Press Report

There were no upsets in the four Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League KO Cup Finals played last week. ECC A made it a League and Cup Double for the fourth successive year as they beat Writtle A 5-0 in the Final of the Mens KO Cup. This also represented the all-conquering ECC side's twelfth win in this Competition in thirteen years. Their opponents Writtle A acquitted themselves well but successive 3-0 Singles wins for the ECC trio of Dave Cole, Matthew Staines and Steve Joslin plus two 3-1 wins in the doubles enabled ECC to wrap up proceedings early. Writtle no. one Gary Ward pushed Matthew Staines hard before succumbing 8-11, 11-13, 8-11 whilst Kevin Worthington also played well before going down to M&G Chelmsford Mens Singles Champion Dave Cole 8-11, 7-11, 8-11. Trevor Carter who has been a revelation this season in the first division found the going no easier and he was unable to extend Steve Joslin missing out 5-11, 3-11, 7-11.

The Danbury Club have made the Veterans KO Cup their exclusive property and their 5-1 victory over Billericay in this year's Final represented their eleventh successive win in this Competition. The Danbury side of Dave Jacobs, Chris Jacob and Ian Whiteside raced into a 3-0 lead and although Billericay offered a lot of resistance from then on Danbury still ran out 5-1 winners. Ian Whiteside made the score 4-0 to Danbury with a very hard-fought 13-11, 11-3, 7-11, 12-14, 11-9 victory over Brian Cole. The Billericay doubles combination of Ray Eldridge and Keith Ashton hit back as they came through a really hard-fought five-ender 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 13-11, 11-9 against Dave Jacobs and Chris Jacob but the reprieve was to be short-lived. Chris Jacob secured the Danbury victory with a 10-12, 11-5, 12-14, 11-3 11-8 victory over Brian Cole. Game, set and match to Danbury 5-1.

Writtle duly made it a League and Cup Double as they beat Elmtree Graphics 5-1 in the 4-Down KO Cup Final. An opening doubles success by a 3-1 margin for Chris Hibbitt and Hector Rogers against Tony Vassallo and Nicola Pippen gave Writtle the edge and their no. one player Matthew Brown made no mistake in beating Rod MacLennan 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 to make the score Writtle 2 Elmtree Graphics 0. Tony Vassallo hit back by beating Chris Hibbitt 3-1 but with Hector Rogers coming back from 2-0 down to beat Nicola Pippen 5-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 Elmtree were always ahead. Matthew and Hector didn't have it all their own way but did enough to win the middle doubles 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8 against Tony Vassallo and Rod MacLennan and Hector Rogers secured the Writtle victory with an excellent 13-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7 win over Rod MacLennan.

Elmtree Graphics were guaranteed success in the Mixed KO Cup as both sets of finalists were from their ranks. It was the A side of Vytas Rybakas, Paul Lucas and Nicola Pippen who eventually came through to clinch the match 5-3 against a B side comprising John Holland, Ev Lucas and Melanie Bonnett. The B side put up a great fight with Melanie beating her team-mate Nicola 8-11, 14-12, 11-7, 1-11, 15-13 after an epic struggle whilst Ev and John also excelled by beating Paul and Vytas 9-11, 11-4, 12-14, 13-11, 11-8 in the mens doubles. However, it still wasn't enough as Vytas and Paul were successful in all three mens singles that were played. Both Paul and Vytas recorded excellent 3-1 victories over John Holland to give the A team the edge.