There was a break in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis League programme as last week was given over to the Annual Times and Directory Handicap Cup competition. The New Milton Club had no teams left in the Cup proper, but five of their teams had made it through to Round 2 of the consolation “Plate” competition.

The Club was assured of at least one team going through to the Quarter-Finals as the F team was drawn against the G team in a Div 3 local derby. The D and K teams had a much easier passage as neither Bmth Sports H nor Merton D were able to put out a team, so those Milton teams went through by default.

The local derby went strictly with the form book as the table topping G team (Simon Golding, Dan Williams & Simon Daish) saw off their struggling F team (Sylvia Smith, John Parkhouse & Malcolm Nash) 8-1 down at Mudeford Wood. It was all over by 5-0 but the remaining games were still played with Smith avoiding the whitewash by defeating Williams over three ends in the last match of the evening.

Also at Mudeford Wood on the same night, the B team (Brian Bickell, Zoltan Karip-Barath & John Millward) from Div 1 took on Bmth Sports J who normally play in Div 3. It was all over by the sixth game at 1-5 with Karip-Barath picking up the only win. It was decided to play the remaining three games and Karip-Barath added to his tally so Milton lost by 2-7 to exit the Plate.

So Milton have three teams in the Plate Quarter Finals to be played Week Commencing 6^th April, the G team by right of conquest and the D and K teams by default.