It was another disappointing weekend for the Cippenham teams in the British League
with all three still floundering near the foot of their divisions. It could have
been so different for the second team playing in Division One South and Midlands.
Playing at their home venue they beat Fusion II 5-3 in the morning and then led Kingfisher
3-0 in the afternoon match. However, that lead disappeared and the team were left
to rue a 3-5 defeat.
The match against Fusion was certainly the highlight of Cippenham’s weekend and it
was a good performance with all four players contributing to the scoreline. However,
the star player was Owen Clutterbuck who beat both Simon Philipz and David Williams
3-0 in a rock solid performance. Martin Gray also beat Philipz while Steve Munson
and Mark Jackson both beat David Fraser. Mark’s win 11-7, 11-5, 12-10 secured the
victory for Cippenham in the last set but had he beaten David Williams earlier it
would not have been necessary. Mark lost to Williams 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11
after holding 9-5 leads in two of the games he lost.
The afternoon experience was a sickener for Cippenham who had their tails up when
the score stood 3-0. Up until that time only one end had been lost as Martin beat
Andrew Smith 3-0, Owen followed up likewise against Lloyd Gregory and Steve defeated
Alan Monks 3-1. Cippenham seemed on their way to a huge victory against their Reading
based rivals. The tide then changed with a vengeance as, after that, only Steve threatened
to win when he was nip and tuck with Smith before succumbing 11-8 in the fifth.
That defeat elevated Kingfisher to fourth in the table and relegated Cippenham to
seventh. However, only two points separates the bottom five teams in a very competitive
division and a victory in that final match would have seen Cippenham themselves clear
in fourth spot.
The first team, also playing at Cippenham, had a wretched time, losing both matches
6-2. They missed team captain and new father Martin Adams who was absent for the
first time since season 2002-3. The morning match against Woolwell was lost 6-2 despite
Woolwell only travelling from Devon with three players. The two sets that Cippenham
won were walkovers. In the afternoon the opponents were a strong Pavilion Brighton
team and this again resulted in a 6-2 defeat. Cippenham’s two wins both came at the
expense of Dov Katz who was beaten by both Cedric Brion and Robert Hansell. Rafique
Sarhadi and Lee Dredge failed to score. The first team lie seventh in Division One
South, level on points with bottom team Generation who benefited by two points when
they beat the division leaders, Fusion, who fielded a much weakened team.
The third team travelled with only three players to Okehampton, Devon and found that
their Division Two South and West morning opponents Urban Progress II had cried off,
deciding not to travel from London citing weather conditions. As the English Table
Tennis Association had made the decision that the matches would take place this is
likely to lead to the award of a walkover to Cippenham. In the afternoon Cippenham
lost 3-5 to York Gardens who, ironically, had travelled from London for the encounter.
Chris Hansell got Cippenham off to a great start by beating Alistair Smith, Steve
Smith made it 2-1 when he beat Errol Skeete but Cippenham’s only other success was
in the dead rubber between Paul Baker and Wayne Matthews.
