Mapledene A take an early lead in the top division of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League largely thanks to an impeccable hat-trick of wins from their ‘ace in the pack’ Liam Squirrell. That’s two on the bounce for Squirrell as he looks to recapture the Peter Ballard trophy he last won in 2020.  

Squirrells are certainly not endangered in Burnham as another Squirrell, this time of the Dennis subspecies, was the star player in Division 2 this week.

Squirrell was the standout player in the Mapledene derby this week as with a ‘9-dart’ hat-trick followed by the bonus double point secured with partner Steve Muth. 

Mapledene B fielded a very strong side with Simon Jacob taking two wins over George Reeves and Muth, with everyone else spreading out the remaining victories so no-one went home empty-handed. 

Cold Norton A and their talisman Duncan Taylor continued their winning start to the season with a close fought 6-4 victory over their own B team. Taylor yet again was the difference with a hat-trick of singles and this week he added the doubles point with Matt Stringer keeping him company for the duration.

Stringer added victories over Dave Richardson and Dan Anderson to complete the scoring for the A Team. Sam Lowman was the best of the B team with two victories over Stringer and Steve Maltby to kick off his season. 

Fambridge showed great bouncebackability following last week’s unexpected reverse with a commanding whitewash victory over Woodham B. Fambridge fielded the same trio that had lost out to Cold Norton in the opening week encounter so they were all delighted to register their first clean sheet of the season. Captain John Poysden (pictured top of page) secured the player of the match accolade with an unblemished 9-0 scorecard, with his ‘toughest’ shootout being a 10, 9, 7 victory over Eamonn Hall. 

Keith Adams went to the customary deciding leg with Sanjay Saptarshi but pulled through comfortably in the end – a great battle this one as Adams was constantly surprised with the blocks coming back from his powerful and loaded loops. 

Hall took a leg off Adams but that was the only other blemish for his first hat-trick of the season. Gary Young completed the rout just dropping two sets all night – one apiece to Trevor Collin and Saptarshi – although the Saptarshi encounter was an extremely close affair and probably deserved a deciding fifth leg – final score was 11, 11, -10, 9.

Division 2 hot favourites Maldon A continue to wreak havoc with a superb 9-1 victory that sees them sit atop the leaderboard and it would be a foolish gambler that would bet against them this season. 

It was all going swimmingly for the Maldon team as they largely cruised their way through the first nine matches – whitewash headlines and ‘low blow for Stow’ puns at the ready – but up stood Stow C’s Peter Chastin – the whitewash spoiler with a fine last ditch five-set face-saving victory over Maldon’s Lloyd Bennett-Smith. Chastin skipped home without a care in the world whereas Maldon were left with that bitter taste of doubt. Well perhaps, but it finished 9-1 to Maldon with hat-tricks for both Colin Napper and Hamish Innes.  

Cold Norton D followed up last week’s victory with another fine team performance that saw then triumph 6-4 over Blackwater B. Cold Norton’s Dave Hancox and Peter Lucraft chipped with a brace of wins each, whilst Blackwater’s Noah Sage emulated the Norton boys with two wins of his own. Sage came very close to the perfect night but was pipped at the death in the deciding leg of the opening match versus the tricky Terry Hyland. 

The Maldon B crew must have been hounded into some practice this week as their results bear no relation to their very poor opening match last week. Hat-trick merchant Steve Aspland finally registered a couple of wins, as did his partner in crime Colin Barrell as Maldon B forced a 5-5 draw with Mapledene C. Aspland and Barrell couldn’t quite muster the guile to defeat Mapledene’s star player Dennis Squirrell who registered his first hat-trick of the season. 

The final game of the divisional week saw League Chairman and Woodham D stalwart Alan Dadswell completely hog the table in his team’s tight 6-4 win over the tricky Blackwater A side. Dadswell played the maximum 20 legs possible, taking two singles victories over Roger Slade and Neil Freeman, and just losing out to the awkward Alan Scammell and his bamboozling rubbers. 

Dadswell them combined with Adi Kamma to take the extra doubles point with a fifth set 16-14 victory. Gus Heath took two points for Woodham, with Freeman and Scammell sharing the points for Blackwater.

There was no messing around in Division 3 this week with three very one-sided matches. The newly monikered Blackwater E side kicked off their campaign with a comprehensive 9-1 turnover of the Blackwater F team. 

The familiar Blackwater trio from the C team days of Phil West, Kath Little and Deb Ginn will yet again be in and around the podium no doubt. West and Ginn both went unbeaten with Little dropping the opening match to the delighted David McHattie in a thrilling five-setter. Little continued thrilling the large crowd with another five-setter against Peter Hughes but just about came out on top in this one 12-10 in the decider.  

Title favourites Maldon C humbled current holders St Lawrence with a thumping 10-0 scoreline, dropping just one leg all evening. What a performance from the Maldon trio of Marty Englander, Chris Ravenhill and the old warhorse Brian Riedling. 

In the final match Maldon D produced a whitewash performance as they demolished two-player Woodham E 10-0 with 100% performances from James Raymond, Arthur Shadforth and Matthew Copsey.