DANBURY ARE RELEGATED

Despite fighting hard all season Danbury A have been relegated from division one of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League. They were no match for a strong Excalibur side of Gary Young, Nigel Hodder and Mike Wright, losing 1-9. Eric Green picked up Danbury’s sole win, a fine five game success against Gary Young.

Division two Champions Chelmsford A made it fifteen wins out of seventeen as they beat third-placed Hatfield Peverel A 7-3. Team Captain Waseem Qureshi took his three singles and this included an excellent four set win over Peter Brownlow. Expect Waseem to make a sizeable contribution to his team’s efforts to stay afloat in division one next Season. It looks as if Chelmsford B will be the other team who gain promotion as they lead Hatfield Peverel A by nine points although Hatfield Peverel have a game in hand. Chelmsford B did well to hold Hatfield Peverel B to a draw especially as Hatfield Peverel B had new Colchester Mens Singles Champion Greg Green firing on all cylinders. Green completed his hat-trick in impressive style, beating Adrian Pitt 11-5, 11-9, 11-5. Team-work played it’s part as ECC B beat Excalibur B 7-3 as Gary Brignall, Ken James and Keith Spicer all won twice.

Writtle B’s efforts to gain promotion from the incredibly evenly matched division three were dealt a severe blow as they lost 8-2 to ECC C. Gary Copsey (two wins), James Hicks (three wins) and Russell Ford (three wins) all played a part in ECC’s success. The match between Excalibur C and ECC E went more to form with ECC shading it 6-4. An undefeated Bryn Thomas was the ECC match-winner and he clinched his side’s victory by getting the better of Michael Rostoft 11-8, 11-3, 11-9 in the last game.

ECC F took the division five title in style by getting the better of Chelmsford E 9-1. Richard Storey and Malcolm Storey were both undefeated and Mick Storey won twice as the ECC team were rarely extended. Second-placed Writtle C were also convincing winners, beating EC G 9-1. Frank Neil and Andy Fox both remained unbeaten with Arthur Clark picking up the ECC victory. Arthur did well to beat Tony Lambert, recovering from a two-game deficit to win 9-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-4. The match between the fourth and fifth placed teams was well contested with Danbury K beating Chelmsford F 6-4. Trevor Palmer won his three singles for Danbury whilst Tom Lee and Paul Nicol both picked up two wins for Chelmsford.

Danbury L gave further evidence of their improvement in division six by beating the leaders Excalibur D 6-4.Graham Briggs was the outstanding player and he beat all three Excalibur players three-straight with a very impressive display. Briggs saw off Craig McGarrigle (11-5, 11-6, 12-10), Steve Cheesman (11-2, 11-6, 11-4) and Keith Fitzjohn (11-3, 11-9, 11-7). Danbury’s Lee McHugh was involved in the closest encounter of the night and he prevailed against Craig McGarrigle after a marathon encounter 10-12, 12-10, 11-7, 9-11, 17-15. Excalibur E did well to beat the higher-placed Chelmsford 6-4. Keith Pallett won his three singles whilst Mike Pitt, Chris High and Jacqui Smith each won once for the Chelmsford side. Jacqui Smith excelled by getting the better of Hill Dowsett 11-13, 5-11, 11-5, 13-11, 13-11.

Second-placed Chelmsford M had to work hard to beat Chelmsford L 4-1 in the CLICK League. Seb Larwill won his two singles whilst Bradley Sullivan won once. Sullivan just missed out 16-14, 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 9-11 against Jamie Lawrence in the closest game of the night.

Steve Kerns

Press & Publicity Officer

Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League