The tournament in progress at the CF Block community hall. Picture by Saradindu Chaudhury

Atable tennis tournament was held in CF Block recently. Conducted by Salt Lake Maitri Sangha, the All Salt Lake Open Table Tennis Tournament saw participation not just of residents representing various blocks but also of those from Sector V companies.

Blocks like FE, HA, BG, BF, CF, AH, Purbachal Housing and Karunamayee sent representatives. From HA Block alone, there were more than a dozen players. Someswar Chandra, representing HA Block, said: “I practise on Thursdays and Sundays in our community hall. The block has trained about 180 students so far and our players Sreya Saha and Anirban Das have even represented Bengal.”

Ranadeep Dhar, in charge of the CTS team, has been playing table tennis for 13 years. “We practise in office after 6.30pm and on weekends,” he smiled. Soumyadeep Biswas, a college student representing East Kolkata Club in Ultadanga, has aced zonal and state championships in the past and also participated in the 64th National Table Tennis Championship. But in this tournament, he got ousted by Souvik Mondal in the final round.

“I have been playing since 2005. In 2009, I was runner-up in the state sub-junior team championship,” said Mondal, after notching up a straight set victory of 11-9, 13-11 and 11-6.

The doubles final was played between Mondal and Sankhanil Basak in one team and Anirban Roy and Saswata Samal in the other. Mondal’s team won again.

In the team championship, East Kolkata Club faced an HA Block team in the finals and won without dropping a game. The victory was the club’s third feather in the cap after its members won the singles and doubles events of the tournament.

Shilpa Basak emerged winner in the women’s singles event, which witnessed participation of only three players.

The chief referee of the tournament was a national junior table tennis coach, Avijit Roy Chowdhury. “This is the first time we organised a table tennis tournament in CF Block, though we have held football events in the past,” said convenor of the tournament Santanu Mitra.

Local councillor Sabyasachi Dutta is the president of the club and his wife Indrani Dutta played an important role in the organising the tournament. “Besides hosting this championship, we try to promote sports in our ward at a senior citizen’s park and a children’s park,” she said.

The prize distribution ceremony will take place on August 14 along with the Independence Day festivities.