Press Report

The Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League Committee were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Malcolm Jacobs, the second ever Winner of the League's Restricted Singles title, back in the 1963-4 season. Jacobs was a regular member of the Hatfield Peverel and Danbury clubs over the years and played much of his Table Tennis at second and third division level. He was equally well known in the Burnham League. In a four year spell as the League's Competitions Secretary (from 1986 to 1990) he was responsible for running a secondary weekend of Tournaments which included Divisional Singles events for all divisions as well as Handicap events. The Handicap events are now an integral and popular part of the League's main Tournament weekend.

Congratulations are very much the order of the day for Billericay TTC's all-action Natalie Bawden who will be representing England this week in Bremen, Germany in the World Team Championships. Natalie, the current England no. seven ranked Lady player began playing her Table Tennis in the Chelmsford League as a tiny 10 year-old and quickly progressed through the ranks to the League's first division. She enjoyed a spell of high intensity training at the ETTA Academy in Nottingham in the late 1990s. She has won numerous National honours at Cadet, Junior and Under 21 level and she will join the established international players - Joanna Parker (Surrey), Kelly Sibley (Warwickshire) and Georgina Walker (Derbyshire) as part of the England squad in Bremen.

Danbury C celebrated their promotion as second division Runners-Up in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League by beating Baddow Village B 7-3. Keith Phillips was a class apart winning his three singles three straight and on this showing he will be a match for most first division players next year. Elsewhere, the game between E2V Technologies and Maldon B finished level after Maldon's Dave Bassett stayed undefeated. Dave Richardson and Pip French both won twice to redress the books for E2V Technologies. Maldon were involved in another draw against ECC C. Ken James scored impressed with wins over Maldon's Jenny Harrison and John Cleasby although he was no match for Brian Riedling who cruised home 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 to earn the Maldon side their draw.

Baddow Village C completed their campaign in division three with a 9-1 demolition of the higher-placed Danbury E. Neil Want's 3-0 opening game victory over Ryan Pitt was all Danbury could muster as Mike Johnston, Pitt and Bradley Hudgell dominated the night's action.

EPHQ completed their season in style in division five as they beat Excalibur D 9-1. Francis Whitbread and Ian Hockley were both undefeated whilst Calvin Wright won twice. Hockley's match with Ian Butler was the best of the night with Hockley coming through to win 11-6, 8-11, 6-11, 12-10, 14-12 whilst Francis Whitbread also had a real battle with Eleni Manolitsaki before he emerged as a 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 18-16 winner.

ECC became the first of the season's Knock-Out Cup winners, capturing the Mens KO Cup for an incredible thirteenth time in fourteen seasons. Their Final opponents Danbury B made their mark as Ian Whiteside and Jon Hill scored a notable 3-11, 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 15-13 doubles success over Steve Kerns and Paul Davison in the opening encounter. However, the ECC side (Dave Cole, Davison and Kerns) turned it on in their singles encounters and eventually ran out comfortable 5-1 winners. Cole and Davison were nevertheless made to work very hard in the middle doubles before they overcame Eric Green and Jon Hill 11-5, 13-15, 11-9, 14-12 to ensure that there was no way back for the Danbury team.