New Milton Table Tennis Club had an identical set of results to last week in the Bournemouth and District league; six wins, three defeats and one draw, but just spread around the teams differently.

In the Premier, the A team (Steve Hemmings, Brian Vibert and Brian Bickell) recovered from last week’s 0-10 drubbing with a 8-2 home win over the high-flying Lynwood A. Captain Vibert led from the front with his second hat-trick of the campaign and Hemmings and Bickell won two apiece. The two Brians won the doubles to land maximum points.

Div 1 saw the B team (Zoltan Karib-Barath, Shaun Newcomb and Julie Smillie) win their third match on the trot, this time by 7-3 away against the struggling Bournemouth Sports G. Smillie returned from holidaying down-under to win two, and regulars Karib-Barath and Newcomb also won two as well as the doubles. Newcomb only just missed out on his first hat-trick of the campaign as he lost 9-11 in the fifth end against Bourne’s Saul Harris.

Not doing quite so well in Div 1, the C team were held to a 5-5 draw at home by basement boys Broadstone A. Jacob Tse won two but Max De Kment and Gerard Redman had to be content with one apiece. In a dramatic end to the evening, fourth man captain James Lewis joined forces with De Kment to just nick the doubles 12-10 in the fifth end to force the draw.

In Div 2, the D team (Terry Jenvey, Bob Fagan and Peter Eke) lost 2-8 away against the table-topping Broadstone B, Milton’s two coming courtesy of captain Jenvey. Milton were desperate to come away with a point and Jenvey and Fagan levelled the doubles at 1-1 having lost the first end. It was not to be however as they went on to lose the next two ends to face the long drive home.

Div 3 saw the E team (Bev Scott-Johns, Bill Page and Simon Golding) win 6-4 the second week running, this time away against bottom-dwellers Shamrock A. Page and Golding bagged a brace apiece and captain Scott-Johns won his first match in four weeks. Milton, who were languishing second from bottom, were keen to place as much daylight as possible between themselves and Shamrock, and did their cause no harm as Page and Golding blew away the opposition pairing in three straight sets.

The G team came up with their own 6-4 in Div 3 as they beat Merton F at the Arnewood School. 11 year old Matthew Daish came up with his third hat-trick of the campaign and older brother Simon and Lewis Reading chipped in with one apiece. The doubles were required for victory and Daish junior and Reading duly obliged.

Also in Div 3, the second-placed F team (Svet Ignatov, Ian Linney and Sylvia Smith) needed to do well against third-placed Ringwood B to put pressure on leaders Lynwood C. However, Milton were missing star player Frank Handy as they travelled to Ringwood and came a cropper at 1-9. Milton’s blushes were spared and the dreaded whitewash avoided as Linney won the last singles of the evening. Milton were worth at least a draw as five of the games went all the way to five sets, but Milton were on the losing end of all of them.

Div 4 saw the H team come up with an excellent 8-2 home win courtesy of hat-tricks from Bobo Liang and Peter Daish. Williams added one more to the tally and then watched nervously as treble-makers Liang and Daish lost the first set of the doubles which were needed for maximum points. It eventually went all the way to five sets and Williams was at last able to relax as Liang and Daish blew away the Bourne pairing to win 11-3.

The J team (Luke Gurton, Sam Watkins and Malcolm Douglas) came up with a 9-1 win of their own in Div 5 at home against Bournemouth Sports S. Watkins was unlucky not to join captain Douglas and teenager Gurton in a treble as he just lost 9-11 in the fifth set against Bourne’s Wendy Hall.

The K team (Sybil Bartlett, Sue Wooton-Freeman and Jack Fisher) aren’t having such a happy time in Div 5 as they lost 0-10 for the third week in a row to leave them rooted at the bottom of the league.