The Burnham & District Table Tennis League is back in full swing after the Christmas hiatus.

Fambridge have benefitted from their warm weather training at the Poysden Camp in southern Spain by taking a commanding lead at the head of the table including a decisive win over Woodham A that sees the vanquished Woodham side drop out of the leadership contest.

We now have a three-way sprint to the finish line with the steady Cold Norton B and the unpredictable Mapledene A forming the chasing pack. It looks like this one is going to the wire and could be decided by the ‘cup final’ matches betwixt the contenders. 

Fambridge have done a job over the Woodham Club in the last couple of weeks with a 9-1 thrashing of Woodham B, followed up by that decisive 7-3 victory over Woodham A. Mark Stones and Keith Adams have been ever present, dropping just one match apiece – both against the impressive Chris Penrose from Woodham A.

In the Woodham B match there was a notable victory for Woodham’s Sanjay Saptarshi over the elegant playmaker John Poysden.

Cold Norton B have kept in touch with leaders Fambridge with two solid 7-3 victories of their own. First up was the Cold Norton A side and an Eric Green ‘nine-dart’ hat-trick led the way for the B team. A trio of straight set victories might not be that unusual for Green – but when one of those opponents in the newly crowned Chelmsford League Singles Champion Duncan Taylor then you have to really take notice.

Mapledene A blew their chance of applying extra pressure on Fambridge when they fell to Woodham A in a 6-4 loss. The Woodham trio of Penrose, Sanjay Saptarshi, and Harry Chivers all beat Steve Muth and Jordan Allen, but none of them could out last the ferocity of Mapledene captain Reece Seddon. Seddon was also instrumental in the doubles victory as he and partner Allen forced a deciding set 15-13 consolation point victory – a point that could make all the difference come judgment day.

In other news Cold Norton C’s Arron Chandler continued his fine vein of form with yet another hat-trick, this time against a beleaguered and shell-shocked Cold Norton A side. Watch out for Mr Chandler at the Burnham Tournament this year!

Division 2 continues to be dominated by Maldon A and Stow Maries A with both teams maintaining their winning streaks over recent weeks. Leaders Maldon A beat two-man Stow C 8-2, and followed this up with a closer 7-3 victory over Blackwater B.

Maldon A have been keeping it in the family and giving some airtime to the improving Ross Kirby, and playing at the higher level has given Kirby the chance to notch a few wins – more to come we suspect. For Blackwater B, young Noah Sage (pictured above) was a bright star as he dealt a blow to Hamish Innes’ march towards the divisional player of the year award with an exceptional straights sets victory – only Innes’ second loss of the season.

Stow A were ruthless against a strong Woodham D side, winning all their singles but somehow losing out to the usually unsuccessful doubles play of Woodham D for an overall 9-1 points haul. Hat-tricks for Richard Storey, Gary Brignall and Peter Chastin, with the doubles kudos going to Alex Wilson and Jeremy Giffin.

Elsewhere in the division, Cold Norton D have made a bright start to the new year with a resounding 9-1 thumping of Blackwater B with both Peter Lucraft and Dave Hancox earning a seat at the hat-trick podium. It was left to the wily Gary Smith to blot the Nortonians copy book with a five-set win over Terry Hyland.

Woodham D have had a busy few weeks but finished with a surprising 7-3 turnover of Stow B with hat-tricks for Peter Harverson and Mal Henstock. Harverson also featured heavily in their earlier loss to Blackwater A with his sides only two wins of the night against Neil Freeman, and the tricky Alan Scammell – although it was the playing-up for the A side Noah Sage that dominated that encounter with a superb hat-trick over the Woodham trio.

Maldon B have had a mixed time of it – losing out 6-4 to Mapledene C, and then beating Stow C 7-3 with Steve Aspland’s hat-trick mojo back in full swing. All of this leaves Maldon A and Stow A 15 points or so clear at the top end, and unfortunately Stow C 10 points or so adrift at the wrong end.

Maldon C remain the only unbeaten side across the whole league and still have a 100% win-rate – so it’s not surprising to see them clear at the top of Division 3, and if a demonstration of their quality was required then the 10-0 drubbing of a very good St Lawrence trio should suffice.

Hat-tricks aplenty for the Maldonite trio of Marty Englander, Ella Sach, and Brian Riedling against Mike Pratley, Mike Burton and Dave Bateman – with Burton having the cheek to attempt some resistance forcing a game off each of the Maldon players.

The new Blackwater C are the leaders of the chasing peloton and they had an inspirational whitewash win over Blackwater F with Chris Rolison, Jacqui Treacy and Mervyn Perriman all going unbeaten, but a similar trio came a bit unstuck against Maldon D as Rolison had to come from 0-2 down in the final match of the evening to eventually take the point that sealed the draw.

Colin Barham took over from Perriman but mirrored his unbeaten form, but the Maldon pair of James Raymond and Arthur Shadforth each took two singles and paired up for an easy doubles bonus. Blackwater cannot be dropping points so willy-nilly if they want to challenge the Maldon C juggernaut.

Woodham E continue to pick up points largely due to the unbeaten and unflustered Allan Steel – another hat-trick fell his way in the 6-4 win over Maldon D, with Arthur Shadforth taking a set off the Man of Steel to at least keep him on his toes.

So with a loss and a draw so far for Maldon D surely a win was due next – and so it came to pass as they put St Lawrence to the sword in a fine 7-3 morale-boosting triumph. It was a classic Dusty Bin 3-2-1 approach for Maldon with a hat-trick for James Raymond, 2 for Arthur Shadforth, and a single point for Matthew Copsey.

In the Blackwater derby D overpowered E in a 6-4 victory that saw everybody win something – they’re a wholesome bunch at Blackwater. Jason Bush took the only hat-trick for the D team and the E team’s Vanessa Thompson couldn’t muster a win in the singles but then made up for it by partnering Keith Thompson for a straight sets doubles victory.