Outsider Kenyon wins table tennis league's Yuletide Cup

A new champion was crowned when the Mansfield Table Tennis League continued the festivities after Christmas with the staging of the Yuletide Cup.
Champion Alan Kenyon (left) and runner-up Mark Sansom after the annual Yuletide Cup in the Mansfield Table Tennis League.Champion Alan Kenyon (left) and runner-up Mark Sansom after the annual Yuletide Cup in the Mansfield Table Tennis League.
Champion Alan Kenyon (left) and runner-up Mark Sansom after the annual Yuletide Cup in the Mansfield Table Tennis League.

Always a fun event, the competition is played with randomly-drawn bats that have all sorts of covers and turn the action into a real leveller.

So it was pleasing to see an outsider and a relative newcomer to the league, Second Division player Alan Kenyon, lift the trophy after a 2-0 (11-7, 11-6) victory over Mark Sansom in the final.

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The players were split into three qualifying groups, with last year’s winner, Andy King, looking in ominous form by winning all his games in group one and scoring a maximum 126 points, followed by Jonathan Heath with a creditable 116. Kenyon topped group two with 115 points and Sansom was second in a tight group three, just behind last year’s runner-up, Jim Westwood.

As the competition reached its knockout stage, Kenyon edged out Erlands Skels in the quarter-finals before swiftly disposing of Angela Brettell 11-1 11-6 in the semis, while Sansom bagged the notable scalps of both Heath and King with terrific 2-1 victories. He lost the first game of his semi against King 11-6 but battled back to take the next two, 11-9, 11-6.