Over the course of every season there are some phenomenal individual and team performances but this week we honour the most valuable players across the length and breadth of the season in the Burnham & District Table Tennis League.
All of the stats for every player in the league have been fed into the editor’s ZX Spectrum and we can now reveal the worthy winner for each division. To be eligible players must have played at least 50% of the team matches.
Division 1 (Peter Ballard Cup) – Winner Liam Squirrell, Mapledene TTC (96%)
Liam Squirrell is the man to beat in the top division, and this year he only lost a single match all season. A fast, forceful and resilient player – he just keeps coming at you with power and precision. This year Squirrell was pushed hardest by Dan Young of Woodham TTC and Keith Adams of Fambridge. Squirrell will be presented with the Peter Ballard Cup by the very same Peter Ballard at the upcoming Presentation Evening.
Division 2 (Brian Ellis Cup) – Winner Lloyd Bennett-Smith, Maldon TTC (89%)
Until the final game of the season it looked like Maldon’s Colin Napper had the Brian Ellis Cup all wrapped up with a win rate of 82% across the season. However, by playing the final game Lloyd Bennett-Smith qualified for entry into the ZX Spectrum and with only three losses in this very competitive cohort he came out on top. Next year Bennett-Smith will be back in the top flight where he belongs. Not surprisingly, the top five slots were held by players from the two promoted teams with Blackwater A’s Denis Balic and Neil Freeman coming in third and fourth respectively, and Maldon’s talisman Hamish Innes taking fifth place on 74% win rate.
Division 3 (Roy Davis Cup) – Winner Gary Smith, Blackwater TTC (94%)
At one point it looked like Gary Smith would go the whole season unbeaten – but then he had his own weekus horribilus at the end of January when he lost three games in two matches in quick succession. After a few bouts of therapy he came back fighting and resumed his winning ways for the remainder of his phenomenal season. Smith was the runaway leader all season but the battle to chase him down was fierce. In the end the runner-up was Woodham’s Simon Thomas who had a really good run in in his first season back for many a year. Much more to come from him next season no doubt. In third place was the 2024 winner of the Roy Ellis Cup Blackwater’s Peter Davenport.
