New Milton Table Tennis Club cold only come up with three wins out of ten matches in the Bournemouth and District league and two of them were at the expense of their own teams in two local derbies.

Phil Handy returned from a long absence to help the Premier’s A team to hold Bournemouth Sports D to a 5-5 draw at Chapel Gate, thanks to two good wins.  Handy might even have got a hat-trick but just lost out to Bourne’s Matt Rogers 10-12 in the fourth end.  Captain Brian Vibert also won two but Steve Hemmings had to be content with the one this week.  The doubles would have brought victory but Vibert and Handy lost in three straight sets.

Further down the league in Div 3, Handy’s younger brother Frank won his third hat-trick in a row to help his F team to their second 7-3 victory on the trot, this week against their G team (Simon Daish, Lewis Reading and Matthew Daish).  Frank’s team-mate Ian Linney won two and their captain Sylvia Smith added one more to the tally.  Matthew Daish won two for the Gs and had a real cracker of a match against Handy, but just lost 10-12 in the fifth and deciding end.  Reading’s victory in conjunction with Matthew Daish’s brace helped to salvage a precious point for the Gs as they eventually lost the doubles.

Also in Div 3, the E team (Max Doohan, Clive Pitts and Bev Scott-Johns) lost 3-7 for the second week running , this time against Merton E at Arnewood School.  Clive Pitts won both Milton’s singles and joined with teenager Doohan to win the doubles and secure the point.

Up in Div 1, the B team (Shaun Newcomb, Zoltan Karib-Barath and stand-in Dave Sutton) came a cropper as they lost 2-8 to Bournemouth Sports F at Mudeford Wood.  Milton’s only singles win had a distinctly international flavour as Hungarian Karib-Barath beat Bourne’s Frenchman Jean-David Marshall in three straight sets.  Newcomb and Karib-Barath were only playing for pride in the doubles which they won 11-9 in the fifth and final set.

The newly-promoted C team (Jacob Tse, James Lewis and Max De Kment) have yet to record a win in Div 1 as they lost 3-7 away against Bournemouth Sports H.  The Milton trio all beat Bourne’s Danny Bryson which meant that at least they came away with a point.

Div 2 saw the D team (Terry Jenvey, Bob Fagan and Peter Eke) get back to winning ways with a 6-4 home win over Bournemouth Sports J.  Captain Jenvey and Fagan bagged a brace apiece and Eke chipped in with the one win.  The doubles were required for victory and Jenvey and Fagan recovered from dropping the first set to emerge winners over four sets.

In Div 4, the H team of Andrew Daish, Bobo Jiang and John Parkhouse drew 5-5 away against Merton H.  Milton were gifted three games and a point as Merton were a player short, and Jiang added two more to the advantage by beating both players present.  It looked like Milton were on their way to victory as Daish and Jiang won the first two sets of the doubles, but it wasn’t to be as they  went on to lose the next three sets.

Div 5 saw the other of Milton’s local derbies as the J team (Luke Gurton, Malcolm Douglas and Keith Kensley) took on the K team (Lucy Craddock, Jack Fisher and Richard Ursell) at the Arnewood School.  In a 9-1 victory for the Jays, captain Douglas led from the front with his second treble of the season and teenager Gurton came up with his first hat-trick in his debut season.  Ursell spared his team’s blushes by just shading his match against Kensley by 13-11 in the fifth and final set.