Press Report

Hatfield Peverel and Excalibur A produced the best encounter in the second week of KO Cup games in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League as four games were decided at 11-9 in the fifth end in their Veterans KO Cup first round clash. Excalibur had Colin Carslake and Tim Pang to thank for their 5-3 victory as they were both successful in their two singles. Both had to work hard with Carslake seeing off John Parodi and John Gagg both 3-2 whilst Pang got the better of Dave Carter 11-9 in the fifth end and John Parodi by an impressive 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 scoreline. Excalibur will be hoping to avoid Danbury A, the holders and Champions for the last four years in later rounds. Danbury made no mistake as they brushed aside Excalibur B 7-1. Dave Jacobs and Dave Bowles were both undefeated although Kevin Smart made his mark with a superb 3-2 win over Chris Jacob.

E2V Technologies were rewarded for turning out one of their best line-ups of the season in the 2-Down KO Cup as they beat Excalibur 5-2. Richard Hiskey struck an early blow for Excalibur as he beat Paul Richardson 12-10 in the decider. However, it wasn't quite enough as fairly convincing wins for Ivan Chaplin against Steve Cheesman and Michael Rostoft meant E2V were always in the ascendancy.

The 4-Down ties produced what on first impression looks to have been three fairly clear-cut victories. Writtle A's 8-0 win over their B side may well have flattered them slightly as only one of the games was decided 3-0. Nevertheless, the A team - Matthew Brown, Chris Hibbitt and Hector Rogers made their superiority count at the crucial moments. Chris Hibbitt's initial win by a 10-12, 11-4, 12-10, 15-13 margin over Tony Lambert is evidence of this. Baddow Village B are also safely through to the next round after beating Danbury 5-1. Ciaran Whelan scored a fine 11-9 in the fifth set victory over David Gatherall but Peter Sun's 14-12 in the deciding set victory over Paul Oliver meant Danbury's advantage stayed in tact. Mick Robinson eventually clinched the match with a 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 victory over Oliver. OCs C's 5-2 win against EPHQ was closer on paper although no matches stretched to a fifth end. David Porter missed out against Francis Whitbread 3-1 in his singles but his two doubles, initially with Nigel Parmenter and then with Tony Cohen played a major part in his side's success.

Three teams from the Baddow Village Club are safely through to the second round of the Handicap KO Cup. Baddow Village A had the toughest task but with Waseem Qureshi (-27) on top form they saw off Writtle A 5-3. Waseem's three game win over Gary Ward (-30) by a 20-22, 21-11, 21-8 margin provided evidence of how well he was playing and he clinched the match for his team with a 21-17, 21-16 victory over Brian Cook (-24). Baddow Village L represented by a "composite" line-up of Adrian Pitt (-26), Eric Clift (-3) and Jackie Smith (scratch) took a 2-0 lead against their F team and although they found themselves pegged back to 2-2 they took the next three games to run out 5-2 winners. Eric Clift had the honour of clinching the fifth game which he did with a 21-13, 15-21, 23-21 victory over David Gatherall (-11). Baddow Village J's match against Baddow Village H was a more mundane affair as all eight games played were decided two-straight. The young Baddow Village J line-up of Rykki Vansertima (scratch), Sam Pitt (+1) and Phil Twite (+5) were always calling the shots in this match. Joining the Baddow teams in round two will be ECC C who were comfortable 5-1 winners against Ingatestone/Excalibur Combined. Richard Storey (-11) and Ian Rogers (-16) were both undefeated on this occasion. Elsewhere ECC D were unable to emulate the ECC C side as they fell foul of a rather different looking Danbury A line-up. Kevin Willis (-11), Martin Knights (-8) and John Knights (-10) might have lacked the star-quality of the Danbury A first division line-up but nevertheless produced a pretty efficient performance in disposing of ECC D. Kevin Willis earned his side their vital fifth game with a very narrow 20-22, 21-19, 21-17 victory over Cec Butcher (-14).