After a week in which the New Milton Table Tennis Club could only muster two wins out of eight matches in the Bournemouth and District league, with only three weeks of the season left to go, three of the club’s teams could possibly be playing in lower divisions next season.

The B team in the Premier are favourites for the drop as they lost 0-10 to Bmth Sports C to swap places at the bottom. Milton lost star player John Hook to an Achilles Tendon injury in a match a month ago, and although England Veteran Brian Bickell is back in action for the Bees, there is a huge hill to climb. Milton have a game in hand over the other basement boys, but unfortunately this is against their A team to whom they lost 1-9 first time round.

The D team who were relegated from Div 1 last season and are second from bottom in Div 2 may still save themselves from the double-drop if the remaining results go the same way as in the first round. They crucially managed to do the double over third from bottom Breamore with a 7-3 win which reduced the deficit to two points. The doubles would have brought parity but unfortunately the Milton pairing lost over five sets.  Depending upon the availability of super-sub Mike Toole who scored a hat-trick in that match, they may overtake Breamore to send them down instead.

The J team may yet preserve their Div 4 status if again the remaining results go the same way as the first half. Currently third from bottom, they really needed to do the double over second from bottom Nimrod B but lost 3-7, despite a hat-trick from star turn Ben Greene (pictured below) back in action after a three month jaunt in Japan. The Jays now only have two matches to save themselves as the surrounding teams have a game in hand, but Greene’s return certainly strengthens their arm.

The club’s only other win came in Div 5 as the promotion chasing K team (Mike Gent, Geoff Biggs & Malcolm Douglas) reprised their first round 6-4 win over Bmth Sports N courtesy of Gent’s sixth hat trick of the campaign. The L team were hot on their club mates’ tail in third spot but they lost 1-9 to Shamrock B to drop down two places in the table. Full results details are below:-

PREMIER

New Milton A 3 Merton A 7

(Russell Wilson 0, Umit Kaya 0, Steve Hemmings 0)

NB: Merton A turned up a player short.

Bmth Sports C 10 New Milton B 0

(Brian Bickell 0, Shaun Newcomb 0, John Millward 0)

DIVISION 1

New Milton C 4 Merton E 6

(Frank Handy 1, Gerard Redman 1, Rob Blackmore 1)

DIVISION 2

New Milton D 7 Breamore 3

(Chris Pusey 2, Terry Jenvey 2, Mike Toole 3)

Bmth Sports G 8 New Milton E 2

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

DIVISION 4

Nimrod B 7 New Milton J 3

(John Parkhouse 0, Ben Greene 3, Lynn Willrich 0)

DIVISION 5

New Milton K 6 Bmth Sports N 4

(Mike Gent 3, Geoff Biggs 1, Malcolm Douglas 1)

Shamrock B 9 New Milton L 1

(James Harper 0, Maggie Brown 0, Stuart Burton 1)