The New Milton Table Tennis Club had a much better week in the Bournemouth and District league as they came up with six wins out of their nine matches. The table-topping H team (Lewis Reading, Dave Sutton & Eddie Tompkins) clinched promotion from Div 4 to Div 3 as they took maximum points off Winton YMCA B in their 8-2 victory at Mudeford Wood. Third-place Merton J can no longer catch Milton who look like going up as champions.

With one promotion in the bag, two of the three teams with relegation worries may yet survive after spirited performances last week. The D team (Terry Jenvey, Mike Toole & Malcolm Floyd) are still second from bottom of Div 2 having earned a precious point away in their 4-6 defeat by Merton F courtsey of a brace apiece from captain Jenvey and Toole. However, on paper Milton have an easier run up than third from bottom Breamore.

In Div 4, the third from bottom J team (John Parkhouse, Ben Greene & Andrew Stainton) did their survival hopes no harm at all as they improved on their first round draw with Merton K to beat them 6-4 at the Grange. Greene has provided a major boost to the Jays as he is unbeaten in his two matches since returning from a three month jaunt in Japan. He was joined in a treble by 18 year old Stainton scoring his third hat-trick of the season. It is still going to be a close run thing as second from bottom Nimrod B have two matches left whereas Milton have just the one.

In the Premier, the bottom-placed B team had a stay of execution as their match against second place Bmth Sports B was postponed as the Bourne couldn’t put out a team. Milton lost 1-9 first time around, so they’re not expecting too much joy from the return match, especially having lost star player John Hook to an achilles tendon injury.

Div 3 saw the F team (Sylvia Smith, Ian Linney & Steve Cheesman) do their promotion chasing G team a favour by beating their close rivals Merton G 6-4 in their own back yard. Smith played out of her skin to score her second hat-trick of the season and was joined in a treble by Cheesman, his tenth of the campaign.  A photo of the full F team squad (l-r Malcolm Nash (Captain), Ian Linney, Sylvia Smith, Mike Roberts & Steve Cheesman) appears below.

The G team (Graham Underwood, Mike Toole & Elliott Storr-Smith) beat Ringwood A 8-2 to jump over them to second place, courtesy of hat-tricks from captain Underwood and Toole. Full results details of all matches are below:-

PREMIER

Bmth Sports A 9 New Milton A 1

(Steve Hemmings 0, Russell Wilson 0, Umit Kaya 1)

DIVISION 1

Bmth Sports E 5 New Milton C 5

(Frank Handy 1, Andy Tipsana 2, Paul Iliffe 1)

DIVISION 2

Merton F 6 New Milton D 4

(Mike Toole 2, Terry Jenvey 2, Malcolm Floyd 0)

New Milton E 8 North Bmth B 2

(Simon Golding 3, Simon Daish 3, Andrew Daish 1)

DIVISION 3

Merton G 4 New Milton F 6

(Ian Linney 0, Steve Cheesman 3, Sylvia Smith 3)

New Milton G 8 Ringwood C 2

(Mike Toole 3, Graham Underwood 3, Elliott Storr-Smith 1)

DIVISION 4

New Milton H 8 Winton YMCA B 2

(Lewis Reading 2, Dave Sutton 3, Eddie Tompkins 2)

New Milton J 6 Merton K 4

(John Parkhouse 0, Ben Greene 3, Andrew Stainton 3)

DIVISION 5

New Milton L 7 Merton L 3

(James Harper 1, Reuben Donvito 3, Maggie Brown 2)