A very tight set of matches in the top Division of the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League allowed Cold Norton B to strengthen their lead without lifting a racket.

Blackwater A are on the hunt in Division 2, and Blackwater C return with a bang after being held last week.

Two draws and a tight 6-4 victory for Cold Norton A courtesy of the bonus doubles point show how close the middle teams are within the league this year – the luck of selection and the clash of styles is evident every week.

A two-player Cold Norton A were able to hold Mapledene A to a credible 5-5 draw despite the rampant Liam Squirrell beating both Kevin Read and Chas Sweeny. Read and Sweeny won all their other singles and obviously paired up for the doubles victory against George Reeves & Squirrell.

In their second match of the week Cold Norton A travelled the short distance to Woodham B and got off to a disastrous start when the awesome Sanjay Saptarshi thrashed Matt Stringer 3-0 in the opening match. Luckily, Cold Norton’s fit and well again Duncan Taylor was on hand to smooth things over with two victories over Graham Briggs and Eamonn Hall – both matches being perhaps more difficult than expected as the Woodham boys put up a decent fight.

The teams went in even at the break with Hall putting in a clinical performance to beat Neil Want in straight sets. With Stringer barrier-hopping for the evening, Taylor was called into doubles action and he decided to play fast and furious – hitting winners for nearly every shot. His partner, Want, was allowed to serve but that was about all he was allowed to contribute as the Taylor assassination went largely unchecked and the important point was secured in record time.

With a slender lead secured it was all down to the final three singles. Want found some form against Briggs as their topsy turvy match went into a deciding leg. Briggs remained the most focussed as his opponent was left Wanting and brought the match to a 4-4 stalemate. That didn’t last long as a relaxed Stringer stormed through Hall with an exhibition of forehand and back loops, so the match was left to the one they had all come to watch – Saptarshi versus Taylor.

Taylor had found his mojo now and was in full winning mode, so much so that despite hitting a few decent winners Saptarshi was blown away for Taylor’s clean sweep of the evening, leaving Cold Norton as the 6-4 victors.

On the other side of the Woodham arena there was treble action for two of the Woodham A players. Daniel Young (pictured above facing Matt Stringer) was in inspirational form for his unbeaten evening across both singles and doubles, whereas Woodham debutant Dan Zeffie had a night to forget as lost all of his singles in long, hard-fought battles – he lost in five to Matt Stringer having been 2-0 up, lost in five again to Kim Shead, and was a bit quicker when losing to Arron Chandler in four sets.

The Woodham management have issued the standard vote of confidence in Zeffie and predict many a future hat-trick to follow. Woodham’s Chris Hancox took an excellent point off the very tricky Shead to help Woodham secure the draw.

The story in Division 2 is the rising fortunes of the Blackwater A side as they edge closer to the top 2 each week. Another good win this week has them closer to the podium than the peloton chasing them, and that’s four wins out of the last five matches with the other being a draw – so watch this space.

Maldon A stay out in front following an 8-2 victory over Cold Norton E – trebles for the reliable Hamish Innes and Lloyd Bennett-Smith with third wheel Colin Napper falling to the divergent styles of Dick Wyman and Tony Forster. Wyman had a long and tough evening, playing the maximum 15 legs across his three matches for just the single win over Napper.

Second-placed Mapledene C fell to the various charms offered by the Stow Maries B side. Stow’s Peter Hance was the driving force behind his team’s 7-3 win with a perfect evening where he really only struggled against the feisty Pat White where he needed to use all five legs to come out on top – this was the final match of the night so it could have been well past Hance’s bedtime by then.

With Mapledene dropping points, Blackwater A closed in on their podium position with a very respectable 7-3 turnover of the Maldon B trio. In a ‘Dusty Bin 3-2-1’ performance it was Denis Balic with the hat-trick action that did most damage, but he was ably supported by Alan Scammell with two wins and Neil Thompson playing up for the final singles point with his 3-0 win over Garry Eames.

Woodham’s hard-hitting Chris Hancox was the difference between the Woodham C and Blackwater B sides this week. With everyone else taking points off each other it was left to Hancox to smash his way through the Blackwater barrier, dropping just the one set all evening in the 6-4 win.

Maldon C are remarkably low in the division for some of the talent they have registered. This week they scrambled a draw against Cold Norton D largely thanks to a fantastic treble from Marty Englander including a notable victory over Neil Want. In support of Englander’s efforts Dawn Baldry notched two good wins to help secure the draw. Want atoned for his earlier loss to Englander by pairing up with Terry Hyland to take the doubles away from Baldry and Englander.

After last week’s unexpected draw for Division 3 leaders Blackwater C it was back to normal this week as they crushed Blackwater F in a chilling 10-0 whitewash. An unbeaten night for the C team trio of Andrea Alleyne, Gary Smith and Neil Thompson, Thompson coming through the hardest match of the night as he got the better of Keith Thompson over five sets of intense match play.

Blackwater D continue their vain attempts to keep pace with their rampant C team and this week recorded a 7-3 victory over Blackwater E with Roger Tiffin once again the star player with an unbeaten evening of ping pong. Deb Ginn was the best of the E team, winning both of her other matches.

Tim Huxtable was in fine fettle for Maldon E with three decent wins against Woodham D. The Woodham side were just unable to penetrate the Huxtable unorthodox defence. With Joh Leavett chipping in with two wins the final scoreline was 7-3 to Maldon E.

St Lawrence were back to winning ways this week against a two-player Maldon D side. It was like going back in time to the early 1970s for this match as former Men’s champion Mick Robinson took on Former Ladies’ champion Shirley Carroll – with Carroll narrowly coming out on top some 50 years later. Luckily for Robinson his team-mates fared better and both Mike Burton and Dave Bateman were undefeated all evening as St Lawrence won out 8-2.