DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Barbados Defence Force (BDF) registered their second successive win by rolling over Lodge Road when the Barbados Table Tennis Association's Division 1 tournament continued at the Table Tennis Centre, John Beckles Drive, Constitution Road, St Michael,on Thursday night.

BDF easily disposed of Lodge Road 4-1, while Fast Loopers stopped Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) 4-3, and Scouters also edged out Raiders 4-3.

In the BDF/Lodge Road match, national champion Anderson Carrington was in the forefront of BDF's victory as he won all three of his sets.

But it was top female player Sherrice Felix who got the ball rolling for BDF when she defeated Wilmont "Funk" Goddard 3-2 despite losing the first game at nine. She bounced back to take the set 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 7-11 11-8, which enabled the army team to take an early 1-0 lead.

Carrington then made it 2-1 when he blasted Rodney Wood off the table in straight games, winning 11-6, 11-4, 11-4.

However, Kevin Farley, who turned out for BDF last year, pulled back a set for Lodge Road as he got the better of Krystle Harvey in a surprisingly tough five-game set.

After winning the first two games rather easily at six and four, Farley allowed Harvey to get back into the match as she launched a counter-attack which saw her taking the next two games 11-8, 11-9 to level the set at 2-2.

But Farley, national Islandwide champion in 2006 and who possesses a better all-round game, brought this to the fore in the final set which he won at nine to take the set 3-2.

However, that was the only set Lodge Road were to get during the encounter as Carrington and Felix teamed up in the doubles and defeated Farley and Wood in another exciting five-game match.

Farley and Wood took the first game 17-15, easily the longest game of the season to date; Carrington and Felix then took the next two games at four and seven to go ahead 2-1, but Farley and Wood recovered to take the fourth game 11-7 to level the game at 2-2. However, Carrington and Felix were not to be denied as they overpowered their opponents at 6 in the final game to take the set 3-2 pushing BDF into a 3-1 lead.

And as expected, Carrington quickly despatched Goddard in the fifth set, 11-5, 11-7, 11-3 to give his team an easy 4-1 victory.

The clash between Fast Loopers and BUT went right down to the wire, because with one set to play the score was tied 3-3 in sets.

The deciding set pitted former national player Shawn Bellamy against Robin Anthony with the former coming out the winner in another five-game thriller.

Bellamy had won the first game at nine but fell behind when Anthony took the next two games 11-6, 11-7. However, Bellamy drew on his years of experience and bounced back to take the final two games 11-4, 11-9 to win the set 3-2, thereby giving his team a close 4-3 win.

Former national and Caribbean champion Trevor Farley was the main architect of Fast Loopers' win, as he was successful in his three sets. He defeated David Harris at 9, 4 and 5; Dennis Frank at 9, 9, and 5; and teamed up with Bellamy to defeat Frank and Anthony at 3, 9 and 9 in the doubles.