COLE LEADS ECC TO 7-3 VICTORY

The unpredictable nature of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League first division came to light again with Maldon B losing 7-3 to ECC A. Maldon were unable to field their two best players - Neil Charles and Paul Davison and ECC (last year's Runners-Up) took full advantage. ECC's top player - three times Chelmsford Mens Singles Champion Dave Cole led the way by winning all four of his games. Newcomer Peter Lau (who hails from Liverpool) only managed one win but he showed glimpses that he will be a force to reckon with as the season progresses. Chelmsford A continue to struggle and a 4-6 defeat against OCs A sees them drop to bottom place. OCs' hard-hitting Ryan Savill, a former Junior International put them firmly in their place as he sailed through his three singles 3-0. Billericay, one place above OCs A (with both sides tied on 35 points) did well to beat Elmtree Graphics A 6-4. Rising Essex County Junior first team star Mark Mulley took his three singles which included a magnificent 14-12, 2-11, 11-9, 11-5 victory over the redoubtable John Holland. Elmtree added a further six points to their tally by beating Excalibur A 6-4, but with a mere 37 points last year's Champions remain uncomfortably close to the relegation zone. John Holland with three victories was the difference between the two sides.

Division two leaders Writtle A with 82 points out of a possible 100 are by far the most successful team in the whole League and they lead the table by a massive 19 points from Hatfield Peverel A and Danbury A. This week's wasn't one of Writtle's better performances but they still won 7-3, beating a two man Chelmsford B. Alastair Piper fared best of the Chelmsford players and he scored two superb wins, beating Trevor Carter 12-10, 5-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10 and Paul Cuming 6-11, 11-9, 11-2, 10-12, 11-9. These efforts appear to have taken their toll and Piper came up short in his third singles, missing out 5-11, 12-14, 5-11 against Gary Ward. Slow-starting Danbury A, have hit a rich vein of form of late and with an undefeated Babul Macleod leading the way they beat ECC B 7-3.  Macleod was given his closest test by Keith Spicer and he just prevailed 14-12, 11-13, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7. Danbury A gave further evidence of their promotion credentials as they hammered Chelmsford C 9-1 with ace defenders Ian Whiteside and Eric Green both staying undefeated. This match also produced an occurrence which is pretty unusual, with nine of the ten matches being decided by a 3-1 margin. Was this an easy win for Danbury or a monumental struggle ?. You could argue both ways from such an unusual set of results !.

In division three, second placed ECC E were held to a draw by lowly Bocking B. Richard Jennings was the best player on view and he completed his hat-trick with a hard-fought 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-2, 11-9 victory over Jeff Lewington. The leaders, Excalibur B managed to win 6-4 against Excalibur C although this too was not a particularly convincing result against another side in the bottom half of the table. Richard Hiskey led the way by taking his three singles for the B team. Third-placed OCs B did well to beat fourth placed Writtle B 6-4, a good team effort as Writtle's Matthew Brown won his three singles.Adrian North and John Watts who both won twice ensured that OCs came away with the victory intact. 

Danbury D were comfortable 8-2 winners over Danbury E in division four, after Paul Durrands had taken his three singles whilst Danbury F notched up their fourth win of the season by beating Chelmsford E 8-2. This match was one of those rare affairs where all players won at least one game and no one player stayed undefeated. Richard Allen and Dave Marsh both won twice for Danbury whilst Bill Wall won two singles for Chelmsford. Wall's battle with Janet Pannell was the closest of the evening with Bill prevailing 13-11, 6-11, 6-11, 11-8, 15-13.

Division five leaders Danbury G gave nothing away against Chelmsford H in the nine singles encounters as Peter Sun,  Kevin Willis and David Gatherall all stayed undefeated but they confounded logic by losing the doubles surprisingly easily. So much so that they failed to complete their names on the scorecard !. EPHQ impressed by beating Chelmsford J 7-3 with their leading player Ian Hockley capturing his three singles. Hockley completed a succesful evening's work by beating Sam Pitt 13-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7.

Two convincing wins have seen Danbury J pull clear at the top of division six, and they now have a seven points lead over Chelmsford K..The very experienced Trevor Palmer was undefeated as they beat Chelmsford K 9-1 and Hylands A 8-2 whilst John Knights won five out of his six singles, only missing out against Brandon Crouchman (Hylands A). Paul Nicol picked up Chelmsford's sole success as he secured a fine 6-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 win over Martin Knights. Elsewhere, Chelmsford M were convincing 9-1 winners over high-riding Excalibur D as their four person side - Paul Nicol, Chris High, Adrian Cheek and Jacqui Smith all played their part in their victory. Excalibur E were also convincing winners, and they beat the side one place below them in the table - Chelmsford L 8-2. James Higgs and Keith Pallett were both undefeated. Pallett appears to have set the tone for the evening with his opening match 9-11, 11-13, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 victory against Zak D'Vees.

The OCs Club are dominating the CLICK (Introductory) League and their two sides top the table going into the Christmas break. OCs E added nine points to their total by beating Excalibur Knights 5-0 and Hylands School B 4-1. Danesh Dewan won his two singles in the match against Hylands School B although Phil Bigland made his mark by beating Matthew Newton 12-10, 11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 12-10 to secure a point for the Hylands School side. OCs F also picked up nine points as they beat Excalibur Knights 4-1 and Chelmsford Q 5-0. In their match against Excalibur Knights Tom Adam won his two singles whilst Craig Hiskey was responsible for Excalibur's win as he beat Ricky Childs 11-8, 11-13, 11-7, 11-4.

Steve Kerns

Press & Publicity Officer

Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League