{"id":3963,"date":"2025-09-22T11:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:37:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:37:04","slug":"blackwater-are-boiling-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/09\/22\/blackwater-are-boiling-hot\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackwater are boiling hot!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Burnham & District Table Tennis League is back in business and the opening week saw two upsets in the top division and an unprecedented whitewash of victories for all 6 of the Blackwater Clubs.  What an amazing start for the Maldon based outfit, as they rubbed their local produce into the wounds of their humbled opponents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening contests in Division 1 saw two of last year\u2019s Championship contenders bested by much lower ranked opponents.  Paddy Power (and other local Bookmakers) have already had to restructure their odds to allow for these momentous results.  The pre-season favourites Mapledene A fell to Woodham B in a 6-4 contest that saw Woodham\u2019s Sanjay Saptarshi unbeaten for his opening hat-trick of the season.  Harry Sawford chipped in with 2 points including an impressive straight sets win over Steve Muth.  The final point came from Captain Eamonn Hall with his own straight sets win over Pat White.  The match of the night saw Sawford and ex-Woodham team-mate Dan Patynski go toe-to-toe in an all out 5 set slugfest that Patynski eventually won after trailing 2-1 earlier on in the match.  Patynski was Mapledene\u2019s best player on the night as he opened his account with 2 singles and the doubles in combination with Muth.  In the second shock of the week the Galacticos of Fambridge were subdued by a very talented and hard-working Mapledene B trio.  Fambridge star player Keith Adams did not disappoint with his personal hat-trick that included a tricky 13-11 fifth set triumph over the unbeaten Glenn Johnson.  For Mapledene the damage was done by the quiet and demure pairing of Johnson and Keith Willett who won 2 singles a piece and teamed up for an excellent 5 set doubles bonus point.  Simon Jacob completed the scoring for Mapledene with a 3 set win over Bruce Kettle.  These early shocks have set the pigeons amongst the cats for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Division 2 there were plenty of familiar faces and the results went largely as expected given the teams on display.  Blackwater A and B both won their matches against the lower Cold Norton sides.  Blackwater A didn\u2019t take too long to get the measure of the brand new Cold Norton E side where only the experienced Dick Wyman proved difficult to beat.  Wyman took both of his team\u2019s points, but was unable to cope with the loopy forehand attack of Neil Freeman which saw Freeman take his first (of many expected) hat-tricks in this division.  Freeman was ably wing-manned by Blackwater stalwarts Alan Scammell and Denis Balic.  The B team posted a 7-3 victory over the stronger Cold Norton D side with the dancing queen that is Mervyn Perriman unbeaten all night in singles and doubles for a very well deserved Player of the Match accolade.  Louis Gunn partnered Perriman in the doubles victory and added 2 singles victories to boost the score for Blackwater.  Mapledene C fielded a strong trio for the opener against Maldon B and came away with a healthy 8-2 victory with hat-tricks for Dave Woolmer and Tony Ayliffe.  In the final match of the Division Woodham C fielded an extremely strong line-up that bodes well for the season.  Posting a 7-3 triumph over the tough to beat Stow Maries B side with a hat-trick for young star Peter Harverson, and 2 wins for new captain Scott Perry and new signing Tim Pulham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blackwater Siege continued unabated in Division 3 as Blackwater teams C to F won all 4 of the divisional contests to totally dominate the early leader board!.  The very talented C team made fast work of the Maldon E side with Maldon\u2019s trusty John Leavett saving the whitewash with a respectable 4 set win over Andrea Alleyne.  For Blackwater there were hat-tricks for both Colin Barham and Gary Smith.  The D side included a winning return to Burnham for Roger Tiffin in a 7-3 turnover of Maldon D.  All 3 of the D team posted 2 wins as they all fell to the defensive know-how of Maldon\u2019s transfer window signing Tim Huxtable.  For Blackwater Dave Benstead and Jacqui Treacy provided the remaining points.   The E team had the toughest evening as they squeezed past Woodham D with a tight 6-4 margin in a team effort where the trio of Kath Little, Keith Thompson and Deb Ginn all won 2 a-piece.  For Woodham Chris Crooks won 2 and debutant Jean Chasmer added another point before they paired up for an excellent doubles bonus point.  The F team had a much easier time against St Lawrence as they emerged victorious with a decent 8-2 points haul.  A 9-dart hat-trick for Jason Bush as he starts the season in style, and a commendable hat-trick for David McHattie, with Peter Hughes chipping in with 2 wins having lost an epic 5 set battle with the effervescent Dave Siggins.  Siggins and Nigel Brand then upset the odds with an unexpected doubles win to keep the rampant Blackwater trio in check \u2013 just a little bit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

____________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eamonn Hall, Press Officer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnham & District Table Tennis League<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

____________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Action from the \u2018Slugfest\u2019 between Dan Patynski and Harry Sawford this week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fambridge Galactico Keith Adams with an opening day hat-trick at Mapledene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mervyn Perriman with his player of the Match award<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Woodham B\u2019s star player Sanjay Saptarshi in action this week in the new Woodham Home kit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    <\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Burnham & District Table Tennis League is back in business and the opening week saw two upsets in the top division and an unprecedented whitewash of victories for all 6 of the Blackwater Clubs.  What an amazing start for the Maldon based outfit, as they rubbed their local produce into the wounds of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3968,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/3968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}