There was a break in the Bournemouth and District League programme as the week was given over to the annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition (Round 2 of the Cup and Round 1 of the “Plate”). The New Milton Club’s two remaining teams were knocked out of the Cup proper but the B team go through to Round 2 of the “Plate” by default.

The C team (Julie Smillie, Malcolm Floyd & Zoltan Ordog) who usually play in Div 1 travelled to the Winton YMCA and had a mountain to climb as they all had to give a 12 start up to 21 against Winton YMCA C’s three very experienced players from Div 4. It looked like captain Malcolm Floyd had got it sussed in the first end of his first match as he hauled himself level to 20-20 against Winton’s Geoff Hawkins, but Floyd failed to return a tricky serve and lost that end. All the “nets and edges” went against him in the second and he got battered 14-21 to lose the match. Smillie lost her first match then Ordog (pictured below) beat Derek Orchard to make it 1-2. Floyd lost his next match but it looked like Ordog was going to pick up a second for Milton but Hawkins’ luck held to deprive the Hungarian over three ends. This brought the score to 1-4 which left Smillie to beat Orchard to keep Milton in the cup. She lost the first end 15-21 but caught up to 20-20 in the second end, when Orchard speculatively smashed back her serve to take the match off her. Milton therefore lost 1-5 but it could easily have gone the other way.

There was a much closer scoreline in Milton’s other cup match as the Div 2 E team (Frank Handy, James Lewis and Peter Daish) travelled to Southbourne to take on Merton L who normally ply their trade in Div 5. Lewis and Daish each won two out of three but captain Handy lost his first two matches, so it hung in the balance at 4-4 as Handy took on wily old Merton veteran Gordon White. Handy was hoping to break his duck for the evening, but he found the 11 points differential very hard going and lost over three ends for Milton to end up narrowly losing 4-5.

Five New Milton teams featured in the draw for Round 1 of the consolation Plate competition, but none of them actually played a match. The D, F, G and K teams all had “byes” but the B team were drawn to play away against Bmth Sports L. Captain Shaun Newcomb, John Millward and Brian Bickell duly turned up on Friday night at Chapel Gate which is more than can be said for the Bourne side so Milton claimed the match. The “famous five” therefore proceed to Round 2 of the Plate without so much as raising a bat in anger in the consolation event.