It was the quarter-finals of the Team Handicap in the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League this week and despite a significant change to the scoring rules, the higher ranked teams came through with just one quarter to play.
Holders Cold Norton B continue to dominate this event with another 5-0 win. They are on course to repeat last season’s heroics and retain both the league title and the team cup trophy – they haven’t dropped a match in this particular event for a few years, so despite some valiant efforts from the Mapledene trio, their fate seemed sealed before the first ping or pong of the evening.
The Cold Norton team struggled a bit in doubles, where both matches reached a deciding leg. In the opening match, Eric Green (-17) and Dan Anderson (-12) seemed to have the measure of the Mapledene duo Lin Roff (-6) and Bill Smith (-4) with an apparently comfortable first leg score of 21-16. But making better use of their 10-point lead in Leg 2, they took control of the match with a powerful 21-12 win. But as we have seen before, this Cold Norton side have talent and patience in abundance and they rallied in the final set and waited for the right opportunities, dampening Mapledene’s challenge and spirit, allowing them to prevail 21-13 for the most hard-fought opening point of the evening.
Cold Norton then took the first trio of singles, all in straight sets, before another troubling doubles match that followed the same pattern as the opener. Sam Lowman (-18) and Green took the opening leg against Roff and Dave Woolmer (-6), relaxed too much and comfortably lost the second leg, before regaining their composure and closing out the third leg – game, set and match Cold Norton. The team you should definitely avoid.
Two matches were played side by side at the Blackwater Arena – first in a Blackwater derby, Plucky Blackwater F had to face their own A team, which led to some significant handicaps. Another 5-0 win, but every game here was close and the handicaps provided a very level playing field, with perhaps the better players calming their nerves as the business end of the games was the difference.
Three of the matches went to deciding legs: both the doubles and the singles between Alan Scammell (-3) and Anne Brewer (+11). After winning the second stage and leading for the entire final stage, Brewer could and should have wrapped it up to avoid the team whitewashing. At 20-18 she had two match points but just couldn’t get over the line – and Scammell rattled off four points in a row to destroy the F team’s hopes.
The A team’s Neil Freeman (-6) gave up 15 points to David McHattie (+9) and had to work hard to make up for the handicap in both legs as he won the nail-biter 21-18, 23-21. In the other singles, Noah Sage (-3) had to beat a tough opponent in Jason Bush (+2) and only cleared the handicap at the death in each leg, but still won 21-19, 21-18 in another encounter.
At the other end of the arena, runaway Division 3 leaders Blackwater C welcomed Division 1 opponents Woodham B. Another very exciting encounter despite the eventual 5-1 winning score for Woodham. Of the six matches, four went to three legs and in the other two matches the losing player managed 19 points in both legs – so another nod to the handicap committee, although Blackwater could argue that a few extra points wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Mervyn Perriman (-2) scored the only point for Blackwater as he outlasted Eamonn Hall (-5) for a 21-19 double win. For Woodham, Graham Briggs (-8) and Peter Harverson (-5) remained just undefeated. Andrea Alleyne (+3) had match point at 20-19 in the decider against Harverson, but ponged when she should have pinged, and Peter Davenport (+1), with his excellent serve, looked in control against Graham Briggs until he hit the opposite of a purple match that allowed Briggs to quickly catch up on his handicap in the final leg and outdo his opponent before Davenport pulled himself together and started competing again – unfortunately the damage had already been done and Briggs was shocked but couldn’t get through. stirred.
The final match saw Hall redeem himself after being ‘out-tactick’ by Perriman – but again it was a case of nibbling as Alleyne used her handicap to build a challenging lead for Hall to chase. Both times it came down to the last few points as Hall won 22-20, 21-19. Good thing it ended there, because the available playing time was clearly running out.
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