Another season of domestic league table tennis action has concluded, as the final honours were claimed within the Doric Insurance sponsored leagues.

Defending champions Lions A expectedly retained their crown, in the end taking the title by a 4 point margin. That does not however tell the full story as the title was up for grabs on the last match of the season in their clash with Whistlers A, who had led for a large part of the season. The Whistlers side did however have a near impossible task on their hands as they needed a 10-0 whitewash to edge the title, or a 9-1 win to leave things exactly even. Victory in the first match gave the Lions side the initiative and it was secured in the third rubber of the night when they took a 2-1 lead. Consistency has been a key theme once more for the title winners this season and all 3 players have contributed to a high level with all players having won between 58% and 71% of their singles matches. This fixture was no different as each of Joshua Butler, Liam Robilliard and Matthew Stubbington, all picked up 2 singles wins each. They overcame Matthew Casey and Joseph Bourgaize to seal the title, with Stubbington's 5 set win over Casey the closest of these games. Robilliard teamed with Stubbington to comfortably defeat Casey and Bourgaize in straight sets in the doubles rubber. None of the Lions players could get past the averages runner-up Joshua Stacey on the night however. Butler came within touching distance of doing so when he led 2-1, but he narrowly lost a tight 4th 13-11 before Stacey romped through the decider. Robilliard and Stubbington each competed well themselves, but went down in matching 4 set defeats.

Due to that result, Lions B had the opportunity to pinch the runners-up spot from Whistlers A if they could secure a 6-4 win or better over Lions C and they duly delivered with a 6-4 win, meaning they emerged as runners-up for the season due to having won just 1 extra match during the season than their rivals. It came as no surprise that averages winner Ben Foss was key to their success. Foss had tasted defeat just twice all season heading into this clash and had not lost a singles match in league action since early November. The loss in question came against Phil Ogier narrowly 16-14 in the 5th set and these two met again on the final night of the season. Foss was too strong in the end and won in 4 sets, although once more it was a tight game and the concluding 4th set was a close 12-10 outcome. His other wins came over Jez Powell in 4 sets and reserve Ian Le Page in straight sets. The doubles rubber proved pivotal in terms of the league standings and Foss teamed with Jamie Ferbrache in a match where they put in a very strong performance to defeat the experienced doubles combination of Ogier and Powell in straight sets. Ferbrache did his bit in singles action by overcoming Le Page in straight sets in the first match of the night, whilst Nye Matthew edged past Le Page 12-10 in the 4th set to secure the runners-up spot. Ogier and Powell each beat Ferbrache and Matthew in singles action, with Matthew's clash with Powell going to the full 5 set distance.

Whistlers B ended in 4th spot ahead of Lions C and survived a scare following a very tight 6-4 win over a bottom placed Lions E side missing a player. The opening 2 matches of the night proved to be key for the Whistlers side as they won both beyond the regulation 11 point margin in deciding 5th sets. The first of these saw Lawrence Stacey prevent a fightback from Paul Hainsworth. Stacey had led 2-0 after fighting back from 10-7 down to win a very close second set 15-13, before Hainsworth rallied to take the next 2 11-9 to force the deciding end. The decider was tight, and could have gone either way, but in the end Stacey held firm and edged past 12-10. The next rubber saw a strong comeback from Mark Pipet against Andy Gill. Gill had led 2-1 before Pipet forced a deciding set. Once more this could have gone either way as each player held match points in the final end. Pipet though did just enough to seal it 15-13. The final rubber won by the Whistlers side on the night saw Stacey defeat Gill 11-9 in the 4th set of their match. For the Lions side, Hainsworth put in a pair of assured performances to dispatch Pipet and Shelby Timms for the loss of just 23 points, whilst Gill defeated Timms in 4 sets. The doubles match was an entertaining affair to close the season and it saw Hainsworth and Gill battle back from 2-1 down to claim it in 5 sets.

With the league's winners and runners-up already confirmed, the item to be concluded was who could clinch runners-up spot in the averages.

Kay Chivers needed to win just 1 singles match in her match against champions Whistlers E to secure this spot and she did so due to 2 wins on the night. She achieved this thanks to a straight sets win over Tim Le Page and then a 4 set win over Oskar Cleal. She was however unable to stop the force of averages winner Craig Dunning, who won their match in 4 sets.

Despite missing out on the runners-up spot, Ellis Tomlin's return to the sport saw him finish strongly and take third spot in the averages. On the final night he beat Martin Sarre and nephew Stuart in straight sets, as well as Paula Le Ber in 5 sets. Tomlin also fared well whilst reserving in the top flight, where he picked up a number of wins, most notably an excellent 5 set win over the impressive Ryan Bichard, who finished the season in 5th spot in the Division 1 averages.

The fight for the Division 3 title has been the most exciting seen in many-a-year and the concluding moments of this story unfolded late on Wednesday night with a packed balcony of Division 1 and 3 players watching. Lions J and Ravenscroft Panthers C have swapped leads at the top during the season, but heading into their winner-takes-all clash, the Panthers side led by a point and thus knew that a 5-5 would be enough for them to secure the crown. It transpired that the match did indeed go right down to the wire and in fact to the final match of the evening and season to be the one that decided it. Fittingly this match was between 2 of the rising junior players within the Association, Aiden Ozanne from Lions and Barnaby Groves from Panthers. These players occupied 2nd and 3rd spots in the averages heading into the crunch clash, with Groves needing to win to secure the title for his side, with the Lions side leading 5-4 at the time. Ozanne had already sealed the runners-up spot in the averages prior to this match and when he fought back from 9-6 down in the second set to take it 11-9 and lead 2-0, it looked like he was set to seal the title for his side. Crucially Groves came out firing in the third set and didn't miss with some superb attacking table tennis which saw him over the line incredibly 11-1. The next 2 sets were much more evenly fought, however Groves extra power and attacking strokes proved to be the difference as he won the 4th 11-8 and put himself in position to win the match whilst leading 10-9. Unfortunately the match did not get the ending it deserved as it concluded with a fortunate net, however it was nonetheless a fitting conclusion to the season. Groves had been the sole player to keep his side in with a sniff of winning it as he directly contributed to the Panthers wins in 3 of the first 6 rubbers. He beat the impressive and rising 11 year old Luke Evans in 4 sets as well as earning 5 set wins in 2 key matches, whilst his side was trailing 3-1. The first came in the doubles where alongside Shaun Mosley, they battled back from 2-1 down against Ozanne and Evans to edge through in 5 sets. He followed up with another fightback against Andy Ozanne in the next match. Ozanne led 2-1 before Groves fought hard to win over the distance. The final Panthers win came when Mosley bounced back from dropping the opening end to overcome Andy in 4 sets. For the Lions side, Ozanne and Evans each beat Mosley and Steve Martin, whilst Andy beat Martin.

The final title to be officially concluded was in the 4th Division, albeit it was firmly in Ravenscroft Panthers F's hands following their decisive win over title rivals Lions O last time out. They needed to just win in their final match to secure the crown and they did so 7-3 over Lions M. The match was significant in that it also saw young Micah Cohen clinch the averages for the season. He needed to win his 3 to ensure this was the case and he did so with wins over Diane Le Page, Rolands Tracums and reserve Maija Hanson, without dropping a set.

Lionel Jones took the runners-up spot in the averages and ended with a hat-trick of wins over Karen Brouard, Rachael Sharp and reserve Jim Devlin. He was however in trouble against the former and needed to fight back from 2-0 down to edge through in 5 sets.

As has been tradition for a number of years, the concluding evening of league action sees the presentations made and buffets for all players.

This also saw the 'Players-Player of the season' awards given out to players chosen within each Division as follows;

Division 4 - Olivia Gilbert

The Association would like to thank Doric Insurance for their continued support of the local leagues.