There was a break in the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league programme as last week was given over to the Preliminary Round of the annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition. The New Milton club entered seven out of its ten teams into the competition, five of whom were drawn into the Preliminary Round, the other two teams drawing “byes” to the First Round proper.

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 21, with no doubles.

The D team was drawn against fellow Div 2 side Merton F who subsequently withdrew from the competition, so Terry’s Jenvey’s team coast seamlessly into the first round. The Div 3’s F team was due to play the Premier’s Merton A on the Wednesday night but this was rearranged for the following week as Merton couldn’t put out a team.

This just left three of the club’s teams who actually played last week, the B, G and K teams. The only winners proved to be the B team (Div 1) who beat Div 5’s Winton YMCA F 6-3 in their own back yard. England Veteran Brian Bickell (pictured below) led from the front with a hat-trick, Frank Handy bagged a brace and Andrew Daish chipped in with the one win. Handy and Daish, who normally play for the E team in Div 2, put in a tremendous show as stand-ins given they had to take on the handicaps of the Div 1 players they replaced.

The G team (Simon Golding, Bev Scott-Johns & Simon Daish) who normally ply their trade in Div 3 took on Winton YMCA D from Div 4 at Mudeford Wood. Golding, giving Winton’s Duncan Feltham a start of +8, got the evening underway by winning his first end 21-17, but tantalisingly lost the next two 20-21, 20-21. Milton went on to lose the next three games, but Golding then kept his team in it by beating wily veteran Harold Feltham 21-19, 21-18 to make it 1-4. Milton’s hopes were then dashed as Daish was overcome in two straight ends by Winton’s Will Sharpe.

The club’s other 1-5 defeat came down at the Grange as the Div 5’s K team (Francis Benjamin, Stuart Burton & Bill Collinge) lost to Bmth Sports H (Div 3). Milton went 0-3 down as their players lost their opening matches, but captain Stuart Burton brought some respite by beating Bourne’s Ross Campbell to make it 1-3. That proved a false dawn however as Benjamin and Collinge lost their next matches to send Bourne through to the first round.

However, the losing G and K teams live to fight another day as they go into the consolation “Plate” competition which will be played Week Commencing 26^th January 2015. Full results details are below:-

Winton YMCA F (Div 5) 3 New Milton B (Div 1) 6

(Brian Bickell 3, Frank Handy 2, Andrew Daish 1)

New Milton D (Div 2) Merton F (Div 2)

(Conceded by Merton F)

New Milton G (Div 3) 1 Winton YMCA D (Div 4) 5

(Simon Golding 1, Bev Scott-Johns 0, Simon Daish 0)

New Milton K (Div 5) 1 Bmth Sports H (Div 3) 5

(Francis Benjamin 0, Stuart Burton 1, Bill Collinge 0)