With the top two teams on a rest week it was up to chasing pack to demonstrate their intentions in the developing leadership battle at the top of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League.

Both Mapledene A and Woodham A had wins this week but the Mapledene crew will be happier with their victory margin whilst the Woodhamites were involved in a much more closely fought ding-dong with their own B side.

But there are plenty more dramas to unfold as we have a four-horse shootout in play for the next few rounds of this intriguing season.

Mapledene A quickly dispatched a two-man Cold Norton C team in a confident 8-2 victory that pushes them into third spot with a game in hand that could see them overtake current leaders Fambridge.

Arron Chandler was the thorn in the side of Mapledene as he took a four-set win over Steve Muth and then a very tight 12-10 fifth set triumph over Evie Knaapen – a continuation of Chandler’s excellent form this season. For Mapledene it was their rarely seen Captain Reece Seddon who did most damage with a clean night of wins in both the singles and doubles categories.

Woodham A welcomed Woodham B to Champions Manor Hall and didn’t take long for the away side to adjust to the foreign environment taking the first point as Daniel Patynski beat Gus Heath in straight sets. The A team’s Chris Penrose soon sorted out the ‘alphabeticalness’ of the scorecard with good wins over Patynski and Sanjay Saptarshi, and with Saptarshi edging passed Daniel Piggott in a rollercoaster five-setter the A team found themselves 4-2 up at the break.

Penrose (pictured above) and Piggott were odds-on for the doubles and took the first leg but them something clicked with the B team pairing of Patynski and Saptarshi and they rattled off the next three legs for an unexpected but very welcome bonus point, bringing the score back to a respectable 4-3.

In the final run of singles matches Penrose completed his hat-trick with a straight sets victory over B team debutant Peter Harverson, Piggott ousted Patynski, and then Saptarshi closed out the scoring with a win over Heath for a final 6-4 victory for the A team – a slight dent in their podium finish ambitions.

In the other top-flight match this week, Mapledene B romped home against an undermanned Woodham C. The final score was 9-1 to Mapledene with Paul Brown the only Mapledenite to drop a point, losing out to the effervescent Adi Kamma. Both Keith Willett and penhold fanatic Colin Chatfield went unbeaten across the evening despite some really strong play from Woodham’s Graham Briggs.

Maldon A strengthened their grip on pole position in Division 2 with a less than comfortable 8-2 victory over Cold Norton D. Lloyd Bennett-Smith and that man Hamish Innes went unbeaten all evening in both competitive formats leaving debutant Ross Kirby to secure the final point with his defeat of Dave Hancox. This encounter saw five of the individual matches go to deciding sets and only one of the matches was settled in straight sets – tough on the Cold Norton team but at least they won a couple of points for their endeavours.

A prevailed over B in the Battle of the Blackwater this week. Blackwater A’s Neil Freeman was the strongest knight coming away completely unscathed from the battle – 4 matches, 12 sets for, none lost, where’s that cigar? Freeman was supported well by his entourage of Alan Scammell (1 win) and Roger Slade (2 wins), with the B team’s young buck Noah Sage causing the most upset with wins over Scammell and Slade.

Mapledene C further dented the hopes and aspirations of Woodham C this year with a 7-3 away victory that propels them into third place. Mapledener Andy Seaman was on tremendous form hitting an excellent hat-trick in the singles, with both Pat White and Mike Johnston hitting doubles. White losing out to Alan Dadswell in the final match of the evening, and Johnston succumbing to the skills of Jeremy Giffin. Dadswell and Mal Henstock combined for an unexpected bonus with a deciding-set doubles victory over White and Seaman.

In the battle for Division 3 Maldon C extended their lead with a high scoring 8-2 conquest of Blackwater D. Ella Sach was in formidable mood with a fine hat-trick which was matched by Chris Ravenhill, and the two combined for the doubles. For Blackwater both David Sage and Peter Davenport edged passed Shirley Carroll, with Carroll coming through a topsy-turvy five-setter with Ron Tam to complete her side’s scoring for the evening.

Blackwater C are secure in second place but will really need to pull a few high scoring rabbits out of the fixtures hat to get anywhere near the runaway leaders. This week they travelled to Woodham E only to encounter the deft skills of Woodham’s unbeaten Allan Steel. Steel, predictably, won all his singles only dropping the one leg to Merv Perriman – come on Division 3 players, someone take this man down!  Other than Steel’s three points for Woodham, Blackwater cleaned up for a 7-3 win with two wins apiece for Perriman, Dave Benstead, and Jacqui Treacy.

Blackwater E and Maldon D ended in stalemate with Maldon’s James Raymond claiming the player of the match accolades with an impressive hat-trick. Both sides had good chances to win the match as four of the contests went to deciding frames but they decided that it would be nice all round for everyone to win at least one match and to share the spoils evenly – how lovely.

Maldon E must be the less friendly side of the Club as they didn’t succumb to such niceties as they rolled over Blackwater F for a final score of 7-3. John Leavett was the most effective Maldonian with a hat-trick in the singles and he then combined with Kym Eames for the extra doubles point. Eames won two of her singles, as did Blackwater’s young star of the future Oscar Wyman.