Andrei Räisänen

This time in Division 1, we got three points – less than we expected. Still, the win against the tough PT-75 2 tasted sweet. Even though sometimes tight individual games turned into losses, it is clear that the team can perform well without Thilo Marschke, the leading star of the previous rounds. 

Victory over a strong home team in Division 1

MBF's 1st division team started the tournament day strongly against Tampere team PT-75 2. Fast attacking expert Jorma “Jorce” Lahtinen took a clear 3-0 victory over Jannika Oksanen. Then both Thomas Lundström and Paul “Hannibal” von Heiroth defeated Mika Tuomola, who at times showed very impressive play. With Eero Aho being the only one from Tampere who was able to win his singles game, MBF's surprisingly clear 5-2 victory was a fact. That is, a full 3 points.

Expectations were high against Wega, but the experienced veteran duo Karjalainen and Karkamo were unbeatable, taking the match 2-5. MBF's only consolations were Jorce's win over Toni Pitkänen and Hannibal's win over reserve player Jouko Mikkola. The result was zero points, although more was expected.

The last match of the day against KuPTS ended surprisingly clearly 1-5. Kuopio's even-tempered trio managed to grind out a clear victory over our team, which was perhaps showing signs of tournament fatigue. Jorce took MBF's only consolation win. Kuopio's players were able to perform better individually this time, although there is no real difference in the teams' level. 

With a positive attitude towards the next round!