It is with a mixture of pleasure and pain that the New Milton Table Tennis Club takes stock of its 11 teams’ performances in the first half of the Bournemouth and District League. The league tables below portray the contrasting fortunes as the clubs took a breather over the Christmas break.

The success story comes from the E team in Div 2, comprising captain Frank Handy, Bobo Jiang, Gerard Redman and the brothers Daish (Andrew, Simon & Peter). As the G team they won the Div 3 title last season and are now sitting pretty at the top of Div 2, albeit on superior games difference, having only lost one of their matches. Also in Div 2, the C team (captain Dave Cuddon, Malcolm Floyd, Svet Ignatov & Matt Winter) are just deprived of third place by games difference, and the D team (captain Terry Jenvey, Bob Fagan, Roy Hobbs & Chris Pusey) are just behind them at 5^th position. 

The table-topping E team are pictured below l-r Peter Daish, captain Frank Handy & Bobo Jiang.  Not included in the picture are Andrew & Simon Daish and Gerard Redman.

Up in the heady heights of the Premier league, the A team (captain Steve Hemmings, Ben Cawston, Matthew Daish, Phil Handy & Umit Kaya) are more than holding their own in the highest echelon as they lie third out of six teams. 13 year old Matthew Daish has proved to be a revelation as he moved up from Div 1 and currently has a 61% winning average in the Premier.

In Div 1, the B team (captain Shaun Newcomb, Julie Smillie, Zoltan Karip-Barath, England VETT Brian Bickell & recent signing John Millward) are mid-table, but need to up their game as their last two matches ended up in heavy defeats. Only games difference separate them from two of the chasing pack who are also on 14 points.

Div 3 saw the G team (captain Bev Scott-Johns, Simon Golding, Bill Page & Clive Pitts) pull themselves further from danger as they won their last two matches to end the second half 7^th out of 10 teams. The F team (captain Malcolm Nash, Ian Linney, Sylvia Smith & Eddie Tompkins) are languishing third from bottom and are only 3 points away from second from bottom Bmth Sports H.

The picture gets bleaker in Div 4 as the H and J teams occupy the bottom two slots on 13 points and 12 points respectively. The J team (captain Malcolm Douglas, Geoff Biggs, Dee Flanagan, Keith Kensley & Mike Roberts) who won promotion from Div 5 last season, can take a crumb of comfort from the fact that they beat the H team (captain Les Smith, Kai Major, John Parkhouse, Dave Strike & Danny Williams) in their local derby.

In Div 5, the K team (Fern Daish, Lucy Craddock, Campbell Golding, Alex Whitehead, Lynn Willrich & promising new signing Lisa McGivney) are making good progress and finished the first half 7^th out of 10 teams. The L team (captain Sibyl Bartlett, Richard Brockbank, Dane Major, Andrew & Dominic Stainton, Sue Wootton-Freeman & new signing Richard Clampin) kept themselves off the bottom by beating basement boys Winton YMCA G.

The club is always on the lookout for new members, from experienced players to absolute beginners, so if you would like to work off some of that Turkey and Christmas Pud, please give Club Secretary Bev Scott-Johns a call on 01425 619552. You can get a taste of our very friendly club by logging onto our website at newmiltonttc.com