proud of what we have achieved in less than a year with this grassroots table tennis initiative. With three venues participating weekly, and over 400 players having played more than 5,000 matches since May last year, we are confident that our development programme will deliver many more stars in the months and years to come, while not losing our focus of providing a fun environment for social players and fans,” said Sports Challenges founder Chris van der Walt.”
For more information, visit www.playtabletennis.co.za, or send an email to chris@challengers.co.za.
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