USATT LEAGUE of the Month - September/October 2005
Arkansas
League
By Eugene Atha
B Division Players: Front – John Falco; Back, L-R: Clem
Volpert, Yijun Ding, Doug Childress, Gary Moore, Michael Adjei,
Charlie Brooks, and Terry Huey. The team of Gary Moore and
Michael Adjei defeated Charlie Brooks and Terry Huey in the
final.
May 14th marked the conclusion
of the 2004-2005 Arkansas Independent League season with the
season ending singles tournaments followed by the league’s
annual dinner to give out awards. The league finished its 17th
consecutive season since restarting in 1989 with a two-man
team format; since then it has expanded from two to three
divisions, with the season running from October to May. This
season 23 teams and 62 players competed in the league, with 13
of the teams electing to play in the post season team
tournament, and 21 players participating in the singles
tournament.
This was the first year since 1997 that
all three divisions chose to sanction their singles
tournaments. The A division (@1600 and above) tournament went
strictly by ratings in the finishing positions. Don Jackson,
Arkansas’ highest rated player, swept thru the field;
runner-up Glen Davis found a reserve of energy he did not have
as the tournament began to edge out Paul Hadfield and Viful
Mhapsekar.
In the B’s (@1300-1600) the final four
duplicated their relative standings in regular season play
although that did not necessarily reflect their ratings
relative to each other.
Yijun Ding did not lose a match in the
six-man round robin, and newcomer Michael Adjei showed why his
peers voted him the most improved player in their division by
finishing with a 4-1 record. John Falco and Charlie Brooks
were tied for third with a 2-3 record, but John took third by
virtue of his victory over Charlie.
The C’s saw newcomers Jason Barrington
and Sean Jackson edge out the more veteran Terrence Holland
and Cliff Li to take first and second respectively. Jason had
the highest rating of the players, but he had lost to all
three of his opponents in the final round robin during the
regular season. He avenged those losses and defended his
rating by not dropping a match in the tournament; likewise,
the only loss Sean suffered during the day was to Jason,
although he went four or five games against everyone he
played. Cliff and Terrence put on a great match for the third
place trophy, with Cliff hitting a spectacular forehand winner
at 11-10 in the fifth to claim the victory.
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