Drama at the top of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League as the leaders fell to the unbeaten usurpers from Mapledene A. This result and a couple of high-scoring results for the top two Cold Norton sides has tightened the battle for supremacy – and long may it continue.

Leaders Fambridge welcomed the pre-season favourites, and still unbeaten, Mapledene A to the banks of the Blackwater for a stormy encounter.

Both teams were well loaded for this heavyweight battle, but it was the visitors who were on a mission taking a quick 4-1 lead, with the talismanic Liam Squirrell in devastating form with two very low-scoring straight set victories over Mark Stones and Keith Adams, and the rarely used Jordan Allen taking his wins over Stones and Gary Young but in much more difficult circumstances as he needed to go beyond deuce in the decider with Stones and eventually won out 17-15 in a dicey fourth set with Young.

Adams and Young will be pleased with their difficult five-set doubles victory over Squirrell and Allen, but this was the only dent in an otherwise impeccable performance from the Mapledene pair as they both went on to secure their hat-tricks.

Stones kept the score respectable for Fambridge with a final match five-set triumph over Steve Muth. So Mapledene maintain their 100% win rate, and Fambridge remain at the top of the pile but can now feel the chasing pack breathing down their necks.

Elsewhere in Division 1 it was a mixed week for the Cold Norton Club with the A and B teams posting impressive and high-scoring victories to propel them up the league standings whilst the C team lost heavily to a strong Mapledene B trio.

Cold Norton B skipped into second place in the league following a rather straightforward 10-0 whitewash of two-man Woodham C. Hat-tricks all round for Cold Norton’s Eric Green, Dave Richardson, and player-of-the-match Dan Anderson, with the only real trouble being a decent fight put up by Graham Briggs in his topsy turvy five-setter with Green.

Cold Norton A travelled to Woodham B and were delighted with the single table set-up and the crowd was also delighted as the match was full of long and exciting rallies that used all the available space to the max. Despite what you might imply from the final 9-1 scoreline to Cold Norton the Woodham team certainly put up a fight – in fact they somehow managed to lose all four of the five-set encounters.

Ian Wall and Matt Stringer went unbeaten in singles and doubles all evening for the bulk of the points. Stringer, such a buoyant and natural talent at the table, is clearly a bit rubbish off the table as he arrived ‘sans paddle’ and had to beg borrow and steal for the rest of the evening – this even included swapping bats with Daniel Patynski during their pre-match warm-up!

Stringer endured plenty of practice with his variety of paddles across the evening as he endured a 19/20 sets evening, winning against both Patynski and Sanjay Saptarshi in five sets and then combined with Wall for another five-set doubles victory against the luckless Patynski and Saptarshi double act. Saptarshi saved the whitewash woes for Woodham with a straight sets victory over Charles Sweeny.

Cold Norton C arrived at the Mapledene arena to be welcomed by a very strong Mapledene B side and it wasn’t long into the match before Mapledene turned this strength into points. They went 4-2 up going into the doubles with Keith Willett unbeaten. Willett teamed up with Colin Chatfield for a tight five-set doubles point before the Mapledene trio wrapped up the remaining points for an impressive 8-2 victory. Willett secured his personal hat-trick against Cold Norton’s best player Kim Shead.

In Division 2 the top two teams secured high scoring wins to continue to pull away at the top of the table. Leaders Maldon A ousted the usually difficult Blackwater A side with Denis Balic scoring a solitary point for Blackwater as he defeated Dawn Baldry. Hat-tricks for both Lloyd Bennett-Smith and the very in form Hamish Innes although they both needed all five sets against the hard-working Balic. Innes remains the Division’s most valuable player with a remarkable 95% win rate over his 18 matches so far.

Stow A showed no mercy to their stablemates Stow C as they dispatched them without dishing out a crumb of comfort in the division’s only whitewash of the week. The A Team’s Ken Sheard was the player of the match but he was very well supported by Gary Brignall and Peter Chastin, Chastin losing his invite to the family Xmas dinner as he beat his mum, Jean Chasmer, in both singles and doubles.

Mapledene C are still in the running largely thanks to their perseverance as they won four of the five setters in their highly contested encounter with Blackwater B. Mapledene’s Dave Woolmer won all his singles and was supported by Sue Body and Mike Johnston with two wins each. Body worked extremely hard to win both her points in long five- setters. For Blackwater the enigmatic Simon Quelch proved the hardest nut to crack as he took points against Body and Johnston, and then saddled up with Louis Gunn for an unexpected doubles victory rodeo.

The regular Maldon B trio brought down the rain on Woodham D’s recent parade with a crushing 7-3 defeat. A win that sees Maldon B back in the peloton and Woodham D crashing out of the title race contention. In the time honoured ‘Dusty Bin’ approach, Maldon’s Steve Aspland won all three of his matches, Garry Eames scored two points and third wheel Colin Barrell chipped in with a solitary win over Alan Dadswell. Aspland and Barrell naturally combined for the doubles win – as they always do.

Stow B emerged victorious in the battle to escape the relegation melee as they outplayed Cold Norton D in a 6-4 triumph that sees Stow leapfrog their slain opponents as they climbed the table. Not for the first time Stow have Peter Hance to thank for their points haulage as he scored his second hat-trick on the bounce, including a five-set victory over Peter Lucraft that he nearly threw away having been 2-0 up and flying.

Tony Forster hit two wins for Stow, including a 14-12 final set nailbiter against Terry Hyland. Lucraft was the best of the Cold Norton team taking clean straight set wins over Forster and Dave Marsh.

With limited action in Division 3 this week all eyes were on Blackwater C to see if they could push themselves closer to runaway leaders Maldon C. Up against Blackwater E and with some friendly interclub rivalry perhaps the points would be shared around – but oh no, not on your nelly.

The C team showed no weakness, and in a ‘take no prisoners’ assault they wiped the floor with their erstwhile friends and colleagues in a loveless 10-0 whitewash that does indeed propel them into second place. Other than the doubles none of the matches went to deciding sets as the ‘professionals’ from the C team went about their business. So a clean evening for the C team’s Jacqui Treacy, Merv Perriman, and Chris Rolison – with Treacy and Rolison coming from behind to snatch the doubles.

In the final game St Lawrence and Blackwater D played out a tight and exciting 5-5 draw with St Lawrence, coming back from 2-4 down at the break to take the draw in the deciding leg of the final match as Mike Pratley squeezed past Peter Davenport for the match saving point, a win that cost Davenport his hat-trick on the night although he still was named player of the match having won his other games.

Pratley on the other had was by far the busiest player of the week pipping the 19/20 sets played by Matt Stringer with a full house of 20/20 sets across four matches winning two and losing two. Mike Burton also won two of his singles and the doubles with Pratley, and for Blackater David Sage was in good form with wins over Pratley and Dave Siggins.