Mapledene A completed their final two league matches to secure third place in Division 1 of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League.  Those games complete the schedule that sees Cold Norton B as champions and Fambridge as runners-up. 

Mapledene A hosted stable mates Mapledene B in their first match and came away with an 8-2 victory courtesy of a Liam Squirrell 9-dart impeccable hat-trick and two wins a piece for Peter Barrett and Steve Muth.  Squirrell maintained his impeccableness in the final match of the season when he treated Cold Norton C to another whitewash treble on the way to his team’s 9-1 victory, where Cold Norton’s only point cane from Kim Shead as he got the better of Evie Knappen.  Knappen did well to fight off a cracking comeback from Tim Cramphorn to win in 5 sets to secure her two points on the night.  Mapledene’s third player was George Reeves who was back to his best with a final fling hat-trick to see off the season in style.

The Peter Ballard Cup is awarded to the player with the best win average in Division 1 from the pool of regular players who have competed in more than 50% of their team’s league matches.  This year’s race for the coveted award was largely a Mapledene A affair with Reece Seddon leading the way but watching his back to see how many matches the unbeaten Men’s Singles Champion Liam Squirrell could knock out before the end of the season. In the end Liam fell short by just one match and that left Reece as this year’s most valuable player and winner of the Peter Ballard Cup on an 87% win rate.  Eric Green capped his amazing Burnham Season coming in second on 83% win rate to add to his Championship and Cup double with his Cold Norton B team.

Main image – Reece Seddon – 2025 Peter Ballard Cup Winner