In the last week of league matches before the Christmas break, the New Milton Table Tennis Club came up with five wins, one of them at the expense of one of their own teams in a local derby.

The Div 5 derby saw the L team (Adam Titcombe, Stuart Burton & Maggie Brown) reverse their first round 4-6 defeat at the hands of the K team (Dave Burns, Malcolm Douglas & Geoff Biggs) courtesy of a third hat-trick from 13 year old Adam Titcombe (pictured below). Brown bagged a brace and captain Burton added one more to the tally, needing the doubles to win it 7-3 and go one better. However, Kays Captain Douglas and Biggs weren’t having any and took the doubles 3-1 to make it honours even over the two legs.

The doubles, which are always played after the final singles of the match, proved decisive in five of the club’s matches. In the Premier league, the A team (Steve Hemmings, Russell Wilson & Gerard Redman) improved on their first round draw against basement boys Bmth Sports C with an 8-2 win at Mudeford Wood. Once more the doubles were required for maximum points and once again “Hat-Trick Hemmings” and Wilson did the business.

In Div 2, the D team (Terry Jenvey, Malcolm Floyd & Chris Pusey) need every point to keep them out of the relegation zone and things looked bleak as they were losing 2-7 against Bmth Sports G with ex-Premier player Colin Bryson and Arthur Bartram readying for the doubles. Captain Jenvey and Floyd surprised themselves to scrape the first two sets 12-10, 12-10, but then lost the third 6-11. However, the Milton pairing regained their composure to take the fourth very comfortably 11-3 to salvage the precious point.

Likewise the F team (Sylvia Smith, Malcolm Nash & Ian Linney) in Div 3 as they were losing 2-7 against Merton H, Milton’s reply coming from Linney returning from illness. Captain Nash and Linney also won their doubles 3-1 to secure their hard fought point.

Also in Div 2, the E team’s Simon Golding and Peter Daish scraped their doubles 12-10 in the fifth set to hold Merton F to a 5-5 draw in their own back yard. It also took Liam Iliffe and Dave Sutton five sets to force a home draw for their G team against basement boys Bmth Sports L in Div 3.  Full results details appear below:-
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The second round of matches in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league got underway last week and the New Milton Club won half of their 10 matches. The wins included three 10-0 victories, one of them coming at the expense of one of their own teams in a local derby.

Their A team (Steve Hemmings, Russell Wilson & Peter Daish) reprised their first round 8-2 home win over the struggling Lynwood A in the Premier as they repeated the dosage in Lynwood’s own back yard. Captain Hemmings (pictured below) led from the front with his third hat-trick of the campaign and Russell and Daish bagged a brace apiece. Once again the doubles were required for maximum points and Hemmings & Wilson duly obliged.

18 year old Peter Daish deserves a special mention in despatches as he played up two divisions from his usual E team in Div 2 to win two matches on his Premier league debut. Daish (pictured below) followed that up later in the week to score a hat-trick for his E team in their 6-4 victory over the struggling Breamore. This included a straight sets victory over the very awkward ex Miltonian Geoff Ware.

Div 1 saw the C team (Frank Handy, Paul Iliffe & Gerard Redman) improve on their first round 8-2 away win over Broadstone B as they beat them 10-0 at home at the Grange. Broadstone didn’t help their cause by turning up a player short.

In Div 4, the H team (Dave Sutton, Lewis Reading & Eddie Tompkins) did the double over a much weakened J team (John Parkhouse, Geoff Biggs & Peter Hyde) with a resounding 10-0 win at Mudeford Wood, their second 10-0 in a row. The J team were clearly missing star player Ben Greene who picked up their only two wins first time around.

Once again in Div 5, Parkstone were unable to put out a team so the match was awarded as a 10-0 victory to the L team. Struggling Parkstone, who are nailed to the bottom of the division, have just withdrawn from the league and it remains to be seen how this will impact on the league table.  Full results details are below:-
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In the final week of the first round of matches in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league, the New Milton Club came up with five draws out of their ten matches. Three of the matches had a 10-0 scoreline with only one of its teams coming out on the wrong side of a whitewash.

Div 2 saw the D team (Terry Jenvey, Chris Pusey & Malcolm Floyd) hold leaders Bmth Sports H to a hard-fought 5-5 draw in their own back yard. Pusey bagged a brace including a fantastic win over the previously unbeaten Jordan Pang. Having received some stern coaching from father David, young Pang went on to narrowly beat captain Jenvey 11-9 in their fifth and final set and then Floyd over four sets. With another brace from Floyd and one win from Jenvey, Milton needed the doubles to become only the second side to beat the leaders. Jenvey and Pusey went 2-1 up against Bourne captain Gavin Coppard and Walid Ashour but the Milton pairing faded in the final two sets to have to settle for a still creditable draw.

Impressive new signing Liam Iliffe (pictured below) marked his league debut with a magnificent brace for the G team in their 5-5 draw against Merton H in Div 3. Iliffe’s father Paul was voted Milton’s most improved player last season and now Liam looks to be blazing his own trail.

Div 4 saw the H team hammer basement boys Bmth Sports M 10-0 thanks to hat-tricks from Lewis Reading and Eddie Tompkins, their first of the season, and yet another treble from Dave Sutton. In Div 5, the K team were awarded their 10-0 victory aganst bottom-dwellers Parkstone who were unable to put out a team. Also in Div 5, the L team (James Harper, Stuart Burton & Maggie Brown) lost 0-10 to runaway leaders Winton YMCA E. Full results are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

Last week was given over to the First Round of the Annual Times and Directory Handicap Cup competition with seven of the New Milton Table Tennis Club’s teams in action. Four of the teams booked their passage to Round 2, one of those wins coming at the expense of one of their own teams in a local derby.

The derby saw the F team (Steve Cheesman, Malcolm Nash & Sylvia Smith) from Div 3 come up with a 5-4 victory over their club mates in the L team (Stuart Burton, Maggie Brown & James Harper) who usually play in Div 5. It wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests as the F’s had it in the bag at 5-2 thanks to two wins apiece from Cheesman and Smith and one from Captain Nash. Captain Burton and fourteen year old Harper had replied for the L’s and went on to win their last matches to embellish the final scoreline.

The A team (Umit Kaya, Russell Wilson & Steve Hemmings) are two places above Merton B in the Premier so the result went with the form book as Milton won 5-1 home at Mudeford Wood. Kaya and Wilson (pictured below) won both their matches and Captain Hemmings clinched it by beating Merton’s Clayton Fitzpatrick having lost to veteran Danny Allen in the visitors’ only victory.

The C team (Frank Handy, Paul Iliffe & Andy Tipsana) from Div 1 beat Div 2 leaders Winton YMCA C 5-2 home at the Grange aided and abetted by an excellent hat-trick from Iliffe.

Division 4’s H team (Dave Sutton, Lewis Reading & Les Smith) will not be able to defend their Times and Directory Plate title as they progress to the next round of the cup proper after hammering Shamrock B (Div 5) 6-0.

The losing D, E and L teams live to fight another day however as they join their B and G teams in the consolation “Plate” competition which will be played Week Commencing 9^th January 2017. Full results details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

New Milton D have been struggling in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league this season but last week they were celebrating a 9-1 victory over Div 2 basement boys North Bournemouth B. Milton are second from bottom, so this win, only their second of the season but their best, was a classic eight-pointer against their victims. Captain Terry Jenvey led from the front with his first hat-trick of the campaign and was joined in a treble by Chris Pusey, his first hat-trick of the season also. Roy Hobbs only just missed out on his own hat-trick as he lost to North’s Maggie White 9-11 in the fifth and final set having narrowly lost the fourth 11-13.

There were good wins from both New Milton teams in Div 5 as the K and L teams picked up maximum points. The K team (Malcolm Douglas, Mike Gent & Geoff Biggs) beat Nimrod C 8-2 in their own back yard courtesy of hat-tricks from captain Douglas and Gent. The match was delicately poised at 3-2 in Milton’s favour then the visitors won the next five matches including the doubles. Captain Douglas (pictured below) had led by example to bag his first hat-trick of the season, including a win over ex Milton player Chris Courage, Gent came up with his third treble and Biggs chipped in with the one win.

The L team (Maggie Brown, Adam Titcombe & Bill Collinge) went one better and beat bottom-dwelling Bmth Sports P 9-1 home at the Grange, Somerford. 13 year old Titcombe came up with his second hat-trick, Brown scored her first hat-trick for the club and Collinge scored a treble in his first game for his own team.

The club’s full tally for the week was 5 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats; results details appear below:-

PREMIER

New Milton A 5 Bmth Sports B 5

(Russell Wilson 1, Umit Kaya 3, Steve Hemmings 0)

Merton B 5 New Milton B 5

(Shaun Newcomb 0, John Millward 1, John Hook 3)

Bmth Sports B 9 New Milton B 1

(John Hook 1, John Millward 0, Shaun Newcomb 1)

DIVISION 2

New Milton D 9 North Bmth B 1

(Chris Pusey 3, Terry Jenvey 3, Roy Hobbs 2)

Ringwood B 4 New Milton E 6

(Simon Golding 2, Simon Daish 2, Andrew Daish 1)

DIVISION 3

New Milton F 4 Bmth Sports J 6

(Malcolm Nash 0, Steve Cheesman 3, Les Smith 0)

New Milton G 4 Broadstone D 6

(Graham Underwood 2, Bev Scott-Johns 0, Dave Sutton 1)

DIVISION 4

Merton J 3 New Milton H 7

(Eddie Tompkins 2, Lewis Reading 2, Les Smith 2)

New Milton J 4 Shamrock A 6

(John Parkhouse 2, Andrew Stainton 2, Peter Hyde 0)

DIVISION 5

Nimrod C 2 New Milton K 8

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

New Milton L 9 Bmth Sports P 1

(Adam Titcombe 3, Maggie Brown 3, Bill Collinge 3)

In a week in which the New Milton Table Tennis Club could only muster three wins out of ten matches in the Bournemouth & District league, the club’s two teams in Div 2 were both involved in 10-0 whitewashes; one for, one against.

The C team dished it out to basement boys North Bmth B in their own back yard at the Winton YMCA thanks to hat-tricks from brothers Simon & Peter Daish and Graham Underwood who was playing up a division. The brothers Daish combined well in the doubles to pile on the agony and beat the North pairing 3-1 to complete the rout. This did their clubmates in the second from bottom D team a great favour as they prevented North from gaining ground on them.  A picture of a triumphant Simon Daish appears below:-

The D team (Chris Pusey, Bob Fagan & Roy Hobbs) were unlucky in their 0-10 defeat against Merton F as all three of Pusey’s games went all the way to five ends without reward. He had only just lost to Merton’s Russell Yearworth 9-11 in the final singles of the evening when he joined with Fagan to try to get something out of the doubles. They just lost the first set 10-12 then won the second 11-9. Things looked promising when they pipped the third 12-10, but then narrowly lost the fourth 9-11 to take it right down to the wire to spare the blushes. Unfortunately Milton ran out of steam in the fifth and final set to lose 5-11 to tormentor Yearworth & Ryan Pickup. Full results details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

Out of their nine matches played in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league last week, the New Milton Club only lost one of them, a record for the club so far this season. Their seven victories included first wins of the season for the B team in the Premier and the D team in Division 2, although both teams remain second from bottom in their respective divisions.

The local Div 3 derby between the F team (Steve Cheesman, Sylvia Smith & Malcolm Nash) and the G team (Graham Underwood, Bev Scott-Johns & Ben Greene) ended up in a 5-5 draw, the first of the club’s derbies to end in a tie this season. The F’s looked to have had the edge at 5-3 courtesy of yet another hat-trick from Cheesman, but Gees Underwood beat Smith in the final singles and then Underwood & Greene got the better of Smith & Nash in the doubles to level things off.

Ben Greene (pictured below) deserves a special mention in despatches as he played in two matches simultaneously on the same night and won five out of his six matches. He played up a division and bagged a brace in the G team’s draw against the F team in Div 3, and scored a hat-trick for his own J team in their spectacular 9-1 victory over Nimrod B in Div 4. He even played in both doubles matches which he helped to win and crown an epic night’s performance.

There was a stark contrast at extreme ends of the league as the previously unbeaten A team were hammered 10-0 by Merton A in the Premier, while the L team won 10-0 by default in Div 5 as Shamrock B were unable to put out a team.

In Div 2, all of the E team’s results so far involve a 6-4 scoreline, last week’s victory making it three wins out of six. 18 year old Peter Daish came up with his second hat-trick of the campaign, older brother Simon bagged a brace and Clive Pitts added one more to the tally. Full results details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

Table Tennis England, the Sport’s National Governing Body, recently launched a search for the unsung heroes who go the extra mile to make the sport great. The annual Pride of Table Tennis Awards seek to honour the volunteers, officials, coaches and personalities who are the heartbeat of the sport around the country.

The New Milton Club had no hesitation in putting forward its club secretary Bev Scott-Johns for this honour. The club’s citation read: “Bev is not only the General Secretary of the club, but he is also Volunteer Co-ordinator, Match Secretary, Tournament Organiser, Team Captain, Team Player and General Factotum.

Bev is also a Director of the Mudeford Wood Community Trust which looks after the day to day running of the Community Centre which is the club’s main venue for league matches. Bev also sits on the committee of the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis Association to which the New Milton Club is affiliated. Bev is also a qualified County Umpire and Tournament Organiser.

Bev has always worked tirelessly on behalf of the club; this year he sadly lost his wife Valerie on 25th March after a long illness, but he still soldiered on valiantly for the club. The Management Committee tried to scale down his duties but he was having none of it! As usual, he organised the club’s weekly practice nights, the club’s annual individual tournaments and the club’s Annual Summer Pairs Tournament. In addition to captaining a team in the Bournemouth & District league, he played in the Poole Pairs and the Merton Summer Pairs competitions and generally kept a weather eye on the club’s other teams in the various leagues.

Bev continued to be supportive of the club’s activities in the community, including the annual New Milton Rugby Club’s Fun Day, as well as events run at the Mudeford Wood Community Centre.

Bev would under normal circumstances be an obvious contender for Club Volunteer of the Year, but carrying on so selflessly despite losing his wife gives him even higher credentials!”

Table Tennis England duly issued the certificate which was presented to a very surprised but delighted Bev by Club Chair Steve Hemmings at a small ceremony at a recent club night at the Grange School, Somerford.

Bev will now be in contention to win a Regional Award for Volunteer of the Year, with all Regional Award winners going forward to the Pride of Table Tennis National Awards to be announced in March next year.

There was a break in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league last week, with play given over to the Preliminary Round of the Annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition. Four of the New Milton club’s teams were in action with two of them winning through to the First Round proper.

The F team (Malcolm Nash, Sylvia Smith & Steve Cheesman) who normally play in Div 3 and only just missed out in last year’s Cup Final, booked their place in the next round with a convincing 9-0 thumping of Div 5’s Bmth Sports P in their own back yard. This was achieved without dropping a single set, but captain Malcolm Nash was gracious enough to concede that the handicapping did Bourne no favours.

The Div 4 J team (Lynn Willrich, Ben Greene & John Parkhouse) had a real fight on their hands as they took on Merton H (Div 3) but ended up beating them 5-4. Greene’s league form continued into the Cup as he won a hat-trick without dropping a set, and captain Willrich and Parkhouse added one each to the tally by beating Rob Searle.

The Premier’s B team (John Hook, Shaun Newcomb & Rob Blackmore) were on the wrong end of a 4-5 scoreline as they lost to Merton C who play one division lower in Div 1. Milton were missing captain John Millward and he was gamely replaced by Rob Blackmore, who although from a division lower had to take on Millward’s handicap. It was nip and tuck all the way through the match with Hook and Newcomb bagging a brace apiece, but Blackmore’s handicap proved a bridge too far so he came away empty-handed.

The G team (Graham Underwood, Elliott Storr-Smith & Bev Scott-Johns) who normally ply their trade in Div 3, were beaten 3-5 by Bmth Sports G from Div 2, although it could easily have gone the other way. Underwood bagged a brace and 15 year old Storr-Smith added one to the tally having narrowly lost to Bourne’s Arthur Bartram 20-21 in their third and final set. Captain Scott-Johns drew a blank but was most unfortunate to lose out to ex Premier player Eric Buckley 20-21, 20-21.

The losing B and G teams live to fight another day however as they go into the consolation “Plate” competition which will be played Week Commencing 9^th January 2017.  Full results details appear below:-
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