British League 2nd Weekend

Created by Graham Trimming

an accredited ETTA EXCELLENCE PremierClub

First team move up the table

It was a testing time for the playing resources of Cippenham Table Tennis Club when the British League held its second weekend of the season. Because of non-availability, six new players had to be signed up in order to fulfil the fixtures of the three teams. Five of these players were recruited from the Club’s core membership in the Maidenhead League and valuable experience was gained by some of the Club’s up-and-coming players.

It did mean that the second and third teams were much weaker than anticipated and it was no surprise that both lost all their matches. However, the first team, fielding two players promoted from the seconds, enjoyed greatly improved results from their long journey to Okehampton, Devon, a venue that has rarely proved to be much of a goldmine in the past.

They commenced the weekend with a 4-4 draw with local rivals OLOP IMPACT from Reading. All four Cippenham players contributed to the scoreline in a good performance and with the three sets that went all the way to a fifth and deciding game being lost by Cippenham it was they that had the better of the draw. Martin Gray and Steve Munson both got the better of Chris Bush while Martin Adams and Rob Hansell both beat Neil Wright. Their second match on the Saturday brought the weekend’s only defeat, 5-3 to York Gardens. Cippenham captain Martin Adams’ brace, which included an excellent win against Chris Lewis, could not be matched and was only supplemented by Steve’s final set victory over Reece Placid to whom Rob had lost by the narrow margin of 12-10 in the fifth.

Sunday morning brought a much easier challenge against a weakened Godalming team who succumbed 8-0. Only four individual games went against a rampant Cippenham team. In the afternoon Cippenham were once again fortunate as they faced a Woolwell team, operating in their own Devon territory, who could field only three players. Steve’s win against Mike Hugh and another great win for Martin Adams over Richard Marshall added to the two walkovers gave another 4-4 draw. Four points out of eight over the weekend were good enough to move Cippenham up into the top half of the table and they now stand in fourth position in Division 1 South but equal on points with two other teams below them.

The Cippenham second team drafted in three members of the third team in Chris Hansell, Paul Baker and Tony Stead and added reserves Ricky Hardcastle for the two morning matches and Graham Trimming in the afternoons. Four defeats saw Cippenham drop only one place in the division to fifth but looking over their shoulders at the bottom rather than up at the top of Division 2 South & East. Chris and Tony won matches in the 6-2 defeats by Crusaders and Ellenborough while Sunday morning’s match saw Cippenham lose 8-0 to De Vere NETTS and only a concession eased the pain in the afternoon as Bedford Modern ran out 7-1 winners.

Likewise, the Cippenham third team came back with nothing to show for their efforts and slid down to fifth in the Division 3 South-Midlands-West table. Four new players: Bradley King Anthony Gardner, Tom Mitchell and Andrew Sullivan were signed up to make the trip to Wolverhampton. Bradley won once but the only real success was Tom who, in his come-back year after many seasons away from the sport, showed why he was selected to play for England schools a decade ago. He beat every number four he came up against as Cippenham lost 6-2 to Keyworth and 7-1 to Woodfield III, NWF and Woolwell III.

Link to British League page