The 6 remaining teams of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League’s introductory competition CLICK met at the Melbourne Athletic Stadium on Friday 4 February for the semi-final stage of the CLICK KO Cup. 

Unfortunately one of the teams had to withdraw at the last moment due to school commitment leaving one of the two groups with two instead of 3 teams. This effectively meant that the opening game featuring Baddow Village A (Alex Stone and Andrew Orme) and Old Chelmsfordians B (Matthew Porter and Nicholas Rock) would be the group decider. And what a battle this proved to be. Matthew stayed unbeaten for OC's, whilst Alex & Andrew snatched 1 a-piece for Baddow. With close games being the order of the evening. For example as Alex evened the match with a 12:10, 9:11, 11:7, 11:7 win over Nicholas. In the final doubles however Baddow looked confident and although the scoreline was close at 9,9 & 7 they seldom seemed in real trouble. So it was Baddow Village A who took the first final place.

The second group brought together the two top teams from Click. ECC A (Tommy & William O'Donnell) and Danbury (James Gatheral and Matthew Standen). And every expectation was that they would be slogging it out for a place in the final, with the third group team Baddow Village B (Ben Steed and Tom Lee) stranded. But things went badly wrong for the ECC team in the opening game with Baddow Village B. The Villagers dashing through to a straight 3:0 victory as Ben & Tom made the most of their handicap advantage. With nothing in the handicaps the expectation was that the next match, the clash between ECC A and Danbury, would be a tight affair. But it was just not going to be ECC's night. Despite some very close games Danbury ran out surprising 3:0 winners. It looked like Danbury were on target to retain the trophy they won last year, with just Baddow Village B standing in the way. But Baddow showed some real determination in this encounter. With all four players winning one singles each the match was finely poised at 2:2 going into the final doubles. And it was no surprise when this became 2:2 also. But with a heroic effort Baddow upset the odds in the last end to win out 11:8, 7:11,11:4,8:11,11:6. A terrific match.

The final this year will therefore be an all Baddow affair, ensuring that a third clubs name is added to this new trophy.