Danbury B emerged as 7-3 winners against Galleywood A in division one of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League after a hard-fought match where no less than seven games were decided in the fifth set. Amazingly not one single game was decided 3-0. Danbury B’s Sam Lowman was the top performer with an excellent hat-trick of wins. He beat Gary Brignall 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 12-10, Peter Radford 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 and James Hicks 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 14-12. A superb night’s work. Elsewhere Dan Anderson overcame James Hicks after a widely fluctuating struggle 9-11, 11-2, 11-2, 10-12, 12-10. Leaders Chelmsford A made it three wins out of three by beating Chelmsford C 6-4. As the result indicates they didn’t have it all their own way. Gary Young was undefeated but he was stretched by both Wiktor Delimat (12-10, 12-14, 11-5, 11-13, 11-6) and by Simon Jarvis (8-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9). Simon Jarvis made his mark by beating Daniel Young 12-10, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9.   Danbury C scored their first win of the Season, by a 7-3 margin over OCs A. Terry Dowsett was undefeated for OCs but Ian Whiteside, Colin Napper and David Gatheral all won twice to give Danbury the ascendancy. OCs A also lost 8-2 to Chelmsford B who have jumped into second place. Charlie Craig and Josh Bickles were both on superb form and both bagged hat-tricks whilst Shirish Basant Rai won twice. Charlie Craig completed an outstanding evening’s work with a 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 victory over Robbie Burton. Writtle A ran out 6-4 winners against Danbury C after Ryan Pitt, Richard Storey and Aaron Chandler had all won twice. Danbury C’s new signing – Trevor Lloyd will give them fresh impetus that they can compete at this level. Lloyd remained undefeated although Richard Storey only lost narrowly 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 9-11, 8-11. Good effort !.  Elsewhere, Writtle A fielding a line-up featuring both Duncan Taylor and Lee McHugh ran out 7-3 winners against Galleywood A. Taylor and McHugh gave nothing away.  

Danbury G impressed in division two as they powered to a 9-1 win over Danbury E. Dan Piggott and Sanjay Saptarshi were both undefeated whilst Neil Want was on target for the losers with a fine 11-7, 10-12, 11-5, 11-5 win over David Gatheral.  The reliable Gary Ward (nine wins out of nine to date) led Writtle C to a 6-4 win over OCs C whilst early leaders Hatfield Peverel A did well to beat Danbury F 8-2. Gareth Davies excelled with three singles wins. He completed his evening’s work by defeating Gordon Gatheral 12-10, 10-12, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7.  It was honours even between Danbury F and OCs B. Gareth Joice was undefeated for the Old Chelmsfordians side.  OCs B also shared the points against Chelmsford D. OCs’ Kevin Worthington was undefeated whilst Keith Martin picked up two very hard fought wins for the Chelmsford side. He beat Charles Yeung 8-11, 10-12, 12-10, 12-10, 11-9 and Gareth Joice 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 5-11, 11-9. Danbury D ran out 6-4 winners against Writtle B, good going as it was Writtle B’s Paul Sturton who remained unbeaten. Sturton had to pull out all the stops (and a little bit extra) to beat Chris Buer 11-13, 11-7, 11-4, 10-12, 12-10 to seal his hat-trick.

In division three Galleywood B (23 points out of 30) are top and they beat Danbury K 7-3. James Hicks, Bryn Thomas and Mark Glenister all won twice. In a game which had “division one” written all over it David Gatheral defeated James Hicks 13-11, 11-8, 11-8. David Gatheral has also set a record of sorts. How many players can have appeared in the results for three divisions in the same Press report ?. Maldon A are second and with Hamish Innes remaining undefeated they beat Danbury K 7-3. The last game of the evening was the tightest and Peter Hance saw off Dawn Baldry, just, 5-11, 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 14-12. OCs D scored their first win of the Season by beating Writtle D 7-3. Richard Baxter (six wins out of six) led the way. Chelmsford F were in control against Chelmsford E, winning 8-2. Nikita Tkachuk won his three singles and Luke Richardson and Andy Swales both won twice. Team work enabled Danbury H to beat Hatfield Peverel B 7-3. Dave Goody, Richard Allen and Dave Powell all won twice. Richard Allen defeated Paul Mulley 11-9, 8-11, 11-13, 11-6, 15-13 in the closest game of the night.

Division four leaders Maldon B scored their second and third wins of the Season, beating Danbury L 6-4 and Highwood A 7-3. Dawn Baldry (nine wins out of nine) won’t lose many at this level and she overcame Danbury L’s Kevin Willis (9-11, 11-3, 11-6, 10-12, 11-4) in her most testing encounter.  OCs E scored their first win of the Season, 7-3 against Chelmsford G. David Newman and Farooq Ahmed both stayed unbeaten. Vasile Barbulet overcame Russ Hall 11-6, 12-10, 10-12, 10-12, 14-12 in the closest game of the night. Highwood B ran out narrow 6-4 winners over Galleywood C. Roger Patient won his three singles for the Highwood team whilst Will Goodchild with two wins fared best of the Galleywood side. Chelmsford H also won 6-4. Harry Chivers was undefeated and he beat Ian Hockley, the best of the Writtle players 11-7, 11-5, 11-7.

Leaders Hatfield Peverel E were clear-cut winners in division five. They powered to a 9-1 win over Hatfield Peverel D. Gary Simmons and Deb Ginn were both undefeated. Three games were decided by last gasp margins and Kath Little missed out narrowly twice. She lost 11-8, 7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11 to Gary Simmons and 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 9-11 against Deb Ginn. Danbury M ran out 6-4 winners against Maldon C, although Andrea Alleyne (seven wins out of seven) remained undefeated for Maldon.  Andrea had to dig deep to beat Norman Hayes 6-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4. Chelmsford J (Peter Davenport, Jacqui Smith and Shengbing Zhu) were also 6-4 winners against OCs F, although they all missed out against Stuart Wintle. It was 6-4 again as Buttsbury A beat Hatfield Peverel C. Tomasz Krolikowski won his three singles for Buttsbury. Keith Cullen prevailed, just, 12-10, 12-14, 6-11, 11-6, 12-10 against Richard Drozd. Buttsbury A in turn added eight points to their total by beating Hatfield Peverel D 8-2. Jamie Elliott and Ben Brown were both undefeated. Jamie Elliott beat Davina Brazier 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6 in the last game of the evening.

Chelmsford Pumas beat Chelmsford Tigers 3-2 in division 1A of the Chelmsford Junior League. Good going as Aarav Mehta won twice for the Tigers. Mehta beat Alesha Ellis-Austin 9-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-5 and Todd Martin 7-11, 11-9, 11-17, 11-5.   Chelmsford Panthers also won, 3-2, with Chelmsford Tigers again the victims. Soumil Jain won twice for the Tigers beating Keen Wong-Anan 11-5, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 and Pratham Raut 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9.

Chelmsford Wildcats ran out 5-0 winners against Buttsbury Beavers in division 1B to move into top place. Harrison Hill and Malachi O’Leary carried all before them. Harrison Hill had to work hard against Aidan Tucker before he triumphed 7-11, 11-5, 10-12 , 11-8, 11-7. The Wildcats also beat Buttsbury Badgers 3-2. Harrison Hill was again undefeated. Buttsbury Badgers in turn picked up a 4-1 win over Chelmsford Jaguars. Joseph Hutt led the way with a 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 win over Lotte Mills and a 11-9,11-5, 11-7 victory against Francesca Hart.    

Chelmsford Antelopes have made a perfect start in division 1C. Samaksh Sirohi and Richard Carter powered to a 5-0 win against Chelmsford Falcons. They have scored 10 points out of 10. Chelmsford Cougars also started impressively. Dan Lewis was undefeated as they beat Chelmsford Eagles 4-1. Dan Lewis overcame Felix Reeve narrowly, very narrowly 12-10, 8-11, 4-11, 14-12, 11-9 in the first game. Adhuna Das was in turn unbeaten as Buttsbury Bulldogs beat Chelmsford Falcons 3-2.  

Steve Kerns / Press Officer / Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League