Press Report

ECC C's Gary Brignall upset the form-book in what was the week's biggest shock in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League. Brignall's superb hat-trick of wins wasn't quite enough to enable his side to earn a draw against the second division leaders Danbury C but it was nevertheless a performance of the highest order. Brignall's opening game 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 victory over Eric Green was a terrific effort, as was his 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9 success against Dave Finlayson. Danbury were relieved to shade the match 6-4.This result also enabled second-placed Billericay to close the gap on Danbury as a very strong Billericay line-up beat ECC B 9-1. Alex Green and Ray Eldridge were both undefeated whilst Keith Ashton won twice. Trevor Collin prevented the white-wash with a five game win over Keith Ashton.Third-placed Hatfield Peverel A also impressed and with Peter Brownlow and John Parodi both staying undefeated they beat Baddow Village B 8-2. Parodi completed an excellent evening's work with a 11-6, 11-7, 14-12 victory over Adrian Pitt. Elsewhere Excalibur B scored a much needed victory as they beat Bocking B 8-2. The hard-hitting Bill Smith took control as he won all three of his singles.

First division leaders ECC A pulled further away as they beat Danbury B 10-0. With four of the first five games decided in the fifth end the margin of ECC's win looks slightly fortuitous but it was nevertheless the very strong ECC line-up of Steve Joslin, Paul Davison and Dave Cole who came through unscathed. Further down the table Writtle A came close to pinching a draw against Rawreth A before Rawreth sneaked home 6-4. An undefeated Kevin Read was the difference between the two sides. Excalibur also impressed and with Gary Young remaining undefeated they did well to beat Baddow Village A 7-3. The battling Nigel Lamb edged home 10-12, 11-13, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10 in a real thriller against Waseem Qureshi.

Hatfield Peverel B's third division clash against Baddow Village C saw Peverel emerge as fairly comfortable 7-3 winners, courtesy of the four games they won in the fifth end. Neil Freeman closed the proceedings by coming back from 2-1 down to beat Duncan Elloy. Excalibur C finished strongly to earn a draw against ECC D. Excalibur's Steve Mundy picked up his second win of the evening as he beat Trevor Roberts 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 and in the last game of the night Michael Rostoft earned his side a share of the points as he beat Clive Harding 11-7, 11-6, 15-13.

Runaway division four leaders ECC E have displayed considerable strength in depth all season and they showed no signs of letting up as they beat Hatfield Peverel C 8-2 this week. Gary Copsey stayed unbeaten and he received excellent support from his colleagues Russell Forde and Neil Thompson. Meanwhile, OCs C had Nat Ravlic to the fore as they beat Danbury F twice within a period of five days. After getting the better of Paul Oliver, Ravlic's game clicked into top gear and he beat both Paul Durrands and Ken Sheard both 3-0 in the 7-3 victory. The two sides met a second time when they played the match from the first half of the season. This time OCs were even more emphatic winners as they won 9-1. Ravlic was again successful in all three of his singles. Richard Allen with a five game win over John Watts was Danbury's sole winner. 18 year-old Ciaran Whelan, turned in an excellent performance which helped Danbury H draw against ECC F. The highlight of Whelan's excellent hat-trick of wins was his final victory where he did well to come back from 2-1 down to beat the experienced Jeff Lewington 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9. Elsewhere, Danbury G always had the edge against Writtle C. They surged into a 7-2 lead and eventually had to be content with a 7-3 victory. Ironically the only player who stayed undefeated was Writtle's Andy Fox, who ended up on the losing side because the Danbury trio of Brian Ellis, Alan Dadswell and Dave Powell all won twice.

Baddow Village G and Danbury J were the most clear-cut winners in division five this week. Baddow Village G overcame their club-mates Baddow Village F 8-2, as Colin Gooday (three wins), Mike Robinson (two wins) and Phil Twite (two wins) all contributed to their success. Rykki Vansertima impressed for the losers with a 3-1 victory over Mike Robinson and a 3-0 win against Phil Twite. Danbury J were also on good form as they beat Hatfield Peverel D. Ray Beckwith and Norman Hayes both recorded hat-tricks whilst John Skuse who only won once came close to taking his other singles as well before he missed out in five ends against Dave Bridge and Dave Fillery. ECC H edged home 6-4 against Excalibur D in a match where Cecil Butcher remained undefeated and ECC G were also successful as they beat OCs D 7-3. Richard Storey enjoyed another good evening winning his three singles. David Porter won twice for the Old Boys side and he proved to be Storey's trickiest opponent before succumbing 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 12-14.

Danbury K had few problems in beating Ingatestone Excalibur in division six. The 10-0 scoreline might have flattered them slightly as three games were decided in the fifth end but it was still pretty much plain-sailing as far as Danbury were concerned. Danbury used a four-man team and Peter Sun, David Gatherall, James Gatherall and Matt Standen were all successful. Of the Ingatestone Excalibur players it was James Cheesman who missed out 3-11, 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 10-12 to James Gatherall who came closest to getting his name in the plus column on the scoresheet. Baddow Village L were also handsome winners when they beat OCs F 8-2. Adam Pitt and Hannah Pitt were both undefeated. The match between Baddow Village H and ECC J was a closer fought affair which ended tied at 5-5. Dacre Pell took his three singles for the County Council side whilst Ron Arthur and Chris High who both won twice hit back for Baddow Village H.

There were four matches played in the CLICK League this week and rather uniquely they all resulted in 4-1 scorelines. Baddow Village O came out on top against OCs U, OCs H beat Baddow Village N, Danbury L emerged as winners against Excalibur E and Danbury L beat OCs U. The players who dominated their respective matches were James Austin (Baddow Village O), Kane Lambert (OCs H) and Terry Withers (Danbury L). The success of Danbury L against Excalibur E owed more to team-work as they employed a three-man side and Terry Withers, Alex Cutting and Richard Quirk all picked up wins. It was Craig Hiskey who rocked the boat as he beat Quirk 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9 in the last game of the match.