Champion Mark Dowell escaped by the narrowest possible margin, surviving a major scare from Aaron Barker to sneak into the semi-final of the Barbados Table Tennis Association’s men’s islandwide competition.
A hush took over the Table Tennis Centre, Nursery Drive on Tuesday night when the scoreboard showed Dowell and Barker locked at 10-10 at the climax of seven gruelling games of compelling table tennis.
With a 3-1 lead after dropping the first game, Dowell appeared to be cruising to victory but he did not cater for the tenacity of Barker.
Few players exude confidence more than Barker, who was also a division one cricketer, and the lanky right-handed attacker looped and smashed his way back into contention with back-to-back wins to level the set 3-3.
At 10-10 the luck went with Dowell who went ahead with a “fluke” that brushed the top of the net and fell too awkwardly for Barker to return.
Dowell didn’t look back and went on to complete a hard-fought win 9-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 13-11.
Dale Rudder beat David Harris 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 in a Top 16 contest while Clifton Mark won by default from Rawle Husbands.
