Ashford & District Table Tennis League: Division 1
With the second half of the season three weeks old now there is a certain normality appearing with Postling A holding a slight advantage over Little Chart B & Iron Room A. These three sides are the then ten points clear of the remainder of the division. Although all other teams do have at least a game in hand.
In an unfortunate piece of programming the winners and runners up from the first half went head to head in the first match of the second half. This time Iron Room B were only able to field one of their top players, and without the support junior, Shem Legarde, was only able to get the better of Roy Coles who put up some resistance in the second leg, but it was largely one way traffic. Nick Owen & Malcom Skates served up their three wins apiece with victories over Shem, Peter Coles, and Mick Micklethewaite. Within an 8-1 win it put Postling top of the pile, and Iron Room B the task of playing catch up for the remainder of the season.
Elsewhere the teams in second and third fought out a 5-4 result with Little Chart B coming out victorious with their strength on depth. Iron Room A were able to field Keith Yarnley who produced a solid display with only Michelle Kingsland able to offer any resistance, but still being edged out 3-1 despite two deuces and an 11-9. Iron Rooms A’s other Keith, this time Harris, produced the fourth point with totally eclipsing Michelle 11-7, 11-3, 11-3. Mike Lee started brightly sharing four legs with Kevin Beasley, but a 14-12 win for Kevin in the fifth leg seemed to take the wind out of Mike’s sails for the remainder of the evening narrowly losing out to Michelle, and Tom Down showing a very confident performance and avoiding his usual fifth leg nail bitter!
Ruckinge A arrived to their match against Iron Room A to find an extremely strong Iron Room side waiting for them, with Phil Saxby & Johnny Bispham putting in rare appearances and win 3 and 2 respectively. Not to help matters Ruckinge were only able to field two first team players, with Colin Bingham bravely stepping up from Division 2 to help out. Charlie Richards & Hrvoje Crnko both came through their matches against Steve Bispham without losing a leg, but Steve got his revenge by repeating the feat against Colin. The only really ‘upset’ of the night was Hrvoje taking a 3-1 win over Johnny in a very tight affair 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9.
Making up the division are the two Challock sides. Challock A were hosted by an Iron Room B side back to full strength. After racing into a 3-0 lead with victories for Vince Corbin, Shem Legarde, and Paul Waumsley over Cliff Ball, Peters Stevens and Steve Smith respectively it all looked good for Iron Room. But then Cliff came through a very attacking and close 5 leg match against Shem Legarde, and then Vince couldn’t find a consistent way past Steve Smiths stubborn defence and Challock came through again in five legs. Paul had no such trouble against Peter, but then Steve managed to frustrate Shem and took a 3-1 win before Cliff provided the surprise of the night. Not the win, we all know he is capable, but the whitewash win over Paul Waumsley. So the match came down to a final matchup of the night with the odds heavily in Iron Rooms favour. Vince Corbin showed no mercy hitting through Peter Stevens in three straight.
Finally we must cover the upset of the season so far. Postling A, fielding their strongest side of Malcolm Skates, Nick Owen, and Chris Hooper paid a visit to Little Chart B represented by Tom Down, Alan Provan, and Kevin Beasley. Alan Provan, the averages winner from the first half, was in good form with a 3-1 win over Chris Hooper, a 3-2 win over Malcolm despite being 2-1 down, and a 3-1 win over Nick Owen (averages runner up). Tom Down proved a very useful team mate starting with an unlikely 3-2 win over Nick Owen again despite being 2-1 down and on the receiving end of an 11-1 score line. He repeated his 3-2 score line over Chris Hooper again from 2-1 down. But Malcolm proved to be a stumbling block losing out 3-2. His mistake might have been leading 2-1 though! Little Chart’s third player, Kevin Beasley, was unable to add to the score but did enough disrupting the Postling players with his unique style to enable his team mates to do the damage. 5-4 Little Chart B, and dark horses for a title challenge perhaps?
