The cream of Essex table tennis was on show this week in the Burnham & District Table Tennis League as Cold Norton A threw everything they have at the Galacticos of league leaders Mapledene A. Four recent men’s Singles Champions were on show in what could have been a preview of this year’s tournament semi-final line up. Mapledene arrived at the Latchingdon arena boasting a squad of Reece Seddon, Daniel Young and Burnham debutant Peter Barrett. Some line-up you would admit and a sure fire winning team – but by how much. Just as the Mapledene boys were getting acquainted with the playing surface Cold Norton unveiled their team response and it was as impressive as it could have been – Duncan Taylor, Kevin Read, and Charles Sweeney. “Gladiators are you Ready….” Young took an early scalp with a 4 sets opening victory over Sweeny, but this lead was quickly erased as Taylor and Read got to work winning all their opening matches to see the Nortonians take a 4-2 lead into the half-time break. Not as easy as it sounds as Young took Taylor to 5 sets, and Seddon replicated this in his showdown with Read. Not sure what was said by the psychologists and coaches during the interval but the one ‘banker’ was surely Taylor and Read in the Doubles – well that didn’t go so well for them as Seddon and Young blasted their way to a very impressive 4 set bonus point. With the match evenly poised at 4-3 to Cold Norton it was now time to see if the Mapledeners were up for the fight. Well three 4-set losses in succession suggests a fight but not quite that dedication that Roy Castle used to sing about back in the day. Final Score 7-3 to Cold Norton A but Mapledene A remain top of the tree.
In other news, Fambridge were back to their normal winning ways with a tighter than expected 6-4 turnover of Stow A with hat-tricks for Messrs Poysden and Kettle. A point a-piece for the Stow clan, and an exceptional 5 set Brucie bonus doubles win for Keith Martin and Gary Brignall as they defeated Kettle and Poysden. In the Battle of Cold Norton this week the B team outshone and outfought their own C team to lay down an 8-2 score. The B team were led by Sir Eric of Green, who went undefeated throughout the course of the evening, with the C team’s only real threat coming from their shaven headed assassin Chris Buer who on the night took two scalps home with him. In the final match of the week Woodham A maintained their 100% win rate despite fielding no regular A team players. In the 6-4 win away at Maldon A Sanjay Saptarshi was dominant with 3 wins in his singles and then combining with Dan Patynski for the extra doubles point. Patynski recorded the remaining 2 points and then just lost out on his own hat-trick with a close 5 set loss to Harrison Hill. That win pushes Woodham A into second place with a game in hand over wounded leaders Mapledene A.
Like their A Team in the top Division, Woodham C are the only Division 2 side with a 100% record this season, and in Graham Briggs and Chris Hancox they have two of the high flying candidates for the divisional player of the season. Both of these fine paddle bashers were in top form again this week as they both recorded untouched hat-tricks in the 8-2 win against Blackwater B, although their doubles victory was a bit tougher as they were taken to 11-8 in the fifth by Blackwater’s Louis Gunn and Gary Smith. Mapledene C continue to put down big results, and their big talisman continues to dominate their matches. An 8-2 victory over Blackwater B and yet another Barrie Delf 9-set hat-trick. It was the same winning margin for Stow D as they took on Maldon D – with hat-tricks for Ken Sheard and Tim Huxtable. This one was much closer than it sounds as half of the contests went to 5 sets and the Stow boys won 4 of those. But even the 4 set matches were long affairs with the winning leg in the Huxtable versus Chris Ravenhill marathon going to 22-20.
Maldon B continued the theme with their own 8-2 turnover of Woodham D with Hamish Innes chopping and pushing his way to a very well deserved hat-trick. He was ably supported by team-mates Brian Riedling and Dawn Baldry who both won 2 of their singles. The Woodham thorn was Trevor Collin who took good wins over Riedling and Baldry as he plays his way back to fitness and form after his recent knee replacement surgery. Peter Hance was the steady star of the drawn match betwixt Stow B and Blackwater A with 4 wins across the night. These teams know each other very well and this showed in the scoring as half of the matches went deep into fifth sets and the overall contest went on long into the night. For Blackwater Alan Scammell and Merv Perriman each took a brace of wins but the game that swung the result was Dave Marsh’s unexpected victory over Neil Freeman. Given recent form you might have thought that the big news coming from the Maldon C versus Cold Norton D match was that Steve ‘hat-trick’ Aspland failed to win all of his games but this was only a subheading – the real story was that Gordon ‘flatbat’ Gatheral lost to Garry Eames in his opening match but then went on to win against both Aspland and Colin Barrell. A combination no-one else has achieved this year. Great concentration and determination shown by Eames to hang on until late in the 5th set to get the better of the gutsy Gatheral, and he followed this up with another win over Peter Lucraft for his first wins of the season. Aspland and Barrell did recover from their Gatheralling to win their other matches and the doubles for an overall 7-3 win for Maldon C. Mr Barrell had some night of it as he played the maximum 20 matches across a very long evening of ping pong.
Division 3 leaders St Lawrence just about held onto their unbeaten record as Roy Hutchins defeated Maldon F’s Roger Warren in the final match of the week to secure a draw and hold onto the coveted top spot. Maldonian John Leavett was on fire for the salt growers as he brushed aside all his opponents with some aplomb. Hutchins picked up 2 wins was but was somehow discarded for the doubles – but St Lawrence first officer David Siggins knows a thing or two as his chosen pairing of himself and Mick Robinson had enough in the tank to overturn Leavett and Roger Warren for the vital doubles point. Kath Little was the star player in her Blackwater C teams 6-4 triumph over stablemates Blackwater D – and like modern day school sports days it was a true club affair as every player went home with at least one win. The C team edged it with 2 wins each for Little and Mike Burton, and by taking the all-important doubles. Woodham E and Maldon E battled out a hard-fought draw with Woodham’s Chris Crooks taking out all the opposition in both singles and doubles.
Pic 1 – The impressive Kevin Read in destruction mode this week
Pic 2 – Dynamic Doubles pairing of Dan Young and Reece Seddon
Pic 3 – Charles Sweeny versus Burnham Debutant Peter Barrett
Pic 4 – Eric Green Cold Norton B in action this week
Pic 5 – Woodham’s Sanjay Saptarshi on loan against Maldon this week
Pic 6 – Dave Siggins picking up a point for St Lawrence against Roger Warren
