Press Reports Covid League 2020-21
Week Ending Fri 17th October 2020
Division 1 – Bragging Rights for Cold Norton B
West Maldon A stormed to the top of the Burnham Division courtesy of a hat-trick of wins from the young but dependable Harry Keys. Keys led his team to a fine 6-3 victory over the yet-to-win Woodham A trio. Although Woodham lost this battle, their top player Alan Burgess can take more than a crumb of comfort from recording the best win of the week as he defeated the current Mens’ Singles champion Daniel Young in 5 sets. Just behind West Maldon are the Cold Norton B mob – who this week revelled in a last gasp win over their very own ’A’ Team! It was left to Captain Dan Anderson to bring home the spoils and upset the Cold Norton apple cart in the final and deciding encounter of the evening. Despite going behind to the A team’s Colin Chatfield, Anderson rallied to take 3 consecutive legs and secure the full bragging rights for his team.
Division 2 – Woodham B Triumph over League Leaders
Woodham B surprised themselves, and the rest of the league, with a superb 5-4 turnover against league leaders and league favourites West Maldon B. It was especially hard for the Woodham trio as they were 2-4 down going into the final 3 match-ups, and in one of those games Woodham’s Eamonn Hall was 0-2 and matchpoint down against the highly rated Neil Freeman. It was left to Woodham’s Trevor Collin to secure the win in a final match shootout with the very impressive, and player of the match, Louis Gunn. That win leaves Woodham B as the only unbeaten team in Division 2, and allowed Stow B to capitalise on the opportunity to overtake West Maldon B at the top of the table following their strong 7-2 taming of Maldon C. Both Dave T Marsh, and Nicky Reece-Ford were unbeaten for Stow throughout the course of the match.
Division 3 – Blackwater A Full Steam Ahead
It’s all about Blackwater A in Division 3 as they continued their fine run with an excellent 6-3 victory over a strong Stow D side – all 3 Blackwater players won 2 matches but the pick of evening went to Simon Quelch’s 3 set victory over this division’s top player Peter Chastin – it’s been a long time since that happened! However, what goes around comes around and later on in proceedings Peter’s team-mate (and mother) Jean Chasmer sought and found early revenge as she defeated Quelch in straight sets to even things out for the Chasmer family! Woodham C were glad to be able to put their opening week whitewash behind them as they recorded their first win of the season – largely thanks to an Ian Cranstone hat-trick in their 6-3 win over West Maldon C. The youngsters of Maldon D had enough to outwit Cold Norton C – well Just – as two wins each for Alan Billing and Shirley Carroll provided the foundation for a decent 5-4 win.
Division 4 – St Lawrence Sitting Pretty
St Lawrence are proudly sitting atop Division 4 following their 7-2 success over Mayland B. The victory was inspired by a dogged Karen Braney as she recorded her first hat-trick of this season. For Mayland B Jon Stevens was in fine fettle as he took both his team’s points with excellent wins over Steve King and David Siggins.
Week Ending Fri 10th October 2020
Division 1 – Return of Big Dunc’
Stow A bounced backed from their opening week whitewash reverse to record a close 5-4 victory over a 2-man Maldon A team – great to get some points on the board. Woodham A were also hoping to rack up some points as they fielded a much stronger team this week, but unfortunately came up against a highly stacked Cold Norton A side featuring both Duncan Taylor and Sam Lowman – Cold Norton took the win 6-3 with Taylor recording what will be the first of many hat-tricks for the season. For Woodham, Lee McHugh – so often their talisman – scored an excellent early season triumph over the highly rated Lowman.
Division 2 – West Maldon B take Pole Position
West Maldon B screamed to the top of the leader board with a thumping 8-1 victory over a fully loaded Mayland A side – Chris Buer and Louis Gunn both went unbeaten throughout proceedings and it was left to the wily Steve Aspland to take Mayland’s consolation point with a hard fought 12-10 win in the final leg against the awkward style of Steve Buer. Stow B are hot on the heels of West Maldon B as they also recorded a resounding victory over pre-season favourites Maldon B – another 8-1 win – with hat-tricks for both Peter Hance and Nicky Reece-Ford. Dawn Baldry picked up the sole point for Maldon B in the final leg of the final match against Dave T Marsh. Stow C welcomed back the bandana maestro Mr Tim Pulham and he didn’t disappoint as his 3 wins were the deciding factor in Stow’s 6-3 victory over Maldon C.
Division 3 – Living in a Blackwater Wonderland
Wow – Blackwater A recorded another 9-0 whitewash, this time at the displeasure of West Maldon D. Whatever they are feeding these guys we all need some of it. Denis Balic was again the player of the match on countback, but he was ably supported by his two amigos Alan Scammell and Simon Quelch. The Cold Norton C versus West Maldon C match was finely balanced at 4-4 going into the final encounter. West Maldon’s Louis Gunn won the 4th leg 11-9 to even things up at 2-2, but he couldn’t maintain that form as Cold Norton’s Dave Hancox blasted his way through the deciding frame 11-6 to win the leg, the individual match, and record his team’s first victory of the campaign. Stow D’s Peter Chastin maintained his 100% win rate in the match against Maldon D – but this in itself wasn’t enough to hold off the experienced Maldon trio, who triumphed 5-4 thanks to young Bryan Spellar’s win over Jean Chasmer.
Division 4 – Kuhl Win for Blackwater B
Blackwater B recorded their second win on the bounce to take an early lead in the division. The regular Blackwater trio were out but it was John Kuhl who starred again with another faultless performance in his side’s close 5-4 win over Maldon E. John was ably supported by Kath Little who recorded a brace of her own to complete the winning scoreline. Blackwater C didn’t fare so well as they hosted St Lawrence A who had Steve King in their ranks and in great form too as he rattled up 3 decisive wins to help St Lawrence A post a 6-3 win.
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Week Ending Fri 3rd October 2020
The Burnham & District Table Tennis League is back up and running under strict covid-safe guidelines issued by the sports’ governing body – the two major changes are matches no longer involve doubles games and spectators are no longer permitted.
Division 1 – High Scoring Opener
Well it didn’t take long for some of our experienced Division One players to get off to a flying start in an opening week that saw West Maldon A crunch a 2-man Stow A 9-0, and Cold Norton B almost repeated that feat against a weakened Woodham A but it was left to Tony Bonnici to take the single win for Woodham in their 8-1 defeat. On the stats countback the West Maldon player of the match was Gary Young, and for Cold Norton it was the newly attacked minded Eric Green.
Division 2 – Debut Hat-trick for Collin
A much closer set of results in the second division which is likely to be tight throughout the season. Woodham B’s 6-3 victory over a strong Stow C was probably the best result of the week, and it could have been more as Woodham’s Sanjay Saptarshi pulled a shock defeat from the jaws of victory as he was 10-6 up in the deciding leg against Stow’s Rod Maclennan, only to see Rod level up and then take the victory 15-13 in the fifth. Woodham’s debutant Trevor Collin was the star of the show with an excellent hat-trick. In the early season Maldon derby the B team scraped home with a 5-4 victory over their C team but had to face their former player Steve Scholz in the process. Steve had a very good night taking 2 5-set victories over his former team-mates but just lost out to the unbeaten star of the night Dawn Baldry, again in 5 sets. In the battle of the relegated teams West Maldon B just edged out Stow B 5-4 with Chris Buer back from injury and taking an early season treble although he had to come from behind to defeat Peter Hance in 5 sets.
Division 3 – Blackwater A storm passed Woodham C
It’s no surprise that 4 of the strongest players in this division opened up with player of the match hat-tricks for their teams’ decisive victories. The most shocking result was Blackwater A’s stunning 9-0 victory over Woodham C, although the scoreline doesn’t reflect the competitiveness of the match as 7 of the 9 matches went to 4 or 5 legs. A very strong West Maldon C came out 8-1 up against Maldon D – Tom Elder’s last ditch victory over Louis Gunn was the only consolation for the Maldon trio, as both Dave Razzell and the ever improving Noah Sage went unbeaten. Stow D’s Peter Chastin carried on his tremendous form of last season with yet another hat-trick in his side’s 6-3 win over West Maldon D.
Division 4 – Blackwater christen their new venue with a win
Three strong wins this week for Woodham D, Blackwater B and Maldon E. Blackwater B christened their new venue with a very impressive 7-2 victory over St Lawrence B – with John Kuhl winning all 3 of his matches. Woodham D opened up with the same scoreline against Blackwater C with hat-tricks for both Mike Burton and Mitch Davies. No one player dominated the final match of the week as Maldon E posted a 6-3 win over St Lawrence A.
Press Office - Burnham & District Table Tennis League
