There was a break in the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league last week as the week was given over to the Times & Directory Handicap Competition, ie the semi-finals of the Cup and the quarter-finals of the Plate.

The Premier’s New Milton A (Steve Hemmings, Phil Handy & Matthew Daish) booked their place in the Cup Final as they beat Winton YMCA B (Div 1) fairly comfortably by 5-2 aided and abetted by a hat-trick from Handy. This will be the A team’s third crack at the Final having been runners-up in 2010/2011 and 2011/12, so hopefully it will be third time lucky for them.

There were four New Milton teams left in the quarter-finals of the Plate, but remarkably none of them were drawn against the other. The only team to go through to the semi-finals were the C team (Svet Ignatov, Malcolm Floyd & Malcolm Nash) pictured below, who scraped a 5-4 win over Div 4’s Winton YMCA E. Malcolm Nash played up a division and had his 21 start reduced to 15 as he had to take on the handicap of the Div 2 player whom he replaced. Nash played very well but the five forfeited points proved a bridge too far so he went home empty handed. Ignatov won all three of his matches, while Floyd playing off +14 lost to Duncan Feltham (+23) in the first game of the evening but subsequently beat Duncan’s Dad Harold (+18). And so it was level-pegging at 4-4 when Floyd took on Will Sharpe (+21) in the ninth and final game. Floyd took the first end 31-29, but just lost the second by a nail-biting 30-31 to set up a very tense finale. However, Floyd kept his nerve and defended doggedly to win 31-27 to take his side into the semi-finals.

The G team’s Plate match against fellow Div 3 side Merton G also went right down to the wire in the ninth game, but Bill Page (+21) unfortunately lost to Merton’s Peter Dexter (+17) 27-31, 29-31. Progress also ground to a halt for the D team (Chris Pusey, Terry Jenvey & Bob Fagan) as they lost 1-5 to Winton YMCA C, and the F team (Malcolm Nash, Sylvia Smith & Eddie Tomkins) who lost 3-6 to Nimrod A. Full result details are below:-

CUP (SEMI-FINALS)

New Milton A (Premier) 5 Winton YMCA B (Div 1) 2
(Steve Hemmings (6) 0, Phil Handy (+6) 3, Matthew Daish (+7) 2)

PLATE (QUARTER-FINALS)

New Milton C (Div 2) 5 Winton YMCA E (Div 4) 4
(Malcolm Floyd (+14) 2, Malcolm Nash (+15) 0, Svet Ignatov (+16) 3)

New Milton D (Div 2) 1 Winton YMCA C (Div 1) 5
(Chris Pusey (+16) 0, Terry Jenvey (+15) 1, Bob Fagan (+16) 0)

Nimrod A (Div 4) 6 New Milton F (Div 3) 3
(Malcolm Nash (+21) 1, Sylvia Smith (+20) 1, Eddie Tomkins (+18) 1)

Merton G (Div 3) 5 New Milton G (Div 3) 4
(Simon Golding (15) 2, Bill Page (+21) 1, Bev Scott-Johns (+21) 1)

New Milton A are scheduled to play Merton A in the Cup Final on Monday 7th April at the Merton Club (Southbourne), and the Plate Semi-Final between New Milton C and Merton G will take place on Monday 14th April at the Winton YMCA Hall.