The annual Dolly Gavin Memorial Team Event was held last weekend in Westside Community Centre, Galway.
Defending champions Robbie Gavin & Terry Dolan were looking to retain their title from last year. The event saw nine teams playing from two groups with the top two in each progressing to the semi finals.
Robert Wall was a late replacement for Darek Zatylny in partnering Kevin Mackey and despite Mackey going unbeaten in the singles they were eliminated at the group stage. In the other group Sligo duo David & Alan Taylor caused a bit of an upset beating Stephen Joyce and Niall O’Flaherty to claim a semi final spot. The top two seeds Gavin/Dolan and Peter Graham /Patrick Guy along with the solid Balgriffin pair John Dennis and Michael Ussher completed the semi final lineup.
Semi Final results.Gavin/Dolan bt Taylor/Taylor 3-0Graham/Guy bt Dennis/Ussher 3-1
The top two seeds progressed to the final as expected. With the final played on two tables, Robbie Gavin overcame a nervy start to eventually defeat Paddy Guy. Peter Graham showed his class with victory over Terry Dolan and with the match in the balance Dolan beat Paddy Guy to put the defending champions 2-1 up. It was then left to Graham to send it to the final doubles and he did not disappoint by beating Robbie Gavin 3-1 to setup the decider.
The first two sets of the doubles were shared and Graham/Guy nicked a close third set 13-11 to put them in control. They soon raced into a big lead in the fourth and at 10-5 up it looked to be curtains for the Galway duo but out of nowhere Gavin & Dolan somehow clawed them back and won seven points in a row to send it to the final set. Seemingly buoyed by their exploits in the previous set, there looked to be only one winner as a Gavin & Dolan played some great table tennis to clinch the final set 11-4 and were delighted to retain the Dolly Gavin Cup
Final ResultGavin/Dolan bt Graham/Guy 3-2Gavin bt Guy Graham bt DolanDolan bt GuyGraham bt GavinGavin/Dolan bt Graham/Guy