Only three of the New Milton Table Tennis Club’s teams were in action in the Bournemouth and District League last week as their other seven teams all had “byes”.

In Div 1, the B team (Brian Bickell, Shaun Newcomb & John Millward) repeated their first round 8-2 victory over basement boys Merton D, this time away at Southbourne. England veteran Bickell came up with his seventh hat-trick of the campaign but captain Newcomb and Millward had to settle for a brace apiece. Maximum points were secured as Bickell & Newcomb paired clinically to take the doubles.

The Bee’s result came as a great favour to their Div 1 fellows in the C team as it prevented bottom-placed Merton D from gaining any further ground on them as they currently lie third from bottom.

Div 3 saw the table-topping G team (Simon Golding, Simon Daish & Danny Williams) avenge a first-round 4-6 defeat by beating Bmth Sports J 7-3 in their own back yard. Daish came up with his sixth hat-trick of the season, Golding bagged a brace and Williams chipped in with the one win.

The club’s biggest turn-around came in Div 4 as the H team (Les Smith, George Roberts & Malcolm Douglas) overcame a 1-9 demolition by Bmth Sports H at home to hold them to a 5-5 draw down at Chapel Gate. Captain Smith and Roberts bagged a brace apiece and Douglas added one more to the tally. Inspired by their in-form captain Les Smith (pictured below), the H team are gradually inching themselves away from danger, but they are still lying fourth from bottom so they need to keep up the pressure.

DIVISION 1

Merton D 2 New Milton B 8

(Brian Bickell 3, Shaun Newcomb 2, John Millward 2)

DIVISION 3

Bmth Sports J 3 New Milton G 7

(Simon Golding 2, Simon Daish 3, Danny Williams 1)

DIVISION 4

Bmth Sports M 5 New Milton H 5

(George Roberts 2, Les Smith 2, Malcolm Douglas 1)

There was a break in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis League programme as last week was given over to the Annual Times and Directory Handicap Cup competition. The New Milton Club had no teams left in the Cup proper, but five of their teams had made it through to Round 2 of the consolation “Plate” competition.

The Club was assured of at least one team going through to the Quarter-Finals as the F team was drawn against the G team in a Div 3 local derby. The D and K teams had a much easier passage as neither Bmth Sports H nor Merton D were able to put out a team, so those Milton teams went through by default.

The local derby went strictly with the form book as the table topping G team (Simon Golding, Dan Williams & Simon Daish) saw off their struggling F team (Sylvia Smith, John Parkhouse & Malcolm Nash) 8-1 down at Mudeford Wood. It was all over by 5-0 but the remaining games were still played with Smith avoiding the whitewash by defeating Williams over three ends in the last match of the evening.

Also at Mudeford Wood on the same night, the B team (Brian Bickell, Zoltan Karip-Barath & John Millward) from Div 1 took on Bmth Sports J who normally play in Div 3. It was all over by the sixth game at 1-5 with Karip-Barath picking up the only win. It was decided to play the remaining three games and Karip-Barath added to his tally so Milton lost by 2-7 to exit the Plate.

So Milton have three teams in the Plate Quarter Finals to be played Week Commencing 6^th April, the G team by right of conquest and the D and K teams by default.

The New Milton C team has been struggling a bit in the Bournemouth & District Table Tennis league this season, but Zoltan Ordog’s first ever hat-trick helped his team to repeat their first-round 8-2 victory over Div 1 fall-guys Merton D. Julie Smillie also came up with her first hat-trick of the season and combined clinically with Ordog (pictured below) to win the doubles to claim the maximum points.

In a week which saw the New Milton Club’s teams win four out of their ten matches, the high-flying E team (Frank Handy, Simon Golding & Peter Daish) did the double over Bmth Sports E in Div 2 with a 6-4 win away at Chapel Gate. The G team (Bev Scott-Johns, Simon Daish & Simon Golding) tightened their grip at the top of Div 3 by doing the double over Nimrod A, aided and abetted by hat-tricks from Golding and Daish.

Div 4 saw the H team (Malcolm Douglas, George Roberts & Les Smith) overcome a first-round 4-6 defeat at the hands of lowly Nimrod C to wallop them 8-2 at their place, courtesy of hat-tricks from George Roberts and Malcolm Douglas, his first of the campaign.

The club’s other treble-makers were England Veteran Brian Bickell, who helped his B team to a draw against Broadstone A in Div 1, and teenage starlet Kai Major, whose full house for his D team included a fantastic win against the Merton legend that is Phil Beeden.  Full results details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

Overall, it was a really strange week in the Bournemouth and District League for the New Milton Club, but suffice to say their teams improved on seven defeats out of nine matches in the first round by losing just the five matches this time around. The other results were three wins and a draw.

The club’s most spectacular turn-around came in Div 1 as the C team (Svet Ignatov, Zoltan Ordog & Matt Winter) banished the memory of their first-round whitewash at the hands of division leaders Lynwood A by holding them to a 5-5 draw in their own back yard. Ignatov (pictured below) and Ordog showed how much they were missed from the first encounter as they bagged a brace apiece. An out of sorts Winter was unable to improve on his first-round duck, but he combined well with Ignatov to snatch the doubles to force the draw.

In Div 5, the J team (Lynn Willrich, Geoff Biggs & Elliott Storr-Smith) improved on a 4-6 first round defeat by beating the high-flying Shamrock C by 7-3, but Shamrock did turn up a player short which gifted Milton three games. Up in Div 2, the E team (Frank Handy, Peter Daish & James Lewis) beat basement boys North Bmth 7-3 home at the Grange having been held to an away draw first time around. Lewis repeated his hat-trick, so it was captain Handy’s brace of wins which made all the difference as he didn’t play in their first meeting.

The A team (Steve Hemmings, Brian Vibert & Matthew Ware) weren’t expecting too much from their return match against league leaders Bmth Sports A as they had previously lost 1-9 away at Chapel Gate. It was a slightly improved scoreline of 2-8 at the Grange, but it was the more noteworthy as teenage starlet Matthew Daish got the better of league Coaching Officer Stephen Foster who had only previously dropped one match until then.

The Club was involved in three “whitewashes”, only one of which went their way. The G team (Bev Scott-Johns, Simon Golding & Simon Daish) were looking forward their return match against Bmth Sports K whom they had previously beaten 8-2, but the Bourne failed to show at Mudeford Wood, so Milton claimed the match. The Dees went down 0-10 away against Lynwood B and the K team lost 0-10 away against Winton YMCA F, not helped by the fact that Milton were a player short.

Sylvia Smith helped spare her F team’s blushes in Div 3 as she scraped a win over five sets against Broadstone C’s Alan Lo (the scoreline says it all at 11-7, 8-11, 12-14, 12-10, 12-10) to make it the slightly more respectable 1-9.  Full details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

There was a break in the Bournemouth and District League programme as the week was given over to the annual Times & Directory Handicap Cup competition (Round 2 of the Cup and Round 1 of the “Plate”). The New Milton Club’s two remaining teams were knocked out of the Cup proper but the B team go through to Round 2 of the “Plate” by default.

The C team (Julie Smillie, Malcolm Floyd & Zoltan Ordog) who usually play in Div 1 travelled to the Winton YMCA and had a mountain to climb as they all had to give a 12 start up to 21 against Winton YMCA C’s three very experienced players from Div 4. It looked like captain Malcolm Floyd had got it sussed in the first end of his first match as he hauled himself level to 20-20 against Winton’s Geoff Hawkins, but Floyd failed to return a tricky serve and lost that end. All the “nets and edges” went against him in the second and he got battered 14-21 to lose the match. Smillie lost her first match then Ordog (pictured below) beat Derek Orchard to make it 1-2. Floyd lost his next match but it looked like Ordog was going to pick up a second for Milton but Hawkins’ luck held to deprive the Hungarian over three ends. This brought the score to 1-4 which left Smillie to beat Orchard to keep Milton in the cup. She lost the first end 15-21 but caught up to 20-20 in the second end, when Orchard speculatively smashed back her serve to take the match off her. Milton therefore lost 1-5 but it could easily have gone the other way.

There was a much closer scoreline in Milton’s other cup match as the Div 2 E team (Frank Handy, James Lewis and Peter Daish) travelled to Southbourne to take on Merton L who normally ply their trade in Div 5. Lewis and Daish each won two out of three but captain Handy lost his first two matches, so it hung in the balance at 4-4 as Handy took on wily old Merton veteran Gordon White. Handy was hoping to break his duck for the evening, but he found the 11 points differential very hard going and lost over three ends for Milton to end up narrowly losing 4-5.

Five New Milton teams featured in the draw for Round 1 of the consolation Plate competition, but none of them actually played a match. The D, F, G and K teams all had “byes” but the B team were drawn to play away against Bmth Sports L. Captain Shaun Newcomb, John Millward and Brian Bickell duly turned up on Friday night at Chapel Gate which is more than can be said for the Bourne side so Milton claimed the match. The “famous five” therefore proceed to Round 2 of the Plate without so much as raising a bat in anger in the consolation event.

The New Milton Table Tennis Club repeated their last week’s haul of four wins in the Bournemouth and District league which was a significant improvement over their solitary victory in the first round of matches. This was due to the conversion of three results from draws to wins.

In Div 2, the high-flying E team (Frank Handy, Gerard Redman & Bobo Jiang) improved on their first-round draw against Ringwood A with an 8-2 victory away at Greyfriars. Captain Frank Handy led from the front with his customary hat-trick whilst Redman got off the mark with a hat-trick from his very first match for the E’s this season. It was a busy week for Redman (pictured below) as the previous evening he played up in Div 1 for the struggling C team in their 1-9 thrashing at the hands of table-toppers Bmth Sports D. You’ve guessed it, it was the man himself who spared Milton’s blushes by avoiding a repeat of their first round whitewash by beating Bourne’s irrepressible Charlie Chang.

Also in Div 2, the D team (Chris Pusey, Kai Major & Norma Millward) upgraded their first-round draw against the struggling Bmth Sports F with a 7-3 victory at Mudeford Wood. Teenage sensation Kai Major came up with his fifth hat-trick of the campaign which included a terrific straight-sets victory over the much more experienced David Pang who had already seen off Pusey and Millward.

It was trebles all round for the G team (Simon Golding, Simon Daish & Clive Pitts) as they tightened their grip at the top of Div 3 with 10-0 whitewash over Bmth Sports G having drawn against them in the first round.

The club’s other treble-maker was Hungarian Zoltan Karip-Barath whose first hat-trick of the campaign helped his B team do the double over Bmth Sports C in Div 1, this time with maximum points from their 8-2 victory. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club came up with four wins out of eight matches in the Bournemouth and District League, an exact repeat of their performance in the first round of matches.

Div 5 saw the second of the local derbies between the J and K teams with the Jays doing the double over their club mates. They improved on their first-round 6-4 win with the more emphatic 8-2 scoreline which included a hat-trick from Geoff Biggs, his first of the campaign.  J team captain Lynn Willrich (pictured below) bagged a brace as did thirteen year old Elliot Storr-Smith, and they combined well to win the doubles to land maximum points.

In the Premier, the A team did the double over Winton YMCA A and improved on their first-round 9-1 result with a 10-0 whitewash thanks to hat-tricks from captain Steve Hemmings, Brian Vibert and Phil Daish-Handy. The complete reverse happened to the struggling C side in Div 1 as they were drubbed 0-10 by Merton C away at Southbourne.

Also in Div 1 the B team repeated their 8-2 victory over Merton E aided and abetted by hat-tricks from captain Shaun Newcomb and England veteran Brian Bickell. In Div 3, the table-topping G team did likewise to bottom-dwellers Ringwood C thanks to trebles from Simon Golding and Clive Pitts.  Full results details appear below:- Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club got the second half of the Bournemouth and District league underway by repeating its first week’s haul of three wins out of six matches. One of these came at the expense of one of their own teams as the high-flying E team did the double over the D team in Div 2.

The E’s captain Frank Handy led from the front in their 6-4 victory with a hat-trick including an excellent win over teenage sensation Kai Major who had only dropped one match in the first round of matches.

Up in the Premier, the A team reprised their 8-2 win over Merton B courtesy of hat-tricks from captain Steve Hemmings and newly wed Phil Daish-Handy playing his first match of the season.

The club’s other win came in Div 4 as the H team did the double over Merton J with a 6-4 away win aided and abetted by a hat-trick from George Roberts.

The K team’s Andrew Stainton came ascloseasthis to recording his first hat-trick of the campaign, but he just lost 11-13 in the fifth and final end to Merton K veteran Ron Watson.  Full results details are below:- Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club signed off the first half of the Bournemouth and District league with two excellent wins which unfortunately came at the expense of their own teams in two local derbies.

The bigger win came in Div 3 as the G team whitewashed their F team 10-0, courtesy of hat-tricks from Simon Golding, Clive Pitts and Danny Williams.

Up in Div 1, it was a “Clash of the Zoltans” as the B team hammered their C team by 8-2. The B’s Zoltan Karip-Barath won 2, including a fairly comfortable win over fellow Hungarian Zoltan Ordog, and Shaun Newcomb joined him in a brace. England veteran Brian Bickell came up with his fourth hat-trick for his B team by beating Ordog, Julie Smillie and Matt Winter. Once again Smillie (pictured below) proved to be Newcomb’s bogey player albeit it by 11-9 in the fifth end, and she also beat Karip-Barath to amass the C team’s only two wins. The doubles would have earned a precious point for the C’s, but it wasn’t to be as Smillie and Ordog lost out over three high-scoring ends to the very tricky combination of Bickell and wheelchair-player Newcomb.

Div 2 saw thirteen year old Kai Major come up with his fourth hat-trick of the season, but his D team still lost 4-6 against the high-flying Broadstone B down at Mudeford Wood.  Full results details below:- Read the rest of this entry →

We are just in the middle of our Christmas break, but could I remind any keen juniors out there that top quality coaching is provided for any junior for only £2 each session.

The sessions are on Thursdays, between 7 and 8 pm in the Grange School sports hall.  Our main coach, Matthew Ware, is in the top 10 ranked men in England, and our second coach, Julie Smillie, is a Level 2 UKCC coach and local teacher.

This is a fantastic opportunity to come and improve your game, have fun and take part in friendly competition.

We start back on Thursday 8th January, so come and give it a go!