Kandivali Recreation Club’s( KRC) teams had a mixed day as their Team KRC ‘D’ notched up three wins in III Division ties of the annual MSDTTA (Mumbai Suburban District Table Tennis Association) Inter-club league, played on home and away basis. The architect of KRC’s 3-0 wins over MCF (Borivali) and 3-2 against BKPL (Mulund) was their seasoned stalwart Jitu Mavani, who triumphed over his opponents in all his outings with his effective use of antispin rubber on the backhand, especially against Bindesh Chitalia.
The MCF captain was up 2-0 with his aggressive forehand drives and smashes. But once Jitu started varying the pace and direction of his strokes, Bindesh became too erratic and gave away too many negative points as Jitu was home with a 11-13, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 win. His MCF’s teammates Prafulla Wagh and Ashok Sawant, however, failed to meet the challenge and lost meekily.
However, KRC’s senior string went down fighting to P3Sports TT Academy (Powai) 1-3 in the II Division section. Incidentally the youthful Powai boys, earlier had tough time against Chembur Gymkhana ‘B’ before they prevailed 3-1. But later they made amends by routing Andheri S.C. 3-0.
Forty seven teams from the various affiliated clubs/gymkhanas and academies are in the fray for top honours in the second, third and fourth divisions. The premier division comprising five top five teams and the women’s section with eight teams, will be held at Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana in the last week of this month alongwith the finals of the lower divisions.
Results: (DIV II): P3 Sports Academy (Powai) bt KRC ‘B’ 3-1: Debash Sanyal lost to Dinkar Shelarka 3-11, 5-11, 8-11; Rohit Halder bt Amit Modi 11-8, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9; Budha Aditya bt Anil Rasam 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5; Rohit Halder bt Dinkar Shelarka 13-11, 11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 11-4.
(DIV III): KRC ‘D’ bt MCF (Borivali) 3-0: Jitu Mavani bt Bindesh Chitalia 11-13, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5; Sanjay Mehta bt Prafulla Wagh 11-5, 11-5, 11-5; Girish Acharya bt Ashok Sawant 11-9, 11-8, 12-10.
KRC ‘D’ bt Bombay YMCA (Ghatkopar) 3-0; KRC ‘D’ bt BKPL (Mulund) 3—2.