British League 3rd Weekend

Created by Graham Trimming

an accredited ETTA EXCELLENCE PremierClub

Cippenham smash BATTS’ 100% record

The Cippenham first team had a near perfect third weekend when the British League Division 1 South returned to their home patch on Sunday. They had the better of a 4-4 draw with third placed Urban Progress in the morning and followed that up with a fantastic 5-3 win over BATTS in the afternoon, a result that smashed their opponents’ one hundred percent record.

Steve Munson was the team’s most successful player, winning three of his four matches during the day and yet it was Rob Hansell and Martin Adams that claimed the two player of the match nominations.

Cippenham did not get off to the brightest start, going 2-0 down to Urban Progress as Dob Tokov, as he is prone to do, started slowly against Gergely Urban and Martin Adams fell 11-8 in the fifth and deciding game to Costas Papantoniou. Steve Munson then struck for the first time with a 3-0 win over Anthony Corbin while Rob Hansell equalised the score by beating Sam Cowan, Martin suffered his second fifth-game defeat as Urban put his namesake team 3-2 up before Dob did a demolition job on Corbin. Rob showed great character and plenty of resolve as he wore down Papantoniou to put Cippenham ahead for the first time and the home team seemed poised for an unlikely victory but, after winning the first game, Steve fell 12-10 to Cowan in the fourth.

As if disappointed by his two narrow defeats in the morning, Martin left nothing out on the table in the afternoon as he powered his way to two 3-0 wins against Jimmy Walsh and the higher ranked Martin Kubrt. This set up the tremendous 5-3 result against divisional leaders BATTS who had, until that time, not dropped a single point. Steve weighed in with his own brace, the first a 3-1 win over Ryan Collins and then, at the very end of the match, the all important defeat of Tony West by the narrowest margin of 14-12 in the fifth. Having lost the first and third games both at deuce, Steve showed great character to bring about his victory and two more welcome points for a Cippenham side placed fourth in the division.

The Cippenham second team, also playing at their home venue, enjoyed a 6-2 win over next to bottom Ashford Brunswick II and then suffered a 7-1 defeat against runaway Division 2 South & East leaders Yaxley Royal British Legion to maintain their fifth position. The morning match started badly as, like the first team, they found themselves 2-0 down after a lacklustre performance by Ed Mitchell against David Rahbani and Chris Hansell failing to convert his four match points against Winston Wong. Then a series of four wins for Cippenham, all in the fifth game, turned the match on its head. Paul Baker came from 2-1 down to beat Adam Burgess 11-9 in the fifth, then Tony Stead was in an even worse position, 2-0 down against Shahrokh Mostame, before winning 11-5 in the fifth and Ed picked up his game to defeat Wong 11-7 in the fifth from 2-1 down. That put Cippenham 3-2 up and in the driving seat but there was to be far more excitement in the next set. Following the pattern set previously, Paul found himself 2-1 down against Rahbani but won the fourth 11-4 and then the fifth by the incredible scoreline of 22-20! That seemed to break the spirit of the Ashford team who lost the last two sets both 3-0 to Chris and Tony.

Paul Baker followed up his morning’s endeavours by beating Blake Taylor 3-0 in the afternoon but that was all Cippenham could muster against a rampant Yaxley side. Paul’s only defeat of the weekend came against Ian Musk who boasts a perfect record of 20 wins out of 20 for Yaxley this season.

The young patched-up third team travelled once again to Wolverhampton for their matches in Division 3 South-Midlands-West. Their morning match resulted in a 6-2 defeat against bottom team Westbury but they rallied in the afternoon with a 4-4 draw with York Gardens IV. Overall they slipped two places down the table into seventh position but the form of Bradley King and Tom Mitchell, who both won three of their four matches, was encouraging while Anthony Gardner and Andrew Sullivan again found the going too tough to handle.

Link to British League page