Week ending Friday 4 April 2025
Burnham & District Table Tennis League – Red Horton Norton Clinch Championship
It was crunch time this week in the top division of the Burnham & District Table Tennis League. Cold Norton B found themselves in the envious position of just needing a win against the bottom and only winless team in the top flight to secure the most unlikely of championship victories.
Division 1
So having destroyed would-be champions Mapledene A the previous week Cold Norton B found themselves just one win away from the title, and they just needed to hold their nerve against the struggling Woodham C and their talent should see them through and straight onto the open bus parade. This they did with some style as Ian Wall and Eric Green secured the sixth win of the night in a straight sets double shootout. Wall and Green were truly impeccable all evening as they went through the card without dropping a single leg, whereas third wheel Sam Lowman was a bit jittery as the pressure of the Title was clearly playing on his mind – poor boy! Lowman needed 4 sets to get past both Peter Harverson and Graham Briggs, and then fell to the mighty forehand of Chris Hancox in a 5 set thriller for Woodham to secure a consolation point over the now-confirmed Champions. In recent weeks Cold Norton have bested both Fambridge and Mapledene A so are clearly deserved Title Winners. Fambridge are now confirmed as Runners-Up, with the player of the division looking likely to be Reece Seddon of Mapledene A but there are still a couple of matches left that could change things around.
Elsewhere in Division 1 Mapledene A took out their anger on Cold Norton C with a 9-1 thumping. Kim Shead took the only Norton point with a straight sets win over Steve Muth. For Mapledene both Liam Squirrell and George Reeves took trebles on the night, with Reeves just sneaking past the impressive Shead 14-12 in the nail-biting deciding set.
Woodham A had the temerity to steal one of Woodham B’s players to complete their trio for the Woodham derby, and then went onto secure an embarrassing 8-2 victory. Sanjay Saptarshi started his long evening with a rip-roaring 5th set triumph over Chris Penrose, and then repeated that effort with another 5 set victory over supposed team-mate Dan Patynski. Patynski the deserter had already come through an opening round 5 setter against his former Captain Eamonn Hall so it was looking like a long evening for the large Woodham crowd that had assembled for this feast of wiff-waff. With Penrose and Patynski dropping points it was up to the third P in the trio, Captain Dan Piglet, to steady the ship as he won both his openers to set up a winner takes all finale with Saptarshi. Before we got to that one Saptarshi maintained his ‘money’s worth’ evening with another 5 set match in the doubles as he and Hall just lost out to the Penrose and Piglet combo. And so to the Finale, Piglet took the opener, Saptarshi got serious for a 2-1 lead then allowed the Piglet back into the match and eventually he had his pork belly rubbed as Piglet took home the bacon for a superb ham-trick in another 5 setter for Saptarshi as he completed his 20/20 evening.
Woodham C were playing their second match of the week and this time they were facing the in-form Mapledene B. Mapledene’s Colin Chatfield hit a perfect hat-trick for the player-of-the-match accolade but it was also great to see Anthon Ranjit-Singh in excellent form as he vanquished both Chris Hancox and Dave Penrose in 5 sets, and only lost out to Peter Harverson in 4. Keith Willet also hit a treble on the night as part of his team’s 8-2 winning margin, and he too edged past the unlucky Hancox in 5. Given that Willett and Chatfield were unbeaten in singles and Hancox and Penrose didn’t bother the scoreboard at all during that same period you would have thought the doubles betwixt these combos would be pretty straightforward and the Mapledene duo would plough through the Woodham pair – but the sporting Gods had other ideas as the boys from Woodham wrapped up the bonus point in 5 sets to truly upset the Mapledene apple cart.
Division 2
Stow Maries A were finally crowned champions of Division 2 when Maldon A clumsily dropped 4 points to a 2 man Cold Norton D side – in fact they lost the match in actual games played but were buoyed by the 3 point gift from Cold Norton. Wily chopper Colin Napper was the only Maldonite to win both his matches, with Neil Want winning his other singles for Cold Norton against Dawn Baldry and Hamish Innes – both in 5 set rollercoasters. Dave Hancox recorded a notable win over Ladies Singles Champion Baldry, and then doubled up with Want for a surprising bonus point in the doubles. On the back of his success Hancox has agreed to enter the Ladies Singles next season. A disappointing end to the campaign for Maldon A.
Mapledene C and Woodham D hacked out a 5-5 draw with Andy Seaman getting revenge for his Dan Richardson Final loss by reversing the score against Adi Kamma on his way to a player of the match treble. Kamma and Peter Harverson both won their other singles and then partnered up for the doubles for their points haul. There was a slight tremor down Blackwater way this week as the B team rattled the A team’s cage ahead of their Handicap Cup Team Final. Every player went away with a win in a 5-5 stalemate – a bit like a school sports day these days – but most credit must go to the B team captain Gary Smith who bested both Roger Slade and Neil Freeman, not only in the singles but also in the doubles. The A team pair must have been sick of the sight of Smith by the end of the evening. The B team’s Louis Gunn was unlucky to lose out to Freeman and Slade in 5 sets but redeemed himself with a treble stopping 4 set victory over Alan Scammell. In the other derby battle, Stow B went all gung-ho on us and destroyed their own C team in a 10-0 drubbing. The treblemakers for the B team were Peter Hance, Dave Marsh ad Nicky Reece-Ford. For the C team Dave Goody put up a fight with 5-setters against Marsh and Reece-Ford but no cigar this week.
In the final match of the season Woodham D held the once-mighty Maldon A to a draw despite a rampant Lloyd Bennett-Smith finishing his season with a well earned treble. Bennett-Smith and League Chairman Alan Dadswell went into the final match unbeaten, oiled like gladiators for the final push. It wasn’t a great contest as Bennett-Smith won in 3 to secure the draw but Dadswell had already destroyed the Innes family party with victories over Hamish Innes and Ross Kirby. Woodham’s Scott Perry had completed the same double as Dadswell and the pair of them just rubbed Maldon salt into the wound as they came from behind to win the doubles against Innes and Kirby in a long 5 setter.
That concludes the Division 2 season with Stow Maries A crowned as champions and with the kicker of knowing that Stow stalwart Gary Brignall was the best player in the division with a win average of 96% just dropping one match all season long.
Division 3
Maldon C had already won the Division 3 Championship so the remaining battle was for the coveted runner-up spot. Blackwater C secured second place with a fine 8-2 victory over Woodham E. Blackwater were delighted when Woodham arrived without their superstar Allan Steel and confidently went about their business. An end-of-season hat-trick for Mervyn Perriman gave the octogenarian top billing but he was very well supported by Colin Barham and Jacquie Treacy who both won 2 of their singles both losing out to the fleet of wrist and sartorial elegance of Chris Crooks. Maldon C completed their season with a superlative 10-0 whitewash victory over the hapless Blackwater D. Hat-tricks all round for the mighty Maldon trio of Marty Englander, Chris Ravenhill, and Brian Riedling. The closest match of the night saw young Oscar Wyman push Englander all the way to 5 sets – it won’t be long before the Blackwater starlet will be turning those close run things into victories. Maldon D ended their season with a powerful 9-1 turnover of Blackwater E. James Raymond and Arthur Shadforth finishing their campaign on treble highs, with Luca Riedling losing out to Deb Ginn for the sole Blackwater point. Plucky Kath Little was unlucky not to trouble the scorecard as she surrendered winning positions in both her 5 setters with Raymond and Riedling. The final match of the season saw the two bottom teams face off in the wooden spoon trophy final. Blackwater F had yet to win a game all season and the single victory for Maldon E had come at the paddles of Blackwater F – so a lot riding on this one. The match was evenly poised after the first round of singles as the teams went into the break at 3-3. John Leavett for Maldon and David McHattie for Blackwater were unbeaten and destined for the final match showdown. McHattie and Oscar Wyman put Blackwater 4-3 up with a classic straight sets doubles victory – could this be happening? Dennis Eraut held his nerve in a very topsy turvy 5 set victory over Dave Gardner to re-square the match at 4-4. Then Patrick Coyne put Maldon ahead with a 4 leg triumph over Wyman. So it all came down to the final leg – a win was now beyond them but could Blackwater sign-off with a draw to buoy their spirits for next season. Over to the Captain Dave McHattie. McHattie took the opening leg 11-9 and the Blackwater nails were getting shorter by the rally. Leavett reversed the scores in the second leg and repeated this to take a 2-1 lead, and that was enough to drain the fight from McHattie as Leavett won out 3-1 for an overall 6-4 victory.
So Maldon C were the runaway champions of Division 3 and their 3 top players all scored over 90% win rate averages. However, despite this excellence none of them were able to get the better of the 100% man from Woodham – and the Division 3 winner of the best player award goes to Allan Steel of Woodham E with an unbeaten run of 36 victories.
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Eamonn Hall, Press Officer
Burnham & District Table Tennis League
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