This past fortnight has seen the culmination of the top of the table battles in both Division 1 and Division 2 of the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League. Both divisions went all the way to the final matches to finally separate the top two teams.
Division 1
In the top division, last year’s champions Cold Norton B had a lightning opening half of the season where they went unbeaten and developed a very healthy lead over all their expected rivals.
Fambridge have a collection of table tennis ‘Galacticos’ at their disposal and despite a slow start they began to rack up the wins as the season developed. This excellent form shown by Fambridge coincided with a dip in performance from the Cold Norton squad and the two sides found themselves engaged in a pincer movement for the top spot.
In the end, Fambridge ran out of games and in the final matches both teams recorded strong 10-0 whitewashes that showed their dominance in the league and this allowed Cold Norton to maintain their slender two-point advantage to retain the cup they worked so hard for the year before.
Cold Norton fielded their best three players for the final match with Cold Norton C and it was no surprise that Sam Lowman, Eric Green and Ian Wall all recorded final match hat-tricks.
Fambridge were up against the bottom team Stow Maries A but they still put out their best three players in John Poysden, Mark Stones and Keith Adams and as expected they too all finished the season with winning trebles. An intriguing and very close season yet again – roll on next year!
Division 2
Blackwater A consist of a wonderful and eclectic collection of players across the age ranges and playing styles. It is these attributes that allow them to ‘mess’ with their opposition and the mayhem they bring creates results.
In the second half of the season they have been on a proper roll and have been chipping away at the lead created by pre-season favourites Maldon A.
With just a couple of games to go the top two teams met in what was the defining match of the season. Blackwater could still catch Maldon but would need a very strong showing in the face-off match. It didn’t start well for Blackwater as Alan Scammell fell to Lloyd Bennett-Smith and then Colin Napper held his nerve to outlast Denis Balic in five long sets to put Maldon 2-0 up.
Neil Freeman then edged past the stoic resilience of Denis Crapnell to pull one back for Blackwater. Napper and Bennett-Smith won their next matches for a 4-1 lead and the match and title dreams were slipping away from Blackwater. Balic got the better of his defensive nemesis Crapnell to make it 4-2 going into the break.
Maldon took the doubles and Crapnell out pimpled Scammell to secure the win – with Freeman and Balic taking notable consolation scalps of Napper and Bennett-Smith for an overall 6-4 and season confirming victory for Maldon A.
These two victories sit alongside the much earlier crowned Division 3 champions – Blackwater C.
