Wensum matched defending champions Drumchapel Glasgow stride-for-stride at the first weekend of Women’s British Clubs League.

Both teams won four matches and drew with each other in the Premier Division, but the Norfolk side lead the way by virtue of a better sets difference, having lost only three individual matches all weekend, compared with Glasgow’s six.

Photo above: Ellenborough II (photo by Marie-Anne Ventoura)

Team of the Weekend at WV Active Aldersley in Wolverhampton was Drumchapel III, while Player of the Weekend was Falmouth Dock’s Saki Stratton from Division 5.

Wensum lead the Premier Division by a narrow margin as they and three-time defending champions Drumchapel Glasgow hold a four-point lead over the chasing pack – a margin that surely already means the title cannot be won by anyone else.

Wensum were dominant up to the final round, winning their first four matches 6-0. Anna Green was taken to five by Worthing’s Holly Holder and Ormesby’s Lara Whitton, while Mabel Shute needed a decider against Halton’s Joanne Keighley, but those were the closest anyone came to a defeat.

Drumchapel conceded two matches to Halton in the first round of fixtures – Halton were 2-1 up after Ewelina Sychta beat Aleksandra Titievskaja 3-2 (5-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4) and Keighley defeated Bethany O’Connell in four.

There was also one dropped match against Topspin Fusion, Tiana Dennison beating O’Connell, but the top two teams arrived at their final-round showdown in rude health.

Wensum will be the happier with the 3-3 result which followed, having lost their first matches of the campaign to fall 2-0 behind – Hannah Silcock beat Mari Baldwin in three and Titievskaja defeated Sophie Earley 3-2 (10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9).

Green got Wensum on the board by beating O’Connell in three, but Silcock’s win over Earley, also in three,  to restore Glasgow’s advantage. But Wensum rescued a point as Baldwin beat O’Connell in four and Green saw off Titievskaja in three.

Silcock leads the way in the averages with the maximum 10 out of 10, while Wensum duo Green (8/8) and Shute (4/4) also have 100% records.

Flick won all five matches to sit three points clear of Ellenborough in Division 1. The leaders conceded only three individual matches and two of those came in their opening tie against Joola Plymouth.

Plymouth took the lead as Marketa Myskova’s fine comeback saw off Binyu Zhao 3-2 (8-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 11-5), and they later levelled up at 2-2 thanks to another impressive win for Myskova, 3-2 (11-9, 19-21, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5) against Lok Yee Lo.

But Flick came back to win and only dropped one more match all weekend, when Ellenborough’s Sara Williams beat Lo 13-11 in the fifth.

Meige Wang was Flick’s mainstay, winning all nine of her matches to top the averages.

Division 2 is tight, with top two Byng Hall and Ackworth on 7pts and  Ormeau a point further back – and the whole division only separated by four points.

Byng Hall are unbeaten, but only won twice, while Ackworth won three and drew one – the draw coming against Byng Hall.

That match saw Byng Hall go 2-0 and 3-1 ahead, but Alisa Khalid defeated Jurate Brazaityte 3-1 (6-11, 13-11, 11-7, 12-10) to reduce the arrears, and Gauri Duhan then beat Sarah Baker in four close games to secure Ackworth a point.

That was Baker’s only defeat – she tops the averages with 7/8 for an 87.5% win-rate.

Cleeve Park won four and drew one to sit three points clear of both Topspin Fusion II and Worthing B in Division 3.

The leaders beat both their nearest rivals and drew in round two against Drumchapel Glasgow III, despite having led 2-0 and 3-1. Nuria Goldston and Jieyu Ren won the final two matches for Drumchapel against Calina Dawson and Rita Lopes respectively to seal the draw – the only 3-3 scoreline in the division all weekend.

Dawson, team-mate Nicola Duke and Worthing’s Lily Walters all won seven out of eight to head the averages.

Foresters had a 100% weekend in Division 4, which they lead by two points from Halton C.

The top two met in round two and it was a tight 4-2 win for Foresters, though they were never behind. Amelie David’s 3-2 (11-4, 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6) win over Sune Pingram in the fifth match brought Halton back to 3-2, but Kate Cheer secured the win in three against Chloe Ireland.

Cheer, a recent returnee to the sport, won 7/8, while Halton’s Tsz In Ria Wun won 9/10 – but both trail Foresters Sarah Jane Hilditch in the averages – she won all six of the matches she played.

The eight-team Division 5 is headed by Flick II, who were unbeaten, with four wins and a draw, to lead both Ellenborough II and Falmouth Docks by a point. Those two teams are also both unbeaten, having won three and drew two.

Flick’s dropped point was against Ellenborough in the fourth round on Sunday morning, Ellenborough coming from 3-1 down to seal a point when Zoe Gonpot edged out Neha Saxena 3-2 (8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10).

Falmouth drew 3-3 with Norwich City in round four, and then played out another 3-3 with Ellenborough in round five – Ellenborough again came from 3-1 down to rescue a point.

Maisha Patel of Ellenborough tops the averages with a 100% record across six matches, but Sak Stratton was the pick of those who played a full set of matches, winning 9/10.

Two teams have 100% records in Division 6, which also has eight teams. Ormesby II and Worthing D are yet to meet each other and it is Ormesby who are in front on sets difference – the dropped four individual matches compared with Worthing’s seven. They are three points clear of Cleeve Park B.

Worthing duo Natasha Gammon and Penny Muil completed a full house of 10 wins each to sit top of the divisional averages.

During the weekend, umpire Alan Thomas was presented with his runner-up certificate in the Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards, Technical Official of the Year category (below).