The Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league got underway last week with some highs and lows for the New Milton Club who increased their entry from 9 to 10 teams, another club record.  They only managed to win two of their matches, lost seven and drew the one.

In the Premier, the A team (Steve Hemmings, Brian Vibert and Brian Bickell) lost 2-8 at home to the all-female Bournemouth Sports B team.  Hemmings and Bickell won one each but captain Vibert drew a rare blank.

Div 1 saw new club member Zoltan Karib-Barath mark his league début with two wins in the B team’s 4-6 away defeat by Lynwood B.  Julie Smillie, who was playing in Div 2 last year, scored Milton’s only other singles and helped Shaun Newcomb to win the doubles.

The C team of Max De Kment, Jacob Tse and James Lewis were promoted as winners of Div 2 last season, but suffered a shock 2-8 defeat at home to Bournemouth Sports E in their first match in Div 1.  Tse spared Milton’s blushes with two wins, although captain Lewis was unfortunate to lose 10-12 in the fifth end to Bourne’s Daniel Prakesh.

In Div 2, the D team (Terry Jenvey, Roy Hobbs and Bob Fagan) got off to a tremendous start with a 9-1 win over Bournemouth Sports K in their own back yard.  Captain Jenvey dropped the only singles but helped Fagan to demolish the Bourne pairing in three straight sets in the doubles.

Div 3 witnessed Milton’s only draw as the E team (Bev Scott-Johns, Bill Page and Clive Pitts) held Broadstone C to a 5-5 tie away at Dunyeates Road.  Pitts stormed back after a year’s lay-off to bag an excellent brace and Page and captain Scott-Johns chipped in with one win each.  The doubles were needed for the draw and Pitts and Page did the necessary over five strongly competed sets.

Milton’s other two sides in Div 3 both lost by 3-7.  The E team of captain Sylvia Smith, the home-coming Frank Handy and stand-in Malcolm Douglas shared the spoils to grab a well-deserved point away against Merton F.  The G team (Malcolm Nash, Lewis Reading and Matthew Daish) gained their point away against Ringwood B.  10 year old Daish, who was playing in Div 5 last season, did fantastically well to win two and only narrowly missed out on his hat-trick by losing to Ringwood’s Mike Davies 11-13 in the fifth and final set.  Captain Nash won the last singles of the evening to secure the hard-earned point for his team.

In Div 4, the newly-promoted H team lost 2-8 at home to Winton YMCA B.  13 year old Peter Daish marked his Div 4 début with a win as did captain Danny Williams.  Daish’s older brother Andrew joined with new club member Bobo Jiang in the doubles but the maiden point eluded them.

In Div 5, Malcolm Douglas captained his J team to an 8-2 victory over Bournemouth Sports J with a brilliant hat-trick.  Club newcomer 16 year old Luke Gurton got his campaign off to a good start with a superb brace and just missed out on a maiden hat-trick as he lost 10-12 in the fifth and final set against Bourne veteran Jim Simmonds.  Keith Kensley also only lost to Simmonds and watched as Douglas and Gurton took the doubles to secure maximum points.

Also in Div 5, the newly formed K team had a bit of a traumatic league debut as they lost 0-10 away against a very strong Nimrod C which included ex-Miltonian Chris Courage.  New club member Sybil Bartlett came the closest to getting off the mark as she took Nimrod’s Lynn Noakes all the way to five ends but she faded in the final set.