Hank Doller and Matthew Kappos took out the A-grade pairs grand final.
For the third time in as many tournaments, a Matthew Kappos-led side has won it all in the Echuca Table Tennis Association.
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Departing from its regular three-person team format, ETTA held a doubles tournament, split into A-grade and B-grade, in the lead up to Christmas.
The final regular season round and the grand final were held on Wednesday, December 10 with the top two seeded pairs facing off for the chocolates.
In round six, it was the third seeded Rally Cats against fourth seed The Canting Crew, with the former needing a big win to make the final.
The Rally Cats did get the win 3-2, coming back from 2-3 down in the doubles to drag themselves over the line, but it wasn’t enough to break into the top two on percentage.
In the other match, the already qualified Backhand Bandits led by Kappos went down 1-4 to Smash and Dash, setting up a rematch in the decider later in the evening.
Kappos and partner Hank Doller got off to a shaky start against Divya Crane and Peter Retallick, with Crane cleaning up Doller 3-0 in the first set.
Peter Retallick and Divya Crane were runners-up in the A-grade competition.
Kappos responded in kind, dealing out the same punishment to Retallick to leave scores level heading into the best-of-seven doubles contest.
The Backhand Bandits drew first blood, taking the opening two games 13-12 and 12-11 before Smash and Dash took the third game 11-7.
Kappos and Doller course-corrected in the fourth 11-9 before sealing the deal in the fifth game 11-6.
Needing a perfect finish in the final two singles match-ups, it wasn’t to be for Smash and Dash as Doller made light work of Retallick 3-0.
Crane got some reward for effort, downing Kappos in straight sets to leave the final score at 3-2, with the Backhand Bandits as champions.
In the final round of B-grade before the grand final, the second-seeded Spin Doctors conquered Smash Bros 4-1 to make the final on percentage after the top-seeded Racketeers completed an unbeaten season, overcoming Topspin Titans, pushing it out of the top two.
Aryan Dadwal won B-grade with Moe Ali Eissa (absent), while Rob Russell was runner-up with Kate Schultz (absent).
In the decider, the Racketeers, made up of Aryan Dadwal and Harvey Griffiths (as a fill-in) completed its perfect season, downing the Spin Doctors, Rob Russell and Dylan Wright (as a fill-in) 3-2.
Russell got Spin Doctors on the board early, taking down Dadwal 3-0, before Griffiths levelled the playing field against Wright 3-0.
The Racketeers made light work of the opposition in the doubles, flattening Spin Doctors in a best-of-five match up 11-6, 11-2, 11-6.
Dadwal made up for his previous singles loss, taking down Wright in straight sets, 3-0.
In the most interesting set of the match, Russell held his nerve against Griffiths to jag one back for the Spin Doctors 3-2.
However, it was too little too late as the Racketeers completed an undefeated season, claiming B-grade with a 3-2 victory.
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