Shock waves at the top of the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League this week as leaders Cold Norton B fell to a very strong Woodham A side, leaving the door open for Fambridge to sneak in and steal the spoils.
Until this week, Cold Norton B had remained undefeated in Division 1 and their quest to retain their championship crown looked firmly on course. But then Woodham A stepped up with a trio of Dans and took a 6-4 victory.
The ‘Danage’ was done entirely by Dans Young and Zeffie who both achieved a hat-trick of singles victories. Dan Zeffie had the toughest evening with two five-setters against Ian Wall and Sam Lowman, and a hard-fought four-set battle with Dave Richardson. Despite this singles dominance, the Dans were unable to add the doubles point, losing in another five-setter to the prickly duo of Lowman and Wall. Woodham’s third Dan (Piggott) could not add to the score but was delighted to witness his team’s dominance.
There are now just four points separating the top dogs – and they all have to play for ahead of their sold-out season-defining match scheduled for early March.
It was a good week for the Mapledene Club as both Division 1 teams achieved victory. Mapledene A were back in the lead against Cold Norton C, with Steve Muth leading the way with a commendable treble in the 6-4 win. Glenn Johnson, playing for the A team, picked up a number of wins and the rarely used Dan Patynski picked up a point against Tim Cramphorn.
For Cold Norton C, Arron Chandler took two wins and narrowly lost to Muth in a five-set thriller. The busiest player of the night was Cold Norton’s Martin Archie, who played a full bag of 15 legs for just the odd 11-9 win in the fifth over Patynski.
Mapledene B had a good 7-3 win over Stow Maries A. Their points win came thanks to the Jacob brothers who scored well in both singles and doubles. Simon Jacob didn’t drop a leg all evening, while David Jacob came back from the brink of defeat to Stow’s Gary Brignall to take the final three legs in a testing five-setter.
Blackwater A now leads the chasing pack in Division 2 but leader Maldon A still has a 10 point lead over the peloton. Blackwater A faced a tough Woodham C team this week, but still came away with a big 8-2 victory. Denis Balic and Neil Freeman both scored trebles, with the only real resistance coming from the effervescent Scott Perry who took Freeman to 12-12 in the fifth set before conceding.
After losing to Tim Pulham in five sets, Blackwater captain Alan Scammell turned his fortunes around with a five-set win over Alan Dadswell. Scammell and Freeman then took doubles to complete the scoring.
Leaders Maldon A just continue to stroll around and don’t seem to worry about the chasing pack. Despite some resistance, they plundered Blackwater B this week in what could have been a whitewash victory, but unfortunately Denis Crapnell was injured in an off-the-table incident at the venue and was unable to take part in the final match – thus a 9-1 win for the division leaders with hat-tricks for Lloyd Bennett-Smith and Colin Napper, with two wins for Crapnell plus the void match.
Mapledene C combined for a 6-4 win over Cold Norton E, but their trio was thoroughly undone by Cold Norton superstar Dick Wyman who won all three singles and paired with grandson Oscar Wyman for the doubles. The closest match was an enthralling five-setter with David Woolmer, with Wyman senior having to come from behind to keep his treble intact.
In the final match of the week, Cold Norton D could not maintain their winning form as they succumbed to Maldon B in a 7-3 defeat. Maldon’s Steve Aspland was back to his best form with an excellent unbeaten night, including a doubles win with regular partner Colin Barrell. Barrell took two singles points, as did Cold Norton’s Neil Want.
The wheels are definitely off Division 3s top player Gary Smith – not content with giving up his undefeated status last week, losing twice this week. Despite Smith’s hiccup, his divisional Galacticos team still came through with a 7-3 win, leaving them out of control at the top of the table.
Smith did not go down easily as he lost in two almighty five-set battles to both Simon Thomas and Chris Crooks in their return for Woodham D. Lots of long games in this encounter with Andrea Alleyne just taking the lead at the death against Thomas in the deciding set to help her on her way to a hat-trick of wins, and the Woodham duo of Jean Chasmer and Crooks held on for a morale-boosting 14-12 win in the final set.
The star of the show, however, was the much-improved Tina Hutchinson, who was able to complete all her matches without the need for deciding sets – a fine performance indeed.
Blackwater D appear to have finished in second place and capitalized on their lead with a comfortable 8-2 win over St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence’s Mike Burton was in good form and won his first two matches, as did Blackwater’s Dave Benstead, so when they met it was a best-on-best showdown.
Benstead took an early 2-0 lead, but Burton fought back with all his northern grit. At 10-10 in the fifth leg the match was precariously balanced and at 12-12 the crowd was in suspense. Benstead held his nerves and was finally able to put out the Burton fire as he got through 14-12.
That win gave Benstead his hat-trick and player of the match bragging rights. Blackwater’s other players, Jacqui Treacey and David Sage, rounded out the scoring with a pair of wins each.
In the only Blackwater derby of the week, the E team defeated the F team to retain the alphabetical hierarchy in their 8-2 win. Phil West was on the right track with an undefeated and largely carefree evening of dominance, and was ably supported by his wingwomen Deb Ginn and Kath Little with two wins each. For the F team, Dave Gardner recorded a remarkable win over Deb Ginn, and Anne Brewer picked up a point over Kath Little.
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