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.

GATHERAL DOMINATES CLICK KO CUP FINAL

From an excellent entry of 15 teams Danbury L and Excalibur Knights fought their way through to the Final of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League CLICK (Introductory) League Knock-Out Cup Final. The Final was played at Melbourne Athletics Centre on Friday 19 March 2004 before a sizeable crowd and it was the Danbury side of James Gatheral and Ben Bayley, both enjoying their first full season of competitive Table Tennis who emerged as 3-1 winners. The Competition was played on a Handicap basis and there was little to separate the two sides who fought out what turned out to be a superb Final.

The first game featured 14 year-old James Gatheral (Danbury) and 15 year-old Stewart Hiskey (Excalibur), both playing off handicaps of minus three. Stewart edged home in the first end 12-10 but from then on James proceeded to use his dominating forehand to devastating effect as he stormed through the next three games 11-7, 11-7,

11-5. In the next game 13 year-old Chris Butler, who had a very slight handicap advantage against Ben Bayley (also aged 13), made that count in the first end as he won 11-7. But Ben hit back 11-9 with some very steady play to level the scores. Chris however was in no mood to be denied and with his forehand playing an ever greater part in proceedings Chris took the next two games decisively 11-5, 11-7.

Ben had to play the next game as well, never easy when you have just lost the previous encounter but displaying great determination and composure he did not let it worry him at all. Ben was always in control against Stewart Hiskey as he took the match 11-7, 11-5, 11-3 as Stewart found his handicap a little too much on this occasion. With the score 2-1 to Danbury it was left to Chris Butler to try and salvage something for Excalibur. And what a game he made of it. James Gatheral surged into a 2-0 lead - 11-6, 11-7 as he barely put a foot wrong. However Chris kept his nerve and came out on top in some great forehand to forehand rallies to level the match 11-9, 11-9. Who would cope the better in a real pressure situation was anyone's guess? It turned out to be James as Chris's form dipped slightly. James went on to win 11-7.

Divisional Secretary Graham Turner presented the Trophy to the winning Danbury side as both teams received great applause from the spectators. No one was more pleased than Danbury Team Manager Gordon Gatheral who paid tribute to the enormous amount of hard work the two Danbury lads have put in this season.

Some pictures from the final can be found through Picture News (News Features)

Baddow Village are through to the Mixed KO Cup Final. They made no mistake in beating Danbury 5-0. Adrian Pitt's 3-1 victory over Tony Forster effectively killed off the Danbury challenge and Waseem Qureshi's 3-0 win over Peter Hance moved Baddow into a 3-0 lead. Ladies Singles Champion Julie Vansertima didn't have it all her own way but nevertheless she still managed to beat Jean Chasmer 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5 after a hard-fought contest.

Danbury A, the favourites for the Veterans KO Cup booked their Final appearance with a 5-0 victory over E2V Technologies as their all-star line-up of Stuart Gibbs, David Bowles and David Jacobs disposed of a battling E2V line-up of Pip French, Paul Richardson and Ivan Chaplin. Their Final opponents could well be Hatfield Peverel A who had to work hard to dispose of Danbury B 5-2. Tony Forster excelled with a superb 11-9 in the fifth game win over John Gagg and Dave Finlayson made the score 2-2 with his 3-0 win over John Parodi. But, Peverel still came through 5-2 as Fred Dove' s steadying influence won the day. It was left to John Parodi to seal the match with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Tony Forster.

First division leaders ECC booked their appearance in the Men's KO Cup Final after a very hard-fought 5-3 win over Danbury A last week. Danbury surged into a 3-1 lead but ECC hit back in the shape of their top-player Dave Cole and their excellent new-signing Dan Cannon. Cannon's two singles victories over Dave Bowles and Kevin Read and Cole's vital win over Stuart Gibbs meant that ECC still had enough in reserve to come through 5-3.

Writtle have fought their way through to the 4-Down KO Cup Final with an excellent 5-3 victory over Danbury C. Their leading player Matthew Brown made no mistake as he took his two singles. It was his second success, a narrow 13-15, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9 victory over Malcolm Jacobs which sealed his side's win. He had earlier had another tough battle before coming through 11-4, 17-15, 12-10 against Neil Want. Their Final opponents will be the winner of the Semi-Final between Elmtree Graphics and Excalibur. Elmtree put their poor League form firmly behind them as they ousted Hatfield Peverel 5-0. Melanie Bonnett showed up well with her excellent 3-2 victory over Jon Fieldsend and Nicola Pippen also excelled as she beat Keith Cullen 3-1. For once Tony Vassallo must have felt rather over-shadowed by his team-mates! Excalibur's 7-2 win over Baddow Village A was rather a formality as Baddow turned up a player short. This didn't stop the Baddow side of making a game of it and Andy Skues excelled by getting the better of both Mike Rostoft and Steve Cheesman.