Stow Maries A have finally loosened their coiled springs and leapt ahead of Maldon A in the race for the Division 2 Title in the Burnham & District Table Tennis League.

It will now go tit-for-tat until the end of the season with the big ‘clash of the titans’ scheduled for early March – it could be a winner-takes-all affair!

In the top division, Fambridge were back in action and their emphatic 8-2 disposal of a very competitive Mapledene B side sends out a strong message to the would-be challengers.  

Fambridge’s Gary Young was in fine fettle with an impeccable evening of sport across both disciplines as he recorded a hat-trick of singles and a doubles bonus point with partner Mark Stones. Young’s most difficult opponent was the tricky Keith Willett who had the nerve to fight back from 0-2 down to not only square the match but take Young deep into post-deuce territory as the two protagonists fought it out for supremacy – with Young just prevailing, eventually at 14-12 in the fifth and deciding set.

For Mapledene, Kieran Skeggs was able to claim the scalps of Stones and John Poysden for his team’s two points.

Woodham A bounced back from their recent humblings to just about overcome a defiant Cold Norton C trio. Everyone came away with at least a point, and the outcome of this one was no way a foregone conclusion and most of the games went to four or five sets.

Cold Norton’s Kim Shead came away as the player of the match with wins over Daniel Piggott and Tony Bonnici, but he fell to the hard-hitting Chris Hancox in a fifth-set winner-takes-all encounter. Bonnici and Piggott went on win their remaining singles and Hancox & Piggott combined for the crucial doubles point to secure the overall 6-4 victory.

Norton’s Tim Cramphorn won the toughest match of the night as he and Hancox battled it out as far as 14-14 into the fifth set before the Hancox defence dwindled and Cramphorn was able to secure the point.

So having won and lost a five-setter already it will come as no surprise that Hancox’s final match also went to a deciding set – although after the first two sets at 11-4, and 11-3 one might have thought Hancox would stroll to victory, but the man of nets and edges Mr Neil Want had other ideas, winning the third set with some aplomb before facing several match points in a tremendously even fourth set which he eventually won 17-15, and finally taking down the exhausted Hancox 11-9 for his only point of the evening.

With leaders Maldon A on a break week, Stow Maries took full advantage of their opportunity to not only overtake their championship rivals but to also post a decent gap for them to chase. Blackwater A are a tricky side for sure with a selection of players with varied styles and bats. However this week the focussed Stow A trio cared very little for variety of rubber or defensive play as they brushed past their opponents – well, fought hard and maintained their concentration as it happened.

Lots of long matches in this battle with the Stow boys coming out on top in all four of the five-setters – a bit tough on Blackwater that! Gary Brignall won all four of his matches, although he needed all five sets against the loopy Neil Freeman.

Freeman in turn was able to beat both Peter Chastin and Ken Sheard for his team’s points haul for the week, as Chastin and Sheard both came through victorious against Alan Scammell and Roger Slade.

The surprise scoreline of the week saw Blackwater B thump Maldon B by an astonishing 8-2 margin. Noah Sage recorded a noteworthy hat-trick including a victory over one of the division’s top players in Steve Aspland. Sage’s wingmen of Louis Gunn and Simon Quelch each won two of their singles, both losing out to Aspland.

In the final match of the week, Mapledene C and Stow B ended in stalemate in another game where everyone took home a win thanks to the differing styles on show. For Mapledene, Dennis Squirrell and Sue Body both won two matches, as did Peter Hance for Stow. Hance and Dave Marsh combined for the crucial match-saving straight sets doubles victory.

 In Division 3 Allan Steel continues his march for the Roy Davis Cup with another hat-trick for his Woodham E side even though they lost out 4-6 to a strong Blackwater D side.

Steel’s oddest and most difficult match was a 3-1 victory over Ron Tam – but by the strangest of scores 7-11, 18-16, 11-0, 11-9 – it was like he played a different opponent in each leg. The Blackwater trio of Tam, Jason Bush and David Sage all won two singles to secure the team victory.

Maldon C stretched their uncatchable lead even further with a commanding 9-1 triumph over Blackwater E. Keith Thompson’s four-set victory over Shirley Carroll in the penultimate match of the night was just enough to avoid the dreaded whitewash. Maldon’s other players, Marty Englander and Chris Ravenhill, both securing their regular hat-tricks for the leaders.  

Maldon D displayed some good winning form this week as they took a 7-3 win away from their visit to Blackwater F on the Monday night. Arthur Shadforth was back to his best with a fighting hat-trick, just surviving an almighty comeback from the improving Oscar Wyman. Wyman was the best of the Blackwater players with that close loss to Shadforth plus two excellent straight set wins over James Raymond and Luca Riedling.

Entries for the Burnham Closed tournament are now open and entry forms and details can be found on the League website.