Danbury Table Tennis Club Championships – Club Championships 2025
Danbury Table Tennis Club is one of the largest Clubs in Essex and has recently held its annual Club Championships and Tournament. As with every year the Club Tournament throws up plenty of unexpected victories as the players all know their team-mates strengths and weaknesses.
The first competition to be concluded was the Handicap Singles Cup where players receive a points handicap depending on their abilities and official rankings – the idea is to produce an even playing field. After several rounds of play our two finalists emerged and it was no surprise that Ian Wall and Eric Green had made the final as they are both very successful handicap proponents across various county organisations. A big nod though to the Wyman family as Dick Wyman took Green to deuce in the final set in their quarter-final encounter, and grandson Oscar Wyman went one better and defeated Arron Chandler at the round of 16 stage. In the final itself, despite some brilliant counter-hitting from Green, Wall had a little too much on the night and was crowned Champion.
At the Finals Night itself the first set of matches were the Open Singles semi-finals. The first match was between our two giant killers, as player of the tournament Arron Chandler had knocked out top seed and holder Ian Wall at the quarter-final stage, and Sanjay Saptarshi had bested another top seed in Eric Green in a tight 5 setter in his quarter-final. The match itself was a cagey affair with Saptarshi struggling to adapt to the pimples and variety of shots from Chandler. Chandler was just too good on the night and came through for his first Singles Final. In the second semi-final seeds 2 and 3 met as Keith Adams took on his team-mate John Poysden. Familiarity didn’t help Poysden in this one as he struggled to get going in the first leg as Adams dominated, and even though he came out fighting in leg 2 and took an ‘unassailable’ 8-1 lead he still managed to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory to go 0-2 down. In what turned out to be the winning set Adams was just too consistent in the 3rd leg and marched onto the Final. The Final was a great match-up, very much David v Goliath stuff. Adams came out strong and steady and made minimal mistakes, with Chandler a bit more erratic, even though at times his play was exceptional. Adams took the first 2 sets for a comfortable lead and Chandler needed to buck his ideas up if he wanted to stay in this match. That he did, cutting out some of the unforced errors and pushing Adams all the way with thoughtful positioning and shot selection, combined with some phenomenal defending form distance. Chandler found himself with game point at 10-9 but couldn’t secure the winning margin, and this happened for the next 3 match points until Adams squared up at 13-13 and then on his first Championship point Adams smashed a winner that took him to glory as he lifted the Peter Linnett Cup for the 3rd time. A worthy Champion!
The Restricted Singles Final went all the way to a fifth and final leg before a champion emerged. This year’s protagonists were Denis Crapnell and Peter Hance. Players with very different styles that led to a tactical battle as they each tried to play on the other’s perceived weaknesses. Hance took the opening leg when really it was there for the talking by Crapnell but he capitulated in the final crucial points. This only served to steel the Crapnell focus and he rattled off the 2nd and 3rd legs to take the lead. Hance played a bit more open in the 4th set and this suited his style more than his opponents and he was able to square off the match and take us into a deciding winner-takes-all 5th leg. Hance continued where he left off and switched ends with a 5-2 lead, and this even extended to 7-4 before Crapnell braved up and began to push his player around the court and force him out of position and this ultimately won him the match as Hance off-balance could not get his shots where he wanted and Crapnell came from behind to secure a famous victory.
The Drawn Doubles Final for the Pat Dukes Cup was an interesting match up as Arron Chandler & Peter Harverson took on Bruce Kettle & Dave Marsh.
So what do you get if you combine the most improved player in the Club, and the most in-form player of the tournament? Red hot favourites, I guess. However, despite their odds-on starting position Chandler & Harverson needed to overcome the trickery and doubles mastery of Kettle, with Marsh having the simple role of just getting the ball back! This one was all about who faced who in the doubles combinations. The first leg was a bit cagey as the players sized each other up looking for weaknesses in the combinations but Chandler & Harverson came through eventually at 15-13. The combination in the second leg favoured Chandler & Harverson as Kettles fantastic serves were less effective when Chandler was receiving, and they quickly rattled off this one for a 2-0 lead. The third leg was all about Kettle as his service against leftie Harverson was too dominant and the leg was swiftly over following a final flourish of winners from Marsh. Back to their favoured combination in leg 4 and Chandler & Harverson made few errors to finish off the leg and be crowned Doubles Champions.
Our newest competition is the Hardbat Singles where players are restricted to provided plain bats with no additional rubber – it completely changes the game back to a bygone era. At Danbury we have some very talented hardbat proponents, and luckily our two most talented made it through the qualifying rounds to set up the Final everyone wanted. The crowd was not disappointed as Bruce Kettle and Eric Green went about their business with some amazing lengthy rallies of attack versus defence. Kettle is the master of attack on both wings, Green can retrieve everything and force his returns just over the net to thwart any idea of an easy killshot. In the opening leg Kettle was at his majestic best, attacking whenever he could with Green playing catch-up on the adjustment back to hardbats. So first blood to Kettle, but in the second set Green was more accurate and more athletic in his retrieval and the frustrated Kettle became a bit loose with his shots and Green was able to wear him down and dominate the leg to even up the match. The deciding leg was a closer affair but Kettle was always ahead as his attack was more cautious and accurate than pure power. With Kettle leading 11-8 (hardbat is played to a sudden-death 15) Green needed to catch up and do it quickly. Kettle was having none of that and rattled off 4 quick points to take the leg and retain his Hardbat Crown. A truly awesome watch.
Club Chairman Eric Green also awarded Peter Harverson with the Village Hall Trophy for being the most improved player across the Club this season as evidenced by his massive increase of 709 ranking points. Green also thanked tournament organiser Dan Anderson for all his hard and efficient work setting up and running the Tournament.
Pic 1 – 2025 Open Singles Winner Keith Adams
Pic 2 – action from the Singles Final
Pic 3 – 2025 Hardbat Singles Winner Bruce Kettle
Pic 4 – Action from the Doubles Final 2025
Pic 5 – Restricted Singles Winner – Denis Crapnell
Pic 6 – Action from the Handicap Final – Eric Green v Ian Wall
Pic 7 – Peter Harverson – Village Hall Cup Winner 2025
Report by Eamonn Hall
