27/04/08

Burnham & District Table Tennis League Press Report

Week Ending 27/04/08

The handicap knockout cup final played last week at Maldon table tennis club proved to be a cracking match. Division three side West Maldon C (Rob Sach +9, Tim Stubbings +11 and Bradley Smith +15) met Woodham A (Jean Chasmer -6, Peter Chasmer -5 and Stefan Oliverio +9) which was a mix of players from divisions one and three, unfortunately for Woodham Ev Lucas who had played in every round until the final was unavailable. West Maldon got off to a good start when Rob Sach and Bradley Smith took the first doubles two sets to one despite only winning three points in the first set against Peter Chasmer and Stefan Oliverio. Jean Chasmer then levelled things up as she just edged out Tim Stubbings 21-17,10-21,22-20, Peter and Stefan then both won their singles and when Peter and Jean beat Rob and Tim 21-19,22-20 in the next doubles things looked bleak for West Maldon at 1-4 down and Woodham just needing one more success for the win. The match looked to be all over when in the next singles Stefan Oliverio was ahead 15-8 in the deciding set against Tim Stubbings but then Tim staged a magnificent comeback to win the set 21-19. No doubt encouraged by that win Rob Sach recorded a three set win over Jean Chasmer to bring the match score to 4-3 to Woodham. The last singles saw Peter Chasmer having the daunting task of facing a 20 point deficit against the hard hitting Bradley Smith, in a superb demonstration of patient handicap play Peter returned virtually everything Bradley threw at him and played as close to an error free game as you are ever likely to see making just two unforced errors in three sets of table tennis to win 21-19, 10-21, 22-20 to seal the cup for Woodham.

The final major issue in the league was settled when Fambridge A made sure of the runners-up spot in division one by beating Stow Maries A 10-0 in their final fixture to just edge out Maldon A whose challenge suffered from an inability to consistently put out a strong side.

Burnham & District Table Tennis League Press Report

Week Ending 06/04/2008

Mapledene A recorded a 6-4 win at Fambridge A to ensure that they will be crowned champions for the fifth successive season. This hard fought victory was won with three wins from Kevin Read, two from George Reeves and a solitary success from Charles Sweeney while the ever reliable Peter Ballard chalked up two wins for Fambridge and then teamed up with Mark Stones to take the doubles. The race for second place is still not settled as Fambridge still have a little work to do to catch Maldon A. Maldon C were beaten 9-1 by there own B team and are now officially relegated and barring some most unlikely results they will be joined in division two next season by Woodham A.

Fambridge C (Chris Buer, Steve Buer, Peter Mynard) clinched the division two title with a fine 7-3 win over Cold Norton A despite Neil Want returning to form for Cold Norton with three fine wins, the result also put paid to any chance Cold Norton had of catching Stow Maries D who should now finish second as the only side who could catch them, West Maldon B, need at least eighteen out of a possible twenty points from their last two games and one of those is against the champions. Woodham C will want to forget their campaign as they went down 0-10 to Maldon U3A A (Norman Hayes, Hans Scholz, John Fell) and were once again outclassed, I am sure they will be much happier in division three next season  where they will be joined by North Woodham who went down 2-8 to Mayland for whom Ken Stevens recorded his first win in his very last match of the season after being two sets to one down he fought back to win 11-9 in the fifth!

Cold Norton B will be promoted from division three along with champions Woodham D.

Burnham & District Table Tennis League Press Report

Week Ending 30/03/2008

With most teams down to having just one or two matches left most major issues look to have been decided, but the small matter of who will gain promotion to division one along with division two leaders Fambridge C looks to have swung decisively towards Stow Maries D after they beat their closest challengers Cold Norton A 8-2, a score line that does not reflect how close the match really was as six games needed a deciding set. The star for Stow Maries was Mick Robinson who won three with support from Tim Pulham and David Knights who each won twice, the only successes for Cold Norton came from Terry Hyland who won twice, amazingly Neil Want the recently crowned singles champion at this level failed to register a score for his side for the first time this season, he never really recovered from being 2 sets up against Tim Pulham and losing in the first match of the evening. At the bottom of division two Woodham C are relegated already and it looks as though North Woodham will join them as they need at least six points from their last match against Mayland to draw level with Maldon U3A B whose only remaining fixture is against leaders Fambridge C.

Mapledene A can still be caught in division one but it really is only a mathematic possibility as the only team that could catch them is Fambridge A who would need a thumping big win when the two teams meet next week and then for Mapledene to fail in their last two games on e of which is against almost certain to be relegated Woodham A who went down 0-10 to Stow Maries A ( Tony Forster, Eric Green, Nicky Reece-Ford) last week. Maldon C look like finishing bottom and joining Woodham A in division two next season.

Woodham D (Daniel Richardson, Andrew Hull, Bob Partridge) completed their fixtures with a 10-0 win over Fambridge F and ensured that they will finish as champions of division three, the youngsters of Cold Norton B will finish as runners-up and join them in division two next season. Fambridge D (Neil Salmon, Martin Thompson, Lee Foster) scored a fine 9-1 win over Maldon U3A C but it is a case of too little too late for a side that should have been challenging for honours but have been a huge disappointment this season.