British League 1st Weekend

Created by Graham Trimming

an accredited ETTA EXCELLENCE PremierClub

Second and third teams well placed

Cippenham’s three teams had generally good results when the British League kicked off its new season with the first weekend of matches. The second and third teams both won three of their four matches while the first team, who have struggled to maintain their place in Division One in recent seasons, finished the weekend with a maiden victory.

The first and second team were playing alongside each other in their familiar home setting of Cippenham Table Tennis Centre. The first team were unlucky to lose to old foes Woolwell in their opening match. The Plymouth club won three of the five sets that required a deciding game including both the last two to change a 3-3 scoreline into 5-3 in their favour. The only set that was decided 3-0 went to Cippenham when new signing Dob Tokov eased past Harry Cutler to put the hosts 2-1 ahead. Martin Gray beat the same player to make the score 3-3 but David Hayes was unable to hold on to potentially match winning positions as he lost 13-11 in the fifth and deciding game against Toby Mattacott and then Cob fell 11-8 in the fifth to Mike Hugh.

It was a similar scoreline, 3-5, in the Saturday afternoon match against Urban Progress. Martin put Cippenham 1-0 up but after that only Dob was able to add to the score with a brace of victories. Sunday morning is best forgotten as Dob was the only scorer against table toppers BATTS who won 7-1 but fortunes turned in the afternoon as Cippenham first team secured their first points of the season with a memorable 5-3 win against London Progress II. Martin Adams was the star of the show with two wins against Tony Wilkinson and Sherwin Remata while David went 2-0 up against Wojcech Tobiasz before the Progress player fought back to 2-2. The deciding game was anybody’s as the score see-sawed to and fro but eventually it was a delighted David that prevailed 16-14 to put Cippenham 2-1 up. In a mirror image compared to the earlier match against Woolwell, it was Cippenham that won the last two matches from 3-3. Martin Gray beat Ryan Maynard 12-10 in the fifth while Dob secured a more comfortable 3-0 win over Tobiasz to claim maximum points for the hosts and finish the first weekend in seventh place in Division 1 South.

The second team, having been demoted from Division 1 last season, found the tempo of Division 2 South and East much more to their liking. Three wins from their four matches only sees them occupy fourth spot but on the same number of points as the second-placed team. Rob Hansell was, once again, the star of the show, winning seven of his eight matches while Steve Munson was only one behind. It was Rob that spearheaded the team on Saturday and won both his sets in the opening match against Bedford Modern that Cippenham won 5-3. The other three players won one each with Steve and Tim O’Mahoney both beating Stuart Seaholme while Ed Mitchell turned on the power against Ben Gardner. The afternoon saw Cippenham romp to a 6-2 victory over Ashford Brunswick II with one of the lost sets being a concession by the injured Tim. Rob, Steve and Ed won all their matches.

Unfortunately, this form did not carry on into the Sunday as the morning brought the second team’s only defeat, albeit only 5-3 in a highly competitive match against division leaders Yaxley Royal British Legion. Rob suffered his only defeat on the weekend in this match against Jon Hall but beat Keiron Smith after coming back from 2-0 down, while Ed also beat Smith and Steve beat Alan Cherry. It was back to winning ways in the afternoon despite two more defeats for Owen Clutterbuck who had come into the side at number one. Six of the eight sets required five games to separate the contestants and these were equally shared between the teams. The other two were both 3-0 in favour of Cippenham. Rob and Steve won both their matches while Ed’s only defeat was in the dead rubber at the end of the match with Cippenham winning 5-3.

The Cippenham third team had to travel to Wolverhampton for their matches with a successful weekend seeing them grab six of the eight points on offer in Division 3 South-Midlands-West to finish one point off the pace in second place. Kevin Gray won seven of his eight matches with Tony Stead just one less, Chris Hansell won five and Steve Smith three. The weekend began inauspiciously with the team’s only defeat, 3-5 at the hands of Woolwell III. Despite being on the losing side Tony got the man of the match nomination for his brace while Kevin recovered to win one after suffering his only defeat of the weekend in his very first match. That defeat was swiftly eradicated from the memory as Cippenham went on a 7-1 rampage against Westbury with Tony, in a role reversal, being the only loser.

Sunday brought two more victories, the first being 5-3 over York Gardens IV. Chris was Cippenham’s star in the match with two wins including a 18-16 fifth-game triumph over Dangi. Kevin added two more and Tony got the all-important fifth. Kevin and Tony were once more to the fore with unbeaten displays as Cippenham finished the weekend in high spirits with a well-earned 6-2 win over Elgre Draycott II.

Link to British League page