Such has been their dominance, Blackwater C have won the Division 3 title of the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League with three matches to go following their 7-3 victory over nearest rivals Blackwater D.

Blackwater secured the with their 7-3 victory over second-placed Blackwater D, which was enough to widen the gap beyond the reach of the rest of the division. It was a traditional ‘dusty bin’ 3-2-1 performance for the champions, with Andrea Alleyne taking a hat-trick, supported by Peter Davenport with two wins and Tina Hutchinson taking a point off Roger Tiffin.

Hutchinson was unfortunate not to add to her tally as her other matches all went deep into the deciding sets – with her match with Dave Benstead finally ending with a 15-13 energy sapping loss.

With Blackwater D dropping points in the top-of-the-table clash, Maldon D snuck into second place with a 7-3 win over Blackwater E. James Raymond continued his impressive form with another hat-trick, with Luca Riedling taking two wins and Shirley Carroll taking a single point.

Maldon E had a good week with an 8-2 victory over St Lawrence A, followed by a draw with Woodham D. Kym Eames was the star of the St Lawrence battle as she recorded her first treble of the season against the experienced opposition. This included a four-set victory over Dave Bateman who himself was in great form as he won all his other matches.

In the Woodham match Maldon had a 3-0 headstart as Woodham were short a player and unfortunately came up against a determined Simon Thomas who went unbeaten all night despite a very tight five-setter against John Leavett.

Thomas kept up his unbeaten antics as his Woodham team (full complement this time) took a 7-3 win over Blackwater F. The toughest match of the night saw Thomas and Jason Bush go toe-to-toe in an all-out five-set battle where Thomas had to come back from 2-0 down to maintain his winning form. The sartorial explosion that is Chris Crooks won two of his singles to support the Thomas haul, and the pair of them combined for a comfortable doubles point.

In Division 1, Fambridge have finally caught up with long time leaders Cold Norton B after their 9-1 destruction of Cold Norton C this week. Leaders Cold Norton B have Arron Chandler to thank for taking the sole Cold Norton point against Mark Stones which keeps Cold Norton B clinging on to top spot by virtue of the number of games won only.

What a run in we now have – especially as the two protagonists meet next week in the mother of all winner-takes-all clashes. Fambridge’s Keith Adams and John Poysden both hit trebles on the night to keep the pressure on.

An unusual looking Woodham A side cast aside availability concerns as they brushed aside the expectant Stow Maries trio in a 9-1 turnover. The Woodham trio of Harry Sawford, Dan Piggott, and most notably Dave Penrose all hit hat-tricks on the night. That would be Penrose’s first top-flight hat-trick in Burnham, and his first player of the match accolade. Despite the crushing singles defeats Stow’s Gary Brignall and Ken Sheard rallied for the doubles and took the unexpected bonus point off Piglet and Sawford in straight sets.

The final match of the week saw Mapledene B host Woodham B at their stunning alternative venue. Woodham were a bit out of sorts and left in awe of the venue and facilities and in dismay at their performance as they fell to a 9-1 loss with Peter Harverson saving the whitewash with a final set victory over David Jacob.

Jacob won his other matches, coming back from 2-0 down against Eamonn Hall in an opening match thriller. Mapledene’s Simon Jacob and Colin Chatfield both went undefeated in excellent displays using their variety of bats and rubbers to great use, and the Jacobs brushed aside the Woodham duo in the doubles for the extra point.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Woodham B side this week as they fought their way to the Handicap Cup final with a 5-1 win over the much-fancied Blackwater A. Blackwater got off to a great start, nicking the opening doubles, but that only pushed Woodham to up their game in the remaining evenly contested matches.

Peter Harverson edged past Neil Freeman 19 & 20, and Graham Briggs came through a tricky encounter with Denis Balic. Noah Sage was on great form all evening for Blackwater playing a thoughtful and mature style with caused problems for his opposition. The match against Eamonn Hall went to three legs and was very much in the balance until the last few points where Hall produced a masterful set of five serves to take the final leg.

The middle doubles was extremely even and well contested throughout. At the business end of the deciding leg Blackwater had five match points to extend the match but failed to take them – eventually Woodham found themselves with a match point at 25-24 and duly wrapped up the game to take an overall 4-1 lead. Blackwater hearts were broken.

Up stepped Sage to take on Harverson and he blasted his way to the opening leg. Harverson came back to square things up in the second only to find himself considerably behind in the final leg – it was time to dig deep. Harverson eventually tied the match at 16 all but relaxed a little too much and found himself 19-17 behind with Sage on the march. Time to dig deep again, and Harverson rattled off four points to take the leg, that match and secure his team’s path to the Final later in the season.

Maldon A continue their march towards the Division 2 title. This week they saw off a spirited Stow B side in a 7-3 score that saw all three Maldonites winning two singles, but none of them were able to better the fireball that is Adi Kamma. Kamma took his second hat-trick for his new Club which included a ding dong 5 setter with Colin Napper.

Second-placed Blackwater A failed to capitalise on Kamma’s gift as they were held by an unusually strong Cold Norton D trio. Blackwater’s defensive master Denis Balic was on top form as he completed his hat-trick with a deciding set victory over the unbeaten Neil Want. With only three games to play this week’s draw may have dashed any lingering hopes of the championship for the Blackwater Gang.

Mapledene C had a busy week. In their opening match they saw off the challenge of Blackwater B with an Andy Seaman inspired 7-3 victory, and that was followed by a defeat at the hands of Woodham C where they went down by the same 7-3 scoreline.

Whilst Seaman was a picture of concentration for his treble in the first match, the same couldn’t be said for the Blackwater comedy trio as they had to deal with a wardrobe malfunction as they had to play the matches in a variety of random and ill-fitting footwear due to a lack of care when packing for the match. In the doubles both Mervyn Perriman and Simon Quelch wore one of Roger Slade’s shoes to make Roger feel better about being dropped – they lost and Roger wasn’t happy!

In the second match it was Woodham’s Tim Pulham who caused the most trouble as he went unbeaten across his three tough matches that included an edge-of-your-seat 12-10 final set triumph over Sue Body. Body had a busy night as all her singles went the distance. She came out on the right side of a deuce final set against Alan Dadswell, but lost out to Allan Steel 11-6 in another fifth set.

Dawn Baldry was on fire for Maldon C this week as she led her team to a tight 6-4 victory over Cold Norton E. Baldry smashed her way to a hat-trick of victories in the singles and partnered up with Marty Englander to take the crucial and match-winning doubles point. For Cold Norton both Dick Wyman and Tony Forster won two singles but couldn’t get close to the hard-hitting Baldry.