The first round of the Keighley & District Table Tennis League's Jeff Naylor Cup produced the usual crop of entertaining encounters, with the most exciting clash coming at Gargrave where the Division Two Johnson & Johnson team took on Nemesis 'B' from Division One.

A handicap advantage of 126 for Johnson & Johnson was immediately reduced by 22 with Bob Underwood's 21-9, 21-11 opening victory against Tony Bugeja and by the end of set two, the 21-9, 21-6 defeat of Allan Ripley by Craig Priestley, meant the visitors had already clawed back a massive 49 points.

At that point, up stepped John Pullen, Johnson & Johnson's man of the moment, who proceeded to prove how to keep a steady nerve and redress the balance in what was threatening to become a one-sided handicap competition. Firstly the vastly experienced Pullen defeated Peter Worger 21-17, 21-16, then just took his eye off the ball slightly to trip up 21-17, 21-17 against Priestley, but then showed true quality to overcome the difficult style of Underwood 21-16, 21-15 with a superb attacking display.

Good support from Ripley and Bugeja, who only just lost 21-15, 21-14 to Worger, set things up nicely for Bugeja to defend a 17 point advantage going into the last rubber against Priestley, the outcome of which was a win by the Nemesis player 21-17, 21-5 but an overall victory for Johnson & Johnson by 3 points with the magnificent Pullen ending on +12.

There was to be no fairytale at South Craven where First Division Ilkley Road 'A' roared into round two with a superb away performance. The youngsters Edward Jagger, Matthew Wiggan and Chris Farnsworth were no match for Neil Foley (+92), Geoff Bartlett (+101) and the flu-ridden Roy Towler (+90) who won by 67 points.

Paul Lister (-17) played well for Second Division Cononley Sports who entertained Ukrainians from Division One, but unfortunately for Lister, who shared 13-21, 21-18 with Stef Szczur and 16-21, 21-16 with Jerry Harkaway, the level of support required from his team-mates was not quite there.

Stuart Maude (-39) played well in patches with an 8-21, 20-21 score against Szczur and 16-21, 20-21 against Harkawy to show for his efforts, but with Rod Robertson (+55) showing true class for the First Division team, it was no real surprise when the Ukrainians ended with a narrow 11 point winning margin. The closest anyone got to the top Ukie was Lister with a 21-14, 21-16 defeat.

The clash between top and bottom of Division Three looked distinctly one sided from the moment Crossflatt's Danny McHugh (+68) took Embsay's Russell Findley (-35) to task 21-8, 21-10 in the first. Findley was Embsay's best player on the night, but a share 21-10, 15-21 with Anthony Mann (+15) was the best he could do as his team's 72 point advantage began to seem way short of requirements. Although Trevor Wilkinson did well to share with Mann 21-14, 18-21, John Patrick (+66) played very well for Crossflatts, defeating Norman Hunt 21-9, 21-7, Wilkinson 21-5, 21-13 and Findley 21-13, 21-13 to ensure his team left Embsay to concentrate on the league with a 77 point win.

Embassy 'C' turned out a very strong side for their clash with Ilkley Road 'C' at Bingley who had Matthew Nutting standing in for Ken Feather. Clive Sherratt (+55), Steve Crossland (+79) and Derek Briggs (+45) proved far too strong for the Riddlesden team for whom Steve Ives did the best with a 21-13, 21-17 reversal against Briggs on the way to an Embassy victory by 101 points.

RESULTS

Jeff Naylor Cup, Rnd. One: Cononley Sports 449, Ukrainians 460; Crossflatts 603, Embsay 526; Embassy 'C' 534, Ilkley Road 'C' 433; Johnson & Johnson 451, Nemesis 'B' 448; South Craven 383, Ilkley Road 'A' 450.