ALL STAR RAWRETH LINE-UP TAKE NO PRISONERS

Second-placed Rawreth A took no prisoners against Maldon A in their first division match in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League and their all- star line-up of Stuart Gibbs, Kevin Read and Kevin Caldon ran out convincing 9-1 winners. The action was fast and furious and highlights included a fine 11- 8, 11-9, 6-11, 12-14, 11-9 victory for Kevin Caldon over Paul Sayer as well as a 11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 12-10 win for Kevin Read over Paul Stephens. The evening started brightly enough for Maldon with Lee Prentice (in his first appearance of the Season) scoring an excellent 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 3-11, 11-8 victory over Kevin Read, but it was Rawreth who went on to dominate the match.

This week’s second division results saw three teams score comprehensive 9-1 wins. All-conquering Chelmsford A (Bradley Hudgell, Waseem Qureshi and Peter Barrett) were very much in control as they beat Danbury B 9-1, their ninth win of the Season. Ivan Chaplin took Danbury’s game in the last match of the night, and he scored an excellent last-gasp win over Bradley Hudgell : 7-11, 11-7, 5- 11, 12-10, 14-12. Chelmsford B (Adrian Pitt, Julie Vansertima and Alastair Piper) who are second were equally dominant against Chelmsford C and again the losing team notched up their success in the last game of the evening. Duncan Elloy came up trumps with his excellent 3-1 success against Adrian Pitt. In a week of clear-cut wins Hatfield Peverel B (Greg Green, Martyn Green and Guy McKenzie) made no mistake as they beat Excalibur B. Linda Attridge made her mark for the losers by beating Guy McKenzie 9-11, 16-14, 6-11, 18-16, 11-6. Quite a battle.

Kings Road A’s excellent 8-2 win over ECC D sees them move off the bottom of the table. Rob Hayne and Alison Gurner were both undefeated. The match appeared to turn in Kings Road’s direction in the second game when Alison Gurner beat Trevor Roberts 11-5, 8-11, 10-12, 11-6, 15-13. ECC E took full advantage of the fact that the higher placed Excalibur C were a player short, winning 7-3. Bryn Thomas beat both Dave Moles and Mike Rostoft. However, Excalibur C returned to winning ways against Hatfield Peverel C with Dave Moles winning his three singles. Mike Rostoft and Graham Mortimer both won twice in their side‘s 8-2 win. OCs C just did enough against ECC C, winning 6-4. Mark Bohan took his three singles and he completed his hat-trick by getting the better of Andy Hanlon 11-7, 11-8, 11-4 to seal the victory for the Old Chelmsfordians team.

Even without Scott Dowsett, Hylands School A are still the team to beat in division four. Brandon Crouchman and Terry Dowsett were both undefeated against Elmtree Graphics B as they won 7-3. Brandon did well to overcome the tricky Tony Vassallo 7-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7. Bocking B are in second place but they fell back as they could only draw with Danbury E. Their top player Richard Jennings stayed unbeaten, but he had quite a battle with Ken Sheard. Jennings just came out on top 5-11, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8. Worse followed for Bocking against Chelmsford D who made them pay for only fielding two players. Jennings again won his three singles but defeats for David Edwards against both Sam Pitt and John Barrett meant that Chelmsford shaded the match 6-4.

Keith Cullen’s hat-trick of wins gave Hatfield Peverel E the edge against Chelmsford E in division five. Cullen completed his evening by getting the better of Adam Pitt 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 and this win earned his side their 6-4 victory. The match between Danbury K and Writtle C finished all square. Newcomer Colin Griffiths won his three singles for Writtle and this included a hard-fought 8-11, 16-14, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8 win against Trevor Palmer. There was more success for ECC F (who have taken over the lead in this division) as brother’s Malcolm and Mick Storey and Malcolm’s son Richard beat EPHQ 7-3. Malcolm and Richard both won their three singles. Richard appears to have been right on top of his game as he beat Ian Hockley convincingly 11-7, 11-5, 11-5.

Danbury L (Graham Briggs, Chris Hancox and Lee McHugh) are the new leaders in division six and they were too strong for Chelmsford K Adam Carter picked up the sole win for Chelmsford by getting the better of Chris Hancox. OCs F made Excalibur E pay for being a player short, winning 6-4. Keith Pallett won twice for Excalibur whilst Charles Eaton remained undefeated for the Old Chelmsfordians team.

In the CLICK League leaders Chelmsford M (Daniel Thomas and Sebastian Larwill) beat Chelmsford N 5-0. The game between Rebecca Denyer and Daniel Thomas was the best contested of the evening with Daniel winning 11-6, 11-13, 11-7, 11- 5. Hylands School B are in second place and they beat Chelmsford O 4-1. Oliver Hicks picked up the sole singles for Chelmsford beating Thomas Barker 11-3, 7- 11, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10 whilst Philip Bigland and Jamie Dowsett were both unbeaten for Hylands School.

ECC C and Elmtree Graphics produced the closest match of the first round in the Handicap KO Cup with Elmtree shading their clash 5-4. Rod MacLennan (playing off a Handicap of 55) made no mistake in the last game and he beat Arthur Clark (48) 21-17, 21-10 to seal victory. Phil Smith (62) proved to be the difference between the two teams and he stayed undefeated. Elsewhere, ECC B (Gary Copsey, Russell Forde and James Hicks) beat EPHQ 6-2 and Chelmsford B (Adrian Pitt, Julie Vansertima and Alastair Piper) carried all before them as they beat Chelmsford H 9-0. ECC D (Mick Storey, Richard Storey and Malcolm Storey) are also safely through to the next round, after they had beaten Hatfield Peverel B 5-2. The opening clash between Peter Mynard (62) and Malcolm Storey (55) looked to be evenly poised at one game all but Malcolm had other ideas and he raced away with the third end to win 20-22, 21-17, 21-6. The match between Hatfield Peverel C and Danbury D produced some close Table Tennis with four games decided in the third end but it was Dave Marsh (59), Trevor Palmer (57) and Brian Ellis (55) who live to fight another day. Brian Ellis took the closest game of the night beating Keith Cullen (59) 21-19, 18-21, 21-19. With all three of their players playing off Handicaps of 63 you would expect Chelmsford C to be a pretty well balanced team and it was Ryan Pitt, Duncan Elloy and Mike Johnston who got the better of OCs A 5-3. Elloy did well to come back from a heavy first game beating to get the better of Nat Ravlic (62) 13-21, 21-15, 21-19. Chelmsford A paired Bradley Hudgell (73) and Waseem Qureshi (70) from their all conquering second division team with Iggy Adams (52) and it proved to be a successful combination as they beat Chelmsford E 5-1. Bob Francis (53) was the E team’s only winner and he beat Waseem Qureshi 17-21, 21-18, 21-12. Iggy Adams came through the closest game of the evening just getting the better of Francis 21-14, 8-21, 27-25. Hatfield Peverel A fielded three of their regular second division players and despite being heavily handicapped John Gagg (69), John Parodi (67) and John Webber (67) did well to beat Chelmsford J 5-1. The losers made a bright start with Hannah Pitt (50) getting the better of John Webber 17-21, 21-111, 21-17 but the Hatfield Peverel side put that set-back firmly aside and rattled through the next five singles two straight.