{"id":4356,"date":"2026-02-22T21:18:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=4356"},"modified":"2026-02-22T21:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:21:33","slug":"to-curse-or-to-cuddle-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/22\/to-curse-or-to-cuddle-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"To Curse or to Cuddle – that is the Question!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Poysden, the Fambridge Captain, wasn\u2019t sure whether to curse or cuddle Mapledene\u2019s Liam Squirrell this week as Squirrell\u2019s unbeaten streak of wins first held Fambridge to a frustrating draw and thwarted their increasing chances of \u2018stealing\u2019 the Division 1 title away from Cold Norton B, but then he acted as talisman as Mapledene A inflicted a second defeat on leaders Cold Norton B bringing Fambridge firmly back into contention.  It\u2019s all to play for now in the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division 1 leaders Cold Norton B started the period well with a decent win over Cold Norton A \u2013 the final score of 7-3 may have been predictable given the line-ups but there were a couple of upsets as Sam Lowman completed his hat-trick for the B team with a topsy-turvy 5 set victory over Duncan Taylor, and the A Team\u2019s Steve Maltby came out on top in another 5 setter against Dave Richardson.  This result seemed much better for Cold Norton B when later in the week when closest contenders Fambridge were held by Mapledene A with the league\u2019s top player Liam Squirrell recording a nine dart hat-trick against the Fambridge trio.  Squirrell partnered up with Dan Patynski for the doubles, but the real shock was Steve Muth taking out John Poysden over 5 hard fought sets to set up the draw.  For Fambridge Mark Stones and Keith Adams both recorded wins over Muth and Patynski.  Mapledene A were by far the busiest team over the period with a further 2 matches.  The first was the key battle with leaders Cold Norton B with some of the potential Singles Championship finalists up close and personal.  George Reeves came from behind to defeat Eric Green in the opening match to set Mapledene on their way.  Mapledene\u2019s Liam Squirrell continued his dominance as he revenged his only defeat of the year with a 4 set triumph over Sam Lowman that secured his hat-trick.  Kieran Skeggs was on great form with 2 straight set wins over Eric Green and Lowman, with his only loss falling to Ian Wall.  This brings the gap to below 10 points with Fambridge having a game in hand \u2013 with the two protagonists meeting in early March in what is becoming a winner takes all affair.  Elsewhere in the Division Mapledene B defeated Cold Norton C as Kieran Skeggs and Colin Chatfield combined for all the points in the 6-4 victory, with Chatfield dropping just the one singles to Arron Chandler.  Mapledene A came out on top in the Mapledene Showdown as they bettered their own B team 6-4.  Yet again it was the indefatigable Liam Squirrell that made the difference as he recorded another treble of straight sets victories.  This time Squirrell was excused from doubles duty but his team-mates did him proud as Steve Muth and Dan Patynski edged a 5-setter against Glenn Johnson and Simon Jacob despite having lost all 4 singles to the B team pairing.  The final match saw the bottom two sides face up in the wooden spoon cup with Woodham B squeezing out a much needed 6-4 victory.  Star of the night was the vastly improved Peter Harverson who hit his first top flight hat-trick including an intense 5 set battle with Richard Storey.  Harverson was well supported as Eamonn Hall won 2 and Graham Briggs chipped in with a win over Ken Sheard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battle for supremacy in Div 2 looks like a 2 way battle now as Blackwater A continue to pile on the pressure with impressive results.  This week they obliterated their own B team in a 9-1 statement victory.  For the B team it was Merv Perriman who stopped the whitewash rot with a last gasp end-of-the-evening 4 set victory over Noah Sage.  For the A team Denis Balic and Neil Freeman both hit hat-tricks that keep the Blackwaterians in touching distance of leaders Maldon A.  Cold Norton D were no match for leaders Maldon A as they succumbed to an 8-2 loss with only Neil Want providing any strong defence.  Want scored his team\u2019s 2 points and was unlucky to lose out in the 5 set battle of the undefeated against Maldon\u2019s Lloyd Bennett-Smith in the final match.  So Bennett-Smith notched his treble with wingmen Colin Napper and Hamish Innes both taking a brace of wins.  Stow Maries B came away with an unexpected 8-2 haul against Maldon B.  Hat-tricks for both Nicky Reece-Ford and Adi Kamma was the foundation for the win with Peter Hance chipping in with 2 wins of his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blackwater C recorded another 10-0 whitewash victory that sees them just one match away from sealing the Division 3 crown.  That\u2019s 6 whitewashes now \u2013 its been a long time since we had such a dominant team in any of our Divisions.  This week\u2019s victims were Blackwater F, as the C team trio of Gary Smith, Peter Davenport and Colin Barham all recorded untouched trebles in the singles but they did drop a set in the doubles at least.  Nearest rivals Blackwater D had 2 decent wins but they just can\u2019t dent the gap to the top.  First up they tasted victory over the Blackwater E side recording an 8-2 win with Roger Tiffin the standout player as he continues his impressive season.  Tiffin won all his singles with team-mates Dave Benstaead and Jacqui Treacy each winning 2 singles.  In their second encounter the D side won out 7-3 against 2 player Woodham D.  Despite the loss Woodham\u2019s Simon Thomas was clearly the star player as he was able to beat all of the Blackwater stars for a very hard fought hat-trick.  Maldon D appear to have secured 3rd spot with two comprehensive victories.  Firstly a 10-0 win over St Lawrence followed by a 9-1 victory over Maldon E.  With Maldon E\u2019s John Leavett the only oppo player to secure a point with a consolation win in the final match against Maldon stalwart Shirley Carroll.  Carroll took a hat-trick in the St Lawrence fixture, as did her colleagues James Raymond and Tim Huxtable.  Raymond repeated his hat-trick shenanigans in the Maldon E match, alongside young Luca Riedling.<\/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

Pic 1 \u2013 The treble treble \u2013 an unbeaten streak that caused mayhem \u2013 Mapledene A talisman Liam Squirrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pic 2 \u2013 First top flight hat-trick for Peter Harverson of Woodham B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pic 3 \u2013 Richard Storey versus Peter Harverson this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pic 4 \u2013 Nicky Reece-Ford in winning form against Steve Aspland this week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pic 5 \u2013 Blackwater\u2019s Roger Tiffin with another hat-trick this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pic 6 \u2013 The Division 1 as it stands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Report by Eamonn Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Liam Squirrell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Peter Harverson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Richard Storey {left} v Peter Harverson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Nicky Reece-Ford v Steve Aspland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Roger Tiffin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    <\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    John Poysden, the Fambridge Captain, wasn\u2019t sure whether to curse or cuddle Mapledene\u2019s Liam Squirrell this week as Squirrell\u2019s unbeaten streak of wins first held Fambridge to a frustrating draw and thwarted their increasing chances of \u2018stealing\u2019 the Division 1 title away from Cold Norton B, but then he acted as talisman as Mapledene A […]<\/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\/4356"}],"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=4356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4363,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356\/revisions\/4363"}],"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=4356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}