The top teams in Divisions 2 and 3 of the Burnham & District Table Tennis Winter League showed who is boss this year with wins over their nearest and not so dearest rivals in two top-of-the-table clashes this week.

Fambridge did all they could this week to edge closer to Division 1 League leaders Cold Norton B and keep the battle for supremacy honest. Fambridge eclipsed Stow Maries A 10-0 to record their first whitewash of this season. An unbeaten evening of sport for the Fambridge trio of Bruce Kettle, John Poysden and Mark Stones.

Cold Norton B also registered a high-scoring win as they demolished their own C team with a much harder energy sapping 8-2 victory that included three individual matches going all the way to a deciding leg. Cold Norton’s Dave Richardson had just pipped the tricky Kim Shead in the fifth set early on in the proceedings so he was confident going into final match of the night against very awkward Martin Archie. Archie gave him a great fright by quickly taking a 2-0 lead before Richardson fought back to even the match up. The final and deciding leg was nip and tuck throughout before Archie slipped in the last few points for his team’s only singles victory of the evening.

The most surprising result of the night though was a shockingly simple doubles win for the Cold Norton C duo of Shead and Tim Cramphorn who won out in straight sets against top pairing of Eric Green and Ian Wall. Green and Wall need not be too disheartened though as they both registered another hat-trick in the singles to maintain their high win rates for this season.

Daniel Young and Harry Sawford both went undefeated as Woodham A dispatched Cold Norton A 8-2. The third Woodham player, Chris Hancox, was unlucky not to register more than his win over Steve Sawyer as he lost out in five against both Rob Harris and Steve Maltby.

Blackwater A missed an opportunity to go top this week as the two top teams met in the Bragging Rights Battle of Division 2. The Blackwater trio welcomed the unbeaten league leaders Maldon A across the metropolis and into their West Maldon lair.

Maldon took an early lead with tight straight set wins for Colin Napper and Lloyd Bennett-Smith but once the nerves had settled the rudderless Blackwater side fought back with wins for Denis Balic and Neil Freeman. Maldon took the next two matches to lead 4-2 going into the lucky-dip doubles.

The doubles journey matched some of the rollercoasters seen along Maldon Promenade over the years with no team being able to capitalise on any slender lead and so a fifth and deciding set was required. The experienced pairing of Napper and Bennett-Smith came through 11-6 to ensure at least a share of the spoils was secured.

Just as well as Freeman took the next match against Dawn Baldry to tighten the gap, before the trusted Maldon stalwart Napper declared his side the winners with a four-set battling triumph over the stoic Denis Balic.

So with the match won perhaps Captain Bennett-Smith relaxed a little too much against the young whipper-snapper Noah Sage as he found himself in an almighty five-set battle with three of the legs going way beyond deuce. So after a long and tense evening these two were still at it 12-12 in the deciding set – did they not want to get home before midnight? In the end the youth of Sage was too much and the final point went to Blackwater for a 4-6 defeat but pride intact.

Maldon C recorded the same winning margin over Stow Maries B with hat-tricks for the in-form Marty Englander and the effervescent Dawn Baldry. Stow’s Dave Marsh had a fun evening playing 19 out of a maximum 20 ends – with one win in the singles and a cracking doubles win with Peter Hance 12-10 in the fifth.

Neil Want was the star turn in the match between Woodham C and Cold Norton D with a troubled hat-trick. A straight sets win over Allan Steel but with each leg going beyond deuce and then an almighty topsy turvy battle with tricky lefty Pete Harverson that was only secured 11-9 in the fifth. Despite Want’s brilliance his team lost again leaving Cold Norton D as the only team in the league without a win this season. It was 6-4 to Woodham in the end with Steel and Harverson taking two points apiece.

Cold Norton E had that ‘Squelchy’ feeling this week after encountering the growing prowess of Blackater B’s rarely spotted, but very effective, secret weapon that is Simon Quelch. This week Quelch was in indefatigable form as he dispatched all of his singles opponents for a well earned star player badge, the most difficult match being a tasty five-setter with Dick Wyman where The Quelchmeister recovered from 0-2 down to wear down his opponent to win out 11-9 in the decider. Wyman and Tony Forster were in fine fettle on the night recording two wins each as part of the overall drawn encounter.

In Division 3, second-placed Blackwater D had a chance to impinge upon the growing lead built up by Blackwater C. Well, it didn’t go to plan as the D team were royally trounced by the superb C team in a 9-1 victory where David Benstead managed a win for the D’ers to avoid the whitewash blushes.

Very few of the matches were easy so at least there was some fight and spirit shown. Hat-tricks for Peter Davenport and of course for the Division’s top player – Mr 100% still – Gary Smith.

Maldon D took a decent 7-3 win over Blackwater E with a treble for James Raymond, 2 wins for Shirley Carroll and his first win in Burnham for David Park.

Despite only having two eligible players, Woodham D still edged out a 6-4 win over Blackwater F. A hat-trick for the elegant Chris Crooks and 2 very good wins for Diane King.