Cold Norton A and Fambridge cling on the joint leadership of the top division of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League despite both teams being held to feisty draws this week. 

Cold Norton A were held by their own C team courtesy of an exceptional hat-trick of singles wins by Sam Lowman including taking the 100% unbeaten record off the league’s best player in Duncan Taylor. Lowman took straight set victories over the A team’s Charles Sweeny and Rob Harris but needed all five sets to overcome the defensive prowess of Taylor. 

Taylor and Sweeny won the remainder of their singles and combined for the doubles point to at least put a small pea-sized dent in Lowman’s skip home. 

Fambridge made the short trip to Champions Manor Hall to face the current title holders Woodham A – and again we witnessed a pair of trios that would grace any Essex league match.  A feisty lengthy rollercoaster with plenty of bumps and twists this one as Woodham stormed to a 3-0 start, but then found themselves behind 5-4 going into the final loop. 

Woodham’s Harry Chivers opened up against the wily John Poysden and after a tough 40 mins of play they found themselves at 9-9 deadlock in the fifth. The youth of Chivers prevailed this time but the loss only spurred Poysden on to a better place as he was unbeaten from then on. 

Lee McHugh beat Keith Adams in four sets and Chris Penrose saw off the returning Chris Ballard in straight sets. Poysden used all his knowhow to hold on and eventually beat Penrose 11-9 in the fifth and Adams atoned for his earlier loss with a four-set triumph over Chivers. 

The doubles was another lengthy and noisy affair with commentary aplenty from both pairs. It was close all the way through and we again reached 9-9 in the deciding leg before Adams and Poysden saw off the challenge of Chivers and McHugh (-9,9,9,-6,9). 

Buoyed by their doubles victory Adams and Poysden won the next two singles matches in straight sets to leave Chivers and Ballard to fight it out in the final match of the night. Chivers set off at some pace and was quickly 2-0 up, but Ballard fought back bravely and played his way to a 2-2 stalemate. 

The final leg was tight at the start but Chivers found his groove and dominated the finish of the match to secure his second win of the night and the draw for his team. A proper humdinger this one! 

Across the arena in Woodham, Cold Norton B were racking up the points against Woodham B. The points came consistently but the matches were tough going at times, so the scoreline of 8-2 to Cold Norton probably doesn’t sum up the closeness of some of the matches – as the match finished just before the A team’s marathon across the divide. 

Eric Green knocked out a hat-trick on the night but was taken all the way to a fifth end by Woodham’s best player Daniel Patynski, who went on the take scalps off both Dan Anderson and Ian Wall for Woodham’s sole points of the encounter. Wall edged past Eamonn Hall in four sets, and then showed great bouncebackability as he squeezed past Sanjay Saptarshi in five having been 0-2 down to the Woodham hotshot. 

Anderson was frustrated by his opening loss to Patynski and channelled his aggression into his defensive work as he got past Hall and Saptarshi just dropping a single leg along the way.  

Maldon A are running rampant in Division 2. This week they posted a 10-0 whitewash victory over the hapless Blackwater B crew. 

With only three individual legs dropped all match by the Maldon trio, other than an early bath there was very little in the way for consolation for the Blackwater team. Wins all round for Dawn Baldry, Hamish Innes, and Colin Napper. 

Maldon B picked up their first win of the season as Steve Aspland found his form and recorded his first hat-trick of this campaign. Having said this, Aspland was a tad fortunate to come through against Stow’s Peter Chastin. Aspland found himself 9-10 down in the deciding leg and word on the street was that he pulled out a lucky clipped edge to take the match to deuce before seeing out the match. 

Chastin won his other two matches as did the lovable Dave Goody with two excellent victories over Colin Barrell and Garry Eames. 

Stow A will be hoping to challenge Maldon A for the title this year and this week’s 8-2 win over Mapledene C will be seen as a good marker of their intent. Fielding both Richard Storey and Gary Brignall would guarantee any team a significant number of points and neither disappointed as they went undefeated in both singles and doubles. The ‘extra’ point came from Malcolm Storey with a hard-earned triumph over Dave Woolmer. 

In the final match of the week Woodham D travelled to Stow B and came away with a respectable 7-3 winning margin. Two wins a piece for the Woodham trio of Scott Perry, Gus Heath, and Mal Henstock. Perry’s four-set victory over Peter Hance being the most noteworthy of the evening, with Hance winning his other singles on the night.

Division 3 has a distinct hint of sea salt as the Maldon D and C teams dominate the upper echelons. Maldon C followed up their demolition of St Lawrence last week with a comprehensive victory over their own E team. 

Marty Englander remains the star turn with his second hat-trick on the bounce, with team-mates Shirley Carroll and Ella Sach chipping in with two wins and a win respectively. For the E team John Leavett proved the toughest player with two wins to keep the rampant C team in check. 

The Maldon D side had James Raymond and Arthur Shadforth to thank for their 6-4 win over St Lawrence A, as both players won all their singles albeit with a tough couple of five-setters thrown in to keep it real. Strangely the Raymond and Shadforth doubles act may need some work as they succumbed in straight sets to the wise and stoic pairing of Mikes Pratley and Burton. 

Blackwater C were relentless and fastidious as they blew away their club opponents from the F team. Final score was 10-0, although the F team’s Andy Simmons almost pulled a victory out of the bag when he went 2-1 up against Keith Thompson but alas he ran out of steam and Thompson pulled through in five sets for his hat-trick to match those of team-mates Jacqui Treacy and Andrea Alleyne. 

The other Blackwater derby saw the D and E teams play out a well contested draw. Player of the night went to the D team’s Jason Bush who won all his singles but was not selected for the doubles which they lost and this cost them the overall victory. 

Deb Ginn won two of her singles as well as the doubles and the E team’s Thompson Twins, Keith and Vanessa, had ‘love on their side’ as they each added a point to their team’s total. Poor Ron Tam of the D side played 19 out of a maximum 20 legs only to go home empty handed but pleased for the cardio workout he was given.