The Medway Towns Table Tennis League held the final of their handicap knock-out trophy at Newington Village Hall on Monday 16th April and Chatham Gannet emerged victorious by the small margin of 17 points over Anchorians 3, last years winners.

Anchorians 3 who finished 4th in Division 1 had to give the Chatham Gannet team who were 10th in Division 3 starts ranging from 22 to 30 per game.

The first four games went to Gannet and they led by 22 points thanks to Gareth Fox beating Paul Norman 53-42, Sean Durkin beating Sean McMillan 48-42 and two wins for the Gannet captain Stewart Day, 44-42 over Jeff Norman and 45-42 over Paul Norman.  In the fifth game Sean McMillan pulled 2 points back with a 42-40 win over Gareth Fox and Jeff Norman repeated this scoreline in the next game, 42-20 over Sean Durkin to leave Gannet 16 points up with three games to play.

Game seven was the closest of the evening with Gareth Fox just pipping Sean McMillan 43-42 to give Gannet a 17 point lead.  Paul Norman was up next against Sean Durkin and played a real captain's game to win 42-34 and cut the deficit to 11 points.  However Jeff Norman couldn't repeat his brothers efforts in the final game against Gareth Fox and with both players, knowing what was at stake, playing a very cagey game Gareth beat Jeff 48-42 to give Gannet the 17 point win and take the Charles Stampe trophy to Chatham until this time next year.

The prizes were presented to the winners and runners-up by Charles Stampe's daughter, Cheryl  and Diane in the presence of both teams supporters and the Leagues President, Ken Spree and thanks were offered to Ted Tydeman for the use of their venue.

Malcolm Kay