British League 2nd Weekend

Created by Graham Trimming

an accredited ETTA EXCELLENCE PremierClub

Cippenham teams struggle

The three Cippenham teams had their worst series of results ever in the British League last weekend. The only points that came the Club’s way were from the first team’s win over Generation 2 in Division 1 South. Apart from that, it was defeat after defeat, emphasising the fact that re-organisations of the League in the past few seasons have seen the Cippenham second and third teams promoted above their natural levels.

The trip to Okehampton, Devon is rarely fruitful for the Cippenham first team and this time proved to be no different as they lost three of their four matches, but a win against fellow strugglers Generation means that they stayed out of the drop zone.
The weekend started against BATTS Team Peniel II, a match that was, on paper, always going to be tight. Martin Adams was edged out by the ever-reliable Sean Gibson but Cedric Brion evened up the scores with a good win over Martin Kurbt. BATTS' Dotov proved too consistent for Mark Butler but Cippenham newcomer, Rafique Sarhadi, gained victory against leading lady Abilgail Embling to level up the scores. Gibson put BATTS in the lead again but that was quickly cancelled out by Martin with a win over Dotov. Kurbt was able to read Rafique’s unusual style of play well and Embling upped her game against the struggling Mark to give BATTS a 5-3 victory.
The afternoon match saw Cippenham completely outplayed by the division leaders Fusion. Mark Smith, ranked 25 in England, was at number 3 for the opposition and that gives some indication of the task faced by Cippenham. However, with the match already lost, Eddie Mitchell showed his spirit on his first team debut by beating John Dennison to avoid the whitewash.
The Sunday matches started against old rivals London Progress. Despite some close matches such as Martin losing close in the fifth to highly ranked Ashley Willetts and Rafique seeing a 2-0 lead over Egle Adomeleyte being slowly eaten away, a 2-6 defeat ensued. Cippenham’s victories came from Martin over James Sprackling and Cedric over Jerome Jonah.
Cippenham saved their best performance for last. Despite signing up an extremely good Chinese player who had impressed all weekend, and against whom Martin failed to convert two match points, Cippenham outgunned their relegation rivals 6-2 with both Rafique and Eddie scoring maximum wins. The Generation 2 team also included three of Cippenham’s Veterans’ British League squad in Mike Rhodes, Charlie Childs and Roger Hookey, who were unable to trouble the scorers on this occasion.

Four defeats saw the Cippenham second team drop from third to bottom in Division 1 South and Midlands, played at their home venue in Slough. However, the division is very tight and one additional point could have seen Cippenham gain three places and only three points separate them from third place.

Nick Brown won twice and Mark Jackson once as Cippenham lost the opening match 3-5 against Brighton City. Both the sets that extended to five games went against the host team. Mark and Martin Gray then got one each in the Saturday afternoon 2-6 defeat by Mossford. It was the Sunday morning match against Sportingbet Guernsey that left the bitterest taste. One again, the result was a 3-5 defeat in a match Cippenham had hoped to win against the national squad from the Channel Islands. Owen Clutterbuck added to wins by Martin and Mark but it was not enough. The final match, against runaway leaders TTK Greenhouse, who included double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gareth Herbert, was always going to be an uphill struggle and Steve Munson’s excellent win against Jide Owolabi was all the Cippenham could muster in a 1-7 defeat.

The Cippenham third team, playing at Ashford, Middlesex in Division 2 South & West, fared no better. With Steve Buck unavailable and Kevin Gray injured, Cippenham called in Chris Hansell and Steve Smith. Despite four losses to Club Cornwall 3-5, Woolwell II 2-6, Ashford 1-7 and B&S Group 0-8, Cippenham remain three points clear of bottom team Urban Progress II who are still pointless after eight matches. Chris and Steve both won two of their eight matches over the weekend while Paul Baker and Tony Stead won one each.

Link to British League page