Last week saw the first of the League's Knockout Cup Finals. And at contrasting ends of the spectrum. In the top event, The Men's KO Cup, League champions ECC A took on lowly Baddow Village A. And in the 6Down KO Cup divisional runners-up Maldon Boro took on Baddow Village A  (for that competition) three places below them in the league table. A press report on the matches will follow shortly. Here are a few pictures and a brief report on each match.

The Men's match started with a pulsating game of doubles as Matthew Staines (current U21 Singles champion and semi-finalist in this years Men's Open) and Paul Davison set out to dismiss Peter Barrett and Adrian Pitt. And what a contest this proved to be. The champions allowing the opening two games to slip through their fingers 10:12, 9:11 and then clawing their way back - just - at 13:11 in the fourth. Once back they were not to be denied shading the fifth 11:9. Matthew and Peter stayed on the table for the next singles. At match point in the fourth it looked as if Peter was about to cause a major upset after some breathtaking play from both players. But somehow he held on to recover the fourth 12:10. That seemed enough to break Peter's spirit with Matthew winning out in the fifth 11:6. David Cole then dispensed with Waseem Qureshi in fairly quick time bringing Paul Davison and Adrian Pitt to the table. And what a tussle this proved to be between the two coaches. Adrian took the first 7:11 with Paul hitting back to take the second and third 11:8, 11:7. Only to let it slip again as Adrian raced through the fourth 3:11. Nervousness seemed to take over in the final end, with Adrian being later heard to comment that the next coaching session would have to focus on serving practice - and not just for the juniors! A succession of unforced errors gave Paul the upper hand and he duly ran out winner 11:5. baddow were not however to be denied a moment of glory as peter and Waseem then combined to down David and Matthew over four ends 11:7, 8:11, 9:11,9:11. it was left to Paul to bring the match to an end after loosing the first to Waseem 10:12, he just did enough to keep ahead in the next three to take the set and match 11:8, 15;13, 11:9. It was an excellent evening with some very high class play from both sides.

By contrast the 6Down final seemed to be over in the blink of an eye! The 'young' Maldon Borough side of Ray Wisbey, Tony Reece-Ford and Roy Cole were in no mood to mess about. And having so dominated Division 6 this season along with Hatfield Peverel (whom they had beaten to reach the final) it was perhaps not surprising that they totally dominated the match. The 'older' Baddow Village side (average age 63 compared to Maldon's 61!) had no answers, enjoying only a brief moment in the second doubles (the fifth match of the night) when it seemed they may get on the score sheet. maldon fair raced through the opening doubles, 9,7,and 8. With Reece-Ford, Wisbey and Cole dashing off the next three singles. Only Ron Arthur caused a temporary hiccup taking the third end from Reece-Ford, before Tony raced away with the next 11:5. Ron Arthur and Chris High did their level best to avoid the whitewash taking the first end against Wisbey and Reece-Ford 11:5. The next two however went to the Borough pair 7:11, 9:11 but Ron & Chris fought back to level the set with an 11:8 win. The fifth end was a real scrap, the Maldon pair finally coming through 15:17 for game set and match, bringing to an end an excellent season for the 'youngsters' from Maldon. The match was played in an excellent spirit and provides one of the best demonstrations of how it is possible to go on playing and enjoying table tennis at a good level throughout life.