There was a break in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league programme last week, with play given over to Round 1 of the annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition. Out of the eight New Milton teams in the draw, two of them had walkovers to Round 2 because their opposition were unable to put out teams. Milton won only two of the five matches actually played, one of them at the expense of one of their own teams in a local derby.

The D team (Gerard Redman, Rob Blackmore & Paul Iliffe) from Div 1 demolished Div 3 basement boys Ringwood C 8-1 in their own back yard courtesy of hat-tricks from Redman and Blackmore and a brace from Iliffe.

The local derby was between the H team (Ian Linney, Sylvia Smith & Lewis Reading) from Div 3 and the K team (Lynn Willrich [pictured below], Sid Daynes & James Harper) who are currently bottom of Div 4. Linney got the Aitches off to a good start by beating Kay’s captain Willrich who had a +4 start. But then Daynes (+3) and 15 year old Harper (+7) beat Smith and Reading respectively, and Willrich (+5) eventually got the better of Smith in a tough ladies singles to put the K team 3-1 ahead. Linney got his side back in the match by beating Harper (+8) and then Reading nicked it from Daynes (+5) 21-20 in the deciding set to level things off at 3-3. That was the H team’s high water mark however, as Harper easily saw off Smith with his +7 start and captain Willrich (+6) disposed of Reading to take her team into the next round.

Sylvia Smith fared better later in the week as she played up a division for the F team along with 18 year old Andrew Stainton and Malcolm Floyd in their Div 2 derby against Ringwood B, but still ended up on the losing side as they went down 4-5. Smith and Stainton received similar starts to bag a brace apiece, but Floyd drew a blank as he really struggled with the starts he had to give to the opposition.

Div 3 leaders, the G team (Chris Pusey, Dave Cuddon & Bob Fagan) lost 5-3 to fellow Div 3 side Winton YMCA C at Mudeford Wood, and the L team (Geoff Biggs, Chris Courage & Mike Melaniphy) from Div 5 lost to Div 4 outfit Bmth Sports L 6-3 at the Grange. Full results details are below:-

New Milton C (Div 1) 9 Merton J (Div 5) 0

(Match conceded by Merton J)

Ringwood C (Div 3) 2 New Milton D (Div 1) 7

(Gerard Redman 3, Rob Blackmore 3, Paul Iliffe 1)

New Milton F (Div 2) 4 Ringwood B (Div 2) 5

(Sylvia Smith 2, Andrew Stainton 2, Malcolm Floyd 0)

New Milton G (Div 3) 3 Winton YMCA C (Div 3) 5

(Chris Pusey 1, Dave Cuddon 2, Bob Fagan 0)

New Milton H (Div 3) 3 New Milton K (Div 4) 5

(H Team: Ian Linney 2, Sylvia Smith 0, Lewis Reading 1)

(K Team: Lynn Willrich 2, Sid Daynes 1, James Harper 2)

New Milton J (Div 3) 9 Bmth Sports G (Div 2) 0

(Match conceded by Bmth Sports G)

New Milton L (Div 5) 3 Bmth Sports L (Div 4) 6

(Geoff Biggs 1, Chris Courage 0, Mike Melaniphy 2)

So the C and J teams go through to Round 2 of the Cup by default, and the D and K teams go through by feat of arms. However, the losing F, G, H and L teams live to fight another day as they join Stuart Burton’s M team in the consolation “Plate” competition.