There was a lot of action this week in the Burnham & District Table Tennis League. The League positions remain stable but this week saw some standout individual performances across all the Divisions.

None more so than an amazing and, based on form, very unexpected hat-trick from Blackwater’s Simon Quelch who came into his Division Two match with Stow B on just over 50% win-rate and wiped the floor with three of the steadiest players in the division. What a performance!

Fambridge returned to action this week following their mid-season break and came away with a close fought 6-4 victory against Cold Norton A that keeps them in top spot. Despite the win for Fambridge the real talking point was the phenomenal form of Cold Norton’s star player Kevin Read.

Read was able to beat all three Fambridgonians, coming from behind against both Gary Young and Keith Adams to secure his hat-trick, and then teamed up with the very in-form Arron Chandler for an impressive doubles bonus point against Young and Adams. Form to note from Read as we head into the various Essex League closed championships. For Fambridge, two wins apiece for Young, Adams and Mark Stones.

Contrasting fortunes for the Woodham and Mapledene Clubs as they went head-to-head in two matches on Thursday evening. Mapledene A travelled to Woodham C in confidence, inspected the arena, took to the table, and then stole all the points in a 10-0 drubbing.

The closest match of the night saw Woodham’s Graham Briggs take George Reeves to a deciding set but alas he could not finish the job as Reeves secured his hat-trick. This points haul sees Mapledene A within touching distance of leaders Fambridge with a game in hand – it’s all to play for.

Woodham A travelled the other way and arrived at the Mapledene venue looking slightly more like their B team than the regular A team. Opponents Mapledene B are an altogether tougher opponent so they knew they had their work cut out if they wanted to stay in touch with the leading pack.

Woodham took a decent lead in the opening rounds of singles with regular A teamer Chris Penrose relatively untroubled in his matches with Colin Chatfield and Anthon Ranjit-Singh. For Mapledene, the exceptional Keith Willett kept the score honest with two excellent wins over Dan Patynski and a comeback five-setter against Sanjay Saptarshi. Patynski edged through against tricky penholder Chatfield 12-10 in the fifth set. So, 4-2 up at the break for Woodham but it had been a battle.

Woodham took the doubles, but then Chatfield kept the interest alive with another superb performance to trick and best Saptarshi over five topsy-turvy legs. The penultimate contest saw the two unbeaten juggernauts take to the ring. Willett came out firing on all cylinders and took a close opening set 11-9, but this just focused the Penrose game to such an extent that he rattled off the next three sets to take the player-of-the-match accolades. Patynski then beat Ranjit-Singh in the final match for an overall 7-3 victory for Woodham A.

Stow B kicked off the Division 2 fixtures with a solid 7-3 return against Blackwater B. A brace of wins each for the regular Stow B trio of Peter Hance, Dave Marsh, and Nicky Reece-Ford. They were flabbergasted however at the form of the excellent Simon Quelch, who managed to beat them all in his player of the week hat-trick performance securing his team’s three-point haul.

The hardest victory being a deciding set 11-9 triumph over the very awkward and very fit Dave Moles – although I won’t make a mountain out of it. But what of the doubles, surely Quelch’s dominance in the singles would carry through to the doubles format – well not at all, he was ruthlessly ignored and left to officiate as his team-mates fell in straight sets.

Stow A missed their chance to go top of the Division despite their 6-4 victory away to Woodham D. They remain three points behind leaders Maldon A but have now caught up on their fixtures backlog – this battle is predicted to go all the way to the final weeks of the season.

Ryan Pitt, with his tactical and mesmerising play, was the stand-out player for Stow with a treble in his singles matches. Peter Chastin contributed with two victories including a five-set comeback win over the awkward Mal Henstock. For Woodham everyone won one singles match – Henstock and Scott Perry bested Ken Sheard, and the ever-improving Peter Harverson got the better of Chastin over four long rally-filled sets.

Henstock and Perry did combine for an unexpected doubles bonus score – going into the fifth and final set it looked ominous for the Woodham duo having just been trounced 11-1 in set four by the more experienced Pitt/Chastin combo – but I am told they laugh in the face of adversity and knuckled down to grind out the deciding set 11-9.

Cold Norton D were back to winning ways after a run of unexpected poor form. The unfortunate victims were Stow C who ended up on the wrong end of the 8-2 scoreline. Old Nortonians Terry Hyland and Peter Lucraft did the most damage as they rallied through the card without a hint of a loss across both formats – their form raised seven points with the extra score coming courtesy of Roy Gandy’s lone victory over Jean Chasmer. For Stow, both Pete Layzell and Dave Goody were able to conquer the Gandy counter-hitting for their disappointing two-point haul.

Allan Steel continued his remarkable comeback year with his seventh treble on the bounce to maintain his 100% win-rate in Division 3 as his two-player Woodham E managed a tight 6-4 victory over St Lawrence, with the only on-table victory on the night for the Baysiders going to Dave Bateman with a straight sets victory over Diane King.

Steel hit a very comfortable ‘9-dart’ hat-trick and appears to be a significant level above the peloton in this division. King had to work much harder as she overcame David Siggins in four sets, and then just squeezed past Nigel Brand 12-10 in the fifth.

Blackwater D and Maldon E played out a 5-5 stalemate with Maldon’s John Leavett involved in all the tasty action. With the scoring remaining close throughout it was Leavett who was involved in all three of the five-setters, losing out to Peter Davenport in the final match of the night having run out of steam he will be disappointed to have thrown away the final leg 11-1 for Davenport to even up the match at the death.

Earlier in proceedings, Leavett had edged his other two singles with an 11-9 decider against Ron Tam, and then an even tighter victory over David Sage – this one going to 12-10 in the final leg. You might have thought Leavett would have had a rest and saved himself for his final singles but no, up he jumped for the doubles with partner Ross Kirby – luckily that only went to four sets before the Maldon duo secured the win. Kirby won two of his singles for the player-of-the-match accolade, just losing out to Sage in four sets.

In this week’s Maldon derby, D beat E in a 7-3 thriller. The D team’s young buck Arthur Shadforth and the E team’s experienced stalwart John Leavett both were unbeaten going into the final match of the night and both eager to lift the Maldon Bragging Rights Cup.

Well for the crowd that stayed ‘til the bitter end the wait was worth it as Leavett used all his experience to take the lead at both 1-0 and then reclaim it at 2-1 despite suffering a deuce in the third set. But the Maldon youth were far from down and out as Shadforth’s exuberance and determination powered him through the important fourth set and then, with the hours ticking by, he continued this form into the deciding set to snatch the cup from Leavett’s grasp with an 11-8 last-set victory.

The youthful element of the crowd went wild with appreciation. Shadforth and Matt Copsey won the doubles, and third player Luca Riedling contributed with two good wins over Brian Dixon and Patrick Coyne. Coyne beating Copsey for his team’s final point.