By Shammi Kowlessar
Copyright trinidadexpress
AARON WILSON bounced back from a very disappointing first day to lead Carenage Blasters to the Division A team title in the National Table Championships Sunday, at the National Racquet Centre,in Tacarigua.
The four-time singles champion won both his matches in the semi-finals and final as the club captured the title for the second year in succession.
After going down 3-1 against WASA Club in the round-robin stage the day before, Blasters gained revenge by the same score when the two teams clashed in the title round.
Wilson had lost to both Humphreys brothers, Alaric and Curtis, on Saturday, but he stepped up when it mattered most and took them down, in three straight games, and four, respectively.
Nicolai Barbour Alexis earned the other point by beating Joel Henry, after fellow singles quarter-finalist Luc O’Young went down as two-time singles champ Curtis earned the only point for WASA.
Blasters had needed to go right down to the wire earlier to earn their place in the final.
And with their semi-final fixture against ARK Crusaders deadlocked at two, O’Young, runner-up in last year’s Silver Bowl Championships, defeated N’kosi Rouse in four games to advance.
Wilson also took down Rouse to get the ball rolling, and needed all five games to get the better of fellow singles semifinalist Malik Gopaul for the other two points.
Gopaul, who earned the Under-19 title for the third time in succession last month, had edged O’Young in five the second match, and then former national champ Anthony “Sandfly” Brown, defeated Barbour-Alexis to force Blasters to win the last two matches to reach the final.
The other semi-final was one-way traffic, as WASA dismissed Hillview Renegades 3-0.
Renegades, comprising singles quarter-finalist Andrew Edwards, Michael Fong and Masters’ (Over-50) champ Franklyn Seechan, sneaked into the knockout stage as Group One runners-up with the best ratio after PowerGen and Blasters B had also notched one victory from three fixtures.
Crusaders beat all three opponents 3-1 to win the group.
WASA were even more dominant in Group One as they were 3-1 winners over Blasters and Arima Hawks, and swept D’Abadie Youths 3-0.
