John Poysden, the Fambridge captain, wasn’t sure whether to curse or cuddle Mapledene’s Liam Squirrell this week.
Squirrell’s unbeaten streak of wins first held Fambridge to a frustrating draw and thwarted their increasing chances of ‘stealing’ the Division 1 title away from Cold Norton B, but then he acted as talisman as Mapledene A inflicted a second defeat on leaders Cold Norton B, bringing Fambridge firmly back into contention.
It’s all to play for now in the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League.
Division 1 leaders Cold Norton B started the period well with a decent win over Cold Norton A – the final score of 7-3 may have been predictable given the line-ups but there were a couple of upsets as Sam Lowman completed his hat-trick for the B team with a topsy-turvy five-set victory over Duncan Taylor, and the A Team’s Steve Maltby came out on top in another five-setter against Dave Richardson.
This result seemed much better for Cold Norton B when later in the week when closest contenders Fambridge were held by Mapledene A with the league’s top player Liam Squirrell (pictured above) recording a nine dart hat-trick against the Fambridge trio. Squirrell partnered up with Dan Patynski for the doubles, but the real shock was Steve Muth taking out John Poysden over five hard-fought sets to set up the draw. For Fambridge Mark Stones and Keith Adams both recorded wins over Muth and Patynski.
Mapledene A were by far the busiest team over the period with a further two matches. The first was the key battle with leaders Cold Norton B with some of the potential Singles Championship finalists up close and personal.
George Reeves came from behind to defeat Eric Green in the opening match to set Mapledene on their way. Mapledene’s Liam Squirrell continued his dominance as he revenged his only defeat of the year with a four-set triumph over Sam Lowman that secured his hat-trick. Kieran Skeggs was on great form with two straight-set wins over Eric Green and Lowman, with his only loss falling to Ian Wall.
This brings the gap to below 10 points with Fambridge having a game in hand – with the two protagonists meeting in early March in what is becoming a winner-takes-all affair.
Elsewhere in the Division, Mapledene B defeated Cold Norton C as Kieran Skeggs and Colin Chatfield combined for all the points in the 6-4 victory, with Chatfield dropping just the one singles to Arron Chandler.
Mapledene A came out on top in the Mapledene Showdown as they bettered their own B team 6-4. Yet again it was the indefatigable Liam Squirrell that made the difference as he recorded another treble of straight-sets victories. This time Squirrell was excused from doubles duty, but his team-mates did him proud as Steve Muth and Dan Patynski edged a five-setter against Glenn Johnson and Simon Jacob despite having lost all four singles to the B team pairing.
The final match saw the bottom two sides face up in the wooden spoon cup with Woodham B squeezing out a much needed 6-4 victory. Star of the night was the vastly improved Peter Harverson who hit his first top flight hat-trick including an intense five-set battle with Richard Storey. Harverson was well supported as Eamonn Hall won two and Graham Briggs chipped in with a win over Ken Sheard.
The battle for supremacy in Division 2 looks like a two-way battle now as Blackwater A continue to pile on the pressure with impressive results. This week they obliterated their own B team in a 9-1 statement victory. For the B team it was Merv Perriman who stopped the whitewash rot with a last gasp end-of-the-evening four-set victory over Noah Sage. For the A team Denis Balic and Neil Freeman both hit hat-tricks that keep the Blackwaterians in touching distance of leaders Maldon A.
Cold Norton D were no match for leaders Maldon A as they succumbed to an 8-2 loss with only Neil Want providing any strong defence. Want scored his team’s two points and was unlucky to lose out in the five-set battle of the undefeated against Maldon’s Lloyd Bennett-Smith in the final match. So Bennett-Smith notched his treble with wingmen Colin Napper and Hamish Innes both taking a brace of wins.
Stow Maries B came away with an unexpected 8-2 haul against Maldon B. Hat-tricks for both Nicky Reece-Ford and Adi Kamma was the foundation for the win with Peter Hance chipping in with two wins of his own.
Blackwater C recorded another 10-0 whitewash victory that sees them just one match away from sealing the Division 3 crown. That’s six whitewashes now – it’s been a long time since we had such a dominant team in any of our divisions.
This week’s victims were Blackwater F, as the C team trio of Gary Smith, Peter Davenport and Colin Barham all recorded untouched trebles in the singles but they did drop a set in the doubles at least.
Nearest rivals Blackwater D had two decent wins, but they just can’t dent the gap to the top. First up they tasted victory over the Blackwater E side recording an 8-2 win with Roger Tiffin the standout player as he continues his impressive season. Tiffin won all his singles with team-mates Dave Benstaead and Jacqui Treacy each winning two singles.
In their second encounter the D side won out 7-3 against two-player Woodham D. Despite the loss Woodham’s Simon Thomas was clearly the star player as he was able to beat all of the Blackwater stars for a very hard-fought hat-trick.
Maldon D appear to have secured third spot with two comprehensive victories. Firstly a 10-0 win over St Lawrence followed by a 9-1 victory over Maldon E, with Maldon E’s John Leavett the only oppo player to secure a point with a consolation win in the final match against Maldon stalwart Shirley Carroll.
Carroll took a hat-trick in the St Lawrence fixture, as did her colleagues James Raymond and Tim Huxtable. Raymond repeated his hat-trick shenanigans in the Maldon E match, alongside young Luca Riedling.