Press Report

This coming Summer their will be again be an Adult Coaching Course. The course is aimed at existing League players seeking to improve their standard (especially those from the lower divisions), adults looking to break into league play and those seeking to return to league play after an interval. The course is strictly for adults only! The course will run for 10 weeks starting Monday 26 April 2004 and will be at Newlands Spring Community Centre, Dickens Place, Chelmsford. It will be led by ETTA qualified coaches and the fee (payable in advance) for the 10 week course is £40. For further information or to book a place contact Adrian Pitt on 01245 250710. Previous courses have been highly successful and well subscribed. You can see a report on the last course from this link.

HATFIELD PEVEREL B - FIRST CHAMPIONS OF THE SEASON

Hatfield Peverel B have become the first team of the season to be crowned Champions in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League as they took the division three title with an expected 8-2 victory over bottom side Baddow Village C and another 8-2 victory over ECC F. Congratulations are extended to their regular line-up of Neil Freeman, Guy McKenzie and Eric Green who played in both of these matches. Their lead over the next placed side OCs B has now grown to a massive seventeen points. OCs B's hopes of taking second place were dealt a major blow as they were beaten 7-3 by lowly ECC E. Clive Harding held the ECC side together taking his three singles. Time has run out for Baddow Village C who were well beaten 8-2 by their D team whilst there was a welcome three points for Excalibur B who overcame OCs A

6-4. An undefeated Bill Smith showed up best of the Excalibur players. The battle to stave off relegation couldn't be tighter with a mere two points separating the fifth and ninth placed sides.

A new look ECC A side of Dave Cole, Matt Staines and Dan Cannon took a giant step towards retaining the first division title as they produced a superb performance to overwhelm third-placed Danbury A 10-0. Danbury were without their top player Stuart Gibbs but make no mistake about it their team of Kevin Read, Dave Bowles and Dave Jacobs was still a really good one. Danbury just had the misfortune to come up against an ECC side whose three players were all on top form at the same time. Elmtree Graphics A are now five points clear in second place after beating Baddow Village A 8-2. Adrian Pitt showed up best of the Baddow players with an excellent win over Chris Jacob. At the foot of the table Maldon B scored their third win of the season; beating Billericay 6-4. Ray Murray took all three singles against his old Club whilst Ray Sutton got the better of both Ray Eldridge and Keith Ashton.

Writtle A are making a sustained late run for promotion from the second division. Two-down Champion Gary Ward was again unbeaten as he led them to a 6-4 victory over Maldon C. At the same time second-placed E2V Technologies faltered again, finding themselves held to a draw by Baddow Village B. Dave Richardson stayed unbeaten for E2V although Neil Gooday and Alistair Piper hit back by both winning twice. Fourth-placed ECC C produced one of their best displays of the season to beat Danbury C 8-2 with Keith Spicer's excellent hat-trick of wins leading the way.

Elmtree Graphics B (bottom for much of the season) are making a dramatic attempt to avoid relegation from division four and the inclusion of Fred Button in their line-up caused leaders Baddow Village E all sorts of problems. Even the Four-down Champion Gareth Joice had no answer succumbing 3-0. The match ended all square. Elmtree included newcomer Phil Smith in their line-up against Danbury F and the combination of Smith and Tony Vassallo left them well on top as they won 8-2. With a squad of Smith, Button and Vassallo to call on there is no doubt that Elmtree can still avoid relegation. It should be an interesting final three weeks of the season. Excalibur C stay second after two excellent results, a 9-1 thrashing of Danbury H and a 10-0 whitewash of Danbury J. Mike Rostoft and Steve Cheesman were both unbeaten whilst Ian Butler took five out of his six singles, only missing out against Jean Chasmer. ECC G led by the inform Jeff Lewington did well to get the better of the higher placed Danbury G 6-4 as Lewington succeeded in taking his three singles all 3-0. Writtle B had Matthew Brown to thank as they managed to draw with Hatfield Peverel C. Brown's three wins were off-set by the two wins achieved by both Keith Cullen and Jon Fieldsend.

Stuart Wintle produced the most outstanding performance of the week in the fifth division. The OCs C player who is so often over-shadowed by his team-mate Gerard Esser came to the fore this week as he took all threes of his singles against ECC H. With Esser losing to both Colin Barham and Simon Webber it was only enough to earn his side a draw but they nevertheless remain six points clear at the top of the table. EPHQ were in turn unable to close the gap; finding themselves held to a draw by ECC J. Their leading player Ian Hockley was again unbeaten. Baddow Village F scored their seventh victory of the season, a close 6-4 victory over Baddow Village G. Mike Johnston (three wins for the F side) and Bob Francis (who won twice for the G side) fared best.

Hatfield Peverel E returned to the top of division six by beating Writtle E 6-4 with Mike Bard taking his three singles. Second placed Maldon Borough made no mistake in hammering Baddow Village J 10-0 but they came unstuck against Writtle E where it ended all square. Mark Ghafoor turned in an excellent performance to take his three singles, getting the better of both Ray Wisbey and Tony Ford. The title decider should rest on the clash between Peverel and Borough in the last week of the season, a fitting finale between two teams who have pushed each other all the way. ECC K gave a good account of themselves against OCs D; only just succumbing 6-4 in a match where David Porter was a class apart taking his three singles easily. And in another 6-4 result; Excalibur D just came out on top against Baddow Village K. No single player stayed undefeated as Craig McGarrigle (Excalibur) and Laura Pyman (Baddow Village) showed up best.

Ingatestone Boys Club A stayed on target to take the CLICK League title with their 4-1 win over their B team. Michael Wood was again their main-stay. But Baddow Village M (Adam Pitt and Hannah Pitt) have not given up the chase yet and they beat ECC M 5-0 to stay in with a chance as they still have Ingatestone left to play.

Baddow Village N had a cracking game with Excalibur Knights where they just came out on top 3-2. The improving Craig Hiskey turned in his best performance of the season to beat Mark Hurrell and it was left to Mark's older brother Shaun to hold his side together. The Danbury L line-up of Matt Standen, Ben Bayley and James Gatheral have come on leaps and bounds in recent weeks and they showed a clean pair of heels to ECC L, racing home 5-0.

Two lots of Finals Night Pictures can be found in Picture News under News Features.