There was a break in the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league programme as last week was given over to the Annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition. Five of the New Milton Club Teams were involved in Round 2 of the Cup, and three of their teams were involved in the “Plate”, the club emerging with five creditable wins for their pains.

In Round 2 of the Cup proper, the C team from Div 1 beat Winton YMCA C (Div 4) at the YMCA 6-3 despite Milton being a player short, with hat-tricks from captain Frank Handy and stalwart Gerard Redman.  Frank is pictured below in between Peter Daish (left) and Bobo Jiang.

The Div 2’s E team booked their place in Round 3 of the Cup at the expense of their club mates in the H team from Div 4 with a 5-3 win down at the Grange. It was all over at 5-2 as Paul Nelson clinched his hat-trick but John Childs then joined his team mates with a win over Danny Williams.

Div 4 leaders the F team travelled to Chapel Gate and scraped a hard earned 5-4 win over Bmth Sports H from Div 3. It was poised at 4-4, then Steve Cheesman remained unbeaten in all competitions to beat Bourne’s Peter Richardson over three sets having caused some temporary jitters by dropping the second.

The K team (Div 5) and Broadstone E (Div 3) are both struggling in their respective divisions but the Kays had it won at 5-2, although Broadstone made the scoreline a bit more respectable by winning the last two matches making it 5-4 for Milton.

Round 1 of the consolation “Plate” competition saw a true local derby as the A team took on their Premier club mates in the B team down at the Mudeford Wood Community Centre. The Bees were out to avenge their 2-8 defeat in the league and just managed to do so with a 5-4 victory. It was delicately poised at 4-4 then Bee’s John Millward completed his hat-trick having not dropped a set all evening.

The only match where a Milton team didn’t emerge with a win came as Div 1 basement boys the D team lost 3-6 to Div 4 high-flyers Bmth Sports K. At 1-4 down, Dave Cuddon kept Milton in the match by beating Bourne’s very handy Max Otton in two straight sets, but they couldn’t build on this as Chris Pusey narrowly lost to Zeta Winter making it 2-5 to exit the Plate.

The G team had a bye in Round 1 of the Plate so they will go into the Round 2 draw with their club mates in the B team who did it the hard way. Full result details are below:-

TIMES & DIRECTORY CUP (ROUND 2)

Winton YMCA C (Div 4) 3 New Milton C (Div 1) 6
(Frank Handy 3, Gerard Redman 3)

New Milton H (Div 4) 3 New Milton E (Div 2) 5
(H Team: Dave Strike 1, Paul Iliffe 1, John Childs 1)
(E Team: Danny Williams 0, Simon Golding 2, Paul Nelson 3)

Bmth Sports H (Div 3) 4 New Milton F (Div 4) 5
(Malcolm Nash 2, Steve Cheesman 3, Mike Roberts 0)

New Milton K (Div 5) 5 Broadstone E (Div 3) 4
(Andrew Stainton 1, Stuart Burton 2, John Parkhouse 2)

TIMES & DIRECTORY PLATE (ROUND 1)

New Milton A (Prem) 4 New Milton B (Prem) 5
(A Team: Doug Gerrish 2, Russell Watson 0, Steve Hemmings 2)
(B Team: John Hook 1, John Millward 3, Shaun Newcomb 1)

New Milton D (Div 1) 3 Bmth Sports K (Div 4) 6
(Terry Jenvey 0, Chris Pusey 1, Dave Cuddon 2)