British League 1st Weekend

Created by Graham Trimming

an accredited ETTA EXCELLENCE PremierClub

Solid start by Cippenham’s three teams

Cippenham’s three teams in the British League all made solid starts to their campaign at the weekend. The second team fared best, winning five out of eight points in Division 1 South and Midlands, while the third team, newly promoted to Division 2 South and West gained three points and the first team were unlucky to realise only two points as the outcome of much endeavour and some good play.

Playing at their home venue, two 4-4 draws and two 5-3 losses were scant reward for the first team that started the new season in better form than in recent seasons. All four players contributed fairly equally with either three or four wins from their eight matches each to place the team in sixth position. Cippenham welcomed back Robert Hansell after two years out of the team during which he has been working in the USA. There was also another change with Cedric Brion coming into the team in the number one position. Cedric is a Frenchman was has recently moved from France to Slough with his job.

Cedric started with a man of the match performance on debut in the opening match against Generation 2. His brace against Scott Romerill and Adam Proszko secured the first point of the season as Cippenham showed great spirit to recover from 3-1 down to draw 4-4 and but for some poor luck could have started with a win. Cedric’s second win made the score 2-3 and then captain Martin Adams eclipsed Roger Hookey to draw Cippenham level. Robert Hansell looked as if he was about to put Cippenham ahead for the first time as he led Romerill 2-0 in games and had two match points at 10-8 in the third. Those points eluded Rob as did the next two games. At 2-5 down in the fifth it was all but over but Rob is not one to give up without the most tremendous fight. Winning the next five points put him 7-5 up and that soon became 10-8. Romerill then gained a lucky edge point and Rob missed an easy smash at 10-9. A net cord ball at 10-11 spelt defeat for Rob in the unluckiest of circumstances. Lee Dredge then beat Charlie Childs 3-1 to earn the first point of the season for Cippenham.

The Saturday afternoon match saw Cippenham pitched against their old rivals Woolwell. Rob got his season started by beating Marketa Myskova but that was all Cippenham managed before the team from Plymouth had secured a winning 5-1 lead. Wins for Martin and Lee added respectability to a final 3-5 scoreline.

Sunday started with another 3-5 defeat, this time after having held a 3-2 lead against second placed Pavilion Brighton. The lead was established through wins from Martin, Robert and Cedric but Martin was unable to add that vital additional win when losing by the narrow margin of 11-9 in the deciding game to man of the match Da Shuai Zhang.

A second league point was gained in the final match of the weekend with a 4-4 draw against Urban Progress, runaway winners of the division last season. All four players contributed a win each to a good team effort. Cedric’s opening set win at 20-18 in the fourth game against Gergely Urban was the highlight but neither he nor Martin were able to stop Urban’s number one Tibor Kadar. Both Robert and Lee defeated Csaba Balint and Martin got the better of Zoltan Hosszu as Cippenham recovered from 2-4 down to gain a point.

The second team, also playing on home tables, faced a tough start against TTK Greenhouse. The London-based team, led by former Cippenham player and Slough resident Gareth Herbert, are the runaway leaders seeking to regain the Premier Division place they lost last season. Double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Herbert showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with and unsurprisingly went through the weekend unbeaten. Cippenham’s only success in a 1-7 result was Owen Clutterbuck’s win against Jide Owolabi. That, however, proved to be the team’s only defeat of the weekend as they finished in a highly respectable third place. Martin Gray, Owen and Steve Munson were unbeaten in the 6-2 romp over Fusion II with only the unwell Nick Brown unable to contribute to the scoreline.

David Hayes came in to the team on Sunday to place Nick and Mark Jackson replaced Steve at number four. David, who had not sought to play as his recent practice has been limited, nevertheless made all the difference. From 2-1 down in games he conjured up a win that included 16-14 in the fourth game against Lloyd Gregory of local Reading rivals Kingfisher to set up a 4-4 draw. All four players contributed as Owen and Mark both beat Andrew Smith and Martin easily saw off Mark Banks. David then followed this up with a man of the match display against Reading’s other team, OLOP IMPACT. First he beat Chris Bush and followed with a tremendous 11-5 fifth game win over former England international David Barr. Owen joined in the fun with straight-games wins over Bush and Abhay Gehlot while Mark administered the coup de grace in the final set against the latter.

Playing at Ashford, the third team got off to a great start on Saturday but then were pegged back on Sunday. Tony Stead starred with a brace in the 4-4 draw with B&S Group as Cippenham recovered from 0-2 down. Steve Buck and Kevin Gray, on debut, contributed the other wins. Paul Baker then made his mark in the afternoon’s 5-3 over Urban Progress II. Steve got Cippenham off the mark beating Csaba Balint, then Paul made it 2-1 against Roger Pyle. Zoltan Hosszu completed his brace against Steve to put Urban 3-2 up but Cippenham were not to be denied. A surging comeback commenced with Paul recovering from two games down to beat Balint and then Kevin beat Chris Ogle over five games to put Cippenham in front. Tony lost the opening game against Pyle but recovered to win the next three and secure promoted Cippenham their first win of the season.

This success was short-lived as Sunday brought two defeats. In the morning Steve and Tony were the only winners in a 2-6 reverse against York Gardens II while Paul gave a great performance to win both his matches against Horsham in the afternoon. Unfortunately, only Steve was able to join in as Cippenham went down 3-5 to the Sussex side.

Link to British League page