The Cippenham first team found themselves embroiled in a tree-way race to the Senior British Clubs League National Division B-2 title at the weekend. The top two teams faced off in the very first match with second-placed Cippenham challenging overnight leaders Fusion 3. The south London team were slightly understrength and the hosts took full advantage, racing to a well-deserved 6-3 victory and, by doing so, leapfrogged their opponents into top place.

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Cippenham raced into a 3-0 lead with Dave Barr, Rob Hansell and Martin Adams all winning 3-0. Patricia Ianua pulled one back for Fusion by defeating Martin Gray before a doubles win for Rob and Martin Adams got Cippenham back on track. Further wins for Martin Adams and Martin Gray sealed the victory.

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Saturday afternoon brought another impressive display with a 7-2 win against Joola Plymouth 2. Martin Adams replicated his player of the match performance from the morning with two 3-0 victories over Ollie Buddell and Harry Cutler while Rob added a further two to add  to a doubles win and singles successes for Dave and Martin Gray.

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Onto Sunday and Cippenham maintained top place in the division with a scrambled 5-4 win in the morning over Foresters. Shae Thakker replaced Dave Barr for the day’s play and made an immediate impact with 3-0 wins over Daniel Young and Mark Collins to earn him the player of the match accolade. Rob Hansell was nursing a sore back that impeded his play but he managed to share yet another doubles win with Martin Adams who had earlier a great win over Foresters’ number one Peter Stahlman and then Martin Gray eased his teammates’ concerns with an easy win over Young to secure the points for his team with a 5-4 victory.

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The crunch match came right at the end of the weekend and of the season. Cippenham versus Waterside was a make or break match. To win the title, Cippenham had to win, losing would relegate them to third place. It started poorly with Martin Adams succumbing to the division’s player of the season Adam Klos. Rob Hansell hit back with a demolition job on Sam Ricks but Martin Gray fell 3-1 to John McBeath. Shae Thakker got the equaliser for Cippenham who then went into the lead for the first time with Martin Adams and Rob, a reliable doubles pair. Klos got his second for the Southampton-based team and the equation was simple – two of the final three needed to be won. Martin Adams gave a captain’s performance  with a close and nervy 3-1 over McBeath but when Shae lost the second game to Sam Ricks the path ahead seemed to be uphill. However, Shae rallied and won the next two in a canter. It mattered little that Martin Gray lost closely to Ed Slot in the final set as Cippenham had already gained the five sets that they needed for a match win and the divisional title.

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Meanwhile, the Cippenham second team were having less of a good time on the other side of the playing hall. It started well enough with an 8-1 romp over Generation 2. Only the doubles set was lost as Maciej Dlugozima, Louis Alexander and the Prasanna Kumar brothers, Bharath and Sai, won all their singles encounters.

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However, the tide turned in the afternoon as Falmouth Docks, who included former Cippenham player Martin Rule in their team, won a closely contested match 5-4. Despite the team loss, Sai was adjudged player of the match for his two wins over Aiden Rollason and William Pavry. Cippenham’s other wins came from Maciej and the doubles.

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Another loss followed on Sunday morning, this time 3-6 against Horsham. Sai again won twice but was assisted only when Maciej defeated Dean Rose in the opening set.

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The final match produced a nerve-tingling 5-4 win over Newton Abbot. The Devon side led 2-0 and 4-3 before Bharath won a tense and close battle with Luke Bennett and his brother Sai administered the final nail beating Wim Faassen to give Cippenham the win that kept them in sixth place in the Division C-5 table.