There was a break in the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis League as the week was given over to the Preliminary Round of the Annual Times and Directory Handicap Cup Competition. Nine of the New Milton Club’s eleven teams were entered into the competition, and five of them were drawn into the Preliminary Round, with mixed results.

The Cup provides an interesting diversion from the league programme in that it enables teams from across all divisions to be drawn against each other in a handicapped competition, best of three matches up to 31, with no doubles.

The only team to go through to Round One on merit was the L team from Div 5 (Richard Clampin, Dominic Stainton & Andrew Stainton) who just beat Div 5 fellows Bmth Sports R 5-4 at the Arnewood School. Clampin got the ball rolling by beating Bourne’s Tom Collins in two straight ends, and it was nip and tuck up to the ninth and final match when Clampin beat Bourne veteran Jim Simmonds 31-30 in the third end to win the tie. The D team got a much easier passage into Round One as Merton K had to concede their match because they were unable to put out a team.

The Div 2’s C team (Matt Winter, Dave Cuddon & Simon Golding) narrowly lost 3-5 to Bmth Sports E from Div 1, and the F team (Ian Linney, Sylvia Smith & Malcolm Nash) lost to Div 3 fellows Bmth Sports J by the even closer margin of 4-5 in the final match. The Club’s other team from Div 3, the G team (Bev Scott-Johns, Bill Page & Simon Golding) lost 1-5 against Winton YMCA B who normally ply their trade in Div 1.

So, the L and D teams go into the Round One draw with their club mates in the A, B, E and J teams, and the matches will be played week commencing 2^nd December. However, the losing C, F and G teams live to fight another day as they will go into the consolation “Plate” competition which will be played week commencing 20^th January 2014. Full result details are below:-

New Milton C (Div 2) 3 Bmth Sports E (Div 1) 5

Matt Winter (+15), 2

Dave Cuddon (+15), 1

Simon Golding (+15), 0

Bmth Sports F (Div 3) 5 New Milton F (Div 3) 4

Ian Linney (+18), 1

Sylvia Smith (+20), 2

Malcolm Nash (+21), 1

New Milton G (Div 3) 1 Winton YMCA B (Div 1) 5

Bev Scott-Johns (+21), 0

Bill Page (+21), 1

Simon Golding (+15), 0

New Milton L (Div 5) 5 Bmth Sports R (Div 5) 4

Richard Clampin (+26), 2

Dominic Stainton (+26), 1

Andrew Stainton (+24), 2