Read up on the latest from M Daish at the Junior Championships in Doncaster!

NOTE: THIS IS A TEST RUN. COVERAGE SHOULD BEGIN FROM 9AM ON SATURDAY THE 21ST APRIL IF WE CAN ESTABLISH AN INTERNET CONNECTION.

Click Here to see how the days events unfolded!

New Forest youngsters led the way at this year’s Hampshire Schools individual table tennis championships held at Waterside Table Tennis Club.

In the U11 girl’s competition Katie Holt, representing Brockenhurst Primary School, was undefeated and now goes on to represent the county in the national schools finals in Doncaster later this month.

The Waterside TTC, Southampton West and Bournemouth TTC starlet, has been playing for just two years and recently was ranked sixth nationally within her age group. At just nine years old she will probably be the youngest player at this years national championships.

In the Hants boy’s U11 competition New Milton Table Tennis Club’s Mathew Daish beat Jonathan McMullan from Whitely Junior School, Fareham, in a very close final of a high standard. Matthew won the first set 11-8, Jonathan won the next two sets 11-2 and 11-5, and then Matthew won the next set 11-9. With the match at two sets all it went into the deciding fifth set and with Jonathan 10- 6 up Matthew held his nerve to win six points in a row for a 12-10 victory. Matthew who was recently ranked 4th nationally within his age group will be joining Katie in Doncaster later this month.

There was a strong field of players in the U16 boys which was won by Josh Green representing Hounsdown School, who beat Jimmy Yeung of Priory School Portsmouth in a very exciting final which went to the fifth and final set. Yeung clawed his way back to win the fourth set 12-10, before Josh was the convincing winner with a final set 11-3 victory.

The Annual Tournaments of the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league recently took place with twenty one players from the New Milton club taking part. The club’s only winning finalist was Steve Hemmings who won the Vets 50+ title. Frank Handy made it through to the Div 3 individuals final but was beaten by Lynwood’s Peter Collins. Julie Smillie & Sylvia Smith made it through to the Ladies Doubles final but were beaten by Kate Maksimenko (Winton YMCA) & Maggie White (North Bournemouth). Smillie also made it through to the Mixed Doubles final with Zoltan Karib-Barath, but also with no joy. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club A team lost the Times and Directory Cup Final for the second year running. This time they lost 3-5 to fellow Premier side Kinson B down at the neutral venue of Southbourne on Tuesday 20th March. In a most entertaining and thrilling final, Kinson B represented by Tom Stride (+12 handicap), Richard Davies (+7) and Darren Bellis (+12) overcame a strong New Milton A side featuring Brian Vibert (+4), Steve Hemmings (+6) and Philip Handy (+4).

Kinson got straight into their stride as Stride beat Hemmings, and Davies got the better of Milton’s captain Vibert giving Kinson a 2-0 lead before Handy pulled a game back to make it 2-1. In the fourth game, Davies attacked superbly against Hemmings’ defence and although Davies won 31-14 and 31-27 this did not reflect the tremendous rallies that took place between the two players. Davies had to work extremely hard with his forehand top-spin drives and drop-shots to beat Hemmings’ dogged defence. Handy then beat Stride which left Vibert to play Bellis. Vibert’s good all-round game eventually overcame a stubborn Bellis 30-31, 31-29 and 31-30, which made the match level at 3-3. The game of the evening then commenced between Davies and Handy who were both unbeaten so far. The match had it all, from two attacking players, with some outstanding fast controlled rallies and although Handy pegged back the handicap difference on many occasions, Davies finally won this enthralling game 31-29, 28-31 and 31-29. At 3-4 down, Milton had to win the next match to keep their cup hopes alive. It wasn’t to be however as Hemmings lost to Bellis to make the match score a 5-3 win to Kinson B. A most enthralling match, played in a friendly but competitive manner. Milton are hoping to make it third-time lucky next year!

In the final week of the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league, the New Milton Club recorded six wins, two draws and just the two defeats. None of their teams gained promotion this year but pleasingly none were relegated, albeit their B team did have an uncomfortable couple of weeks towards the end of the season.

The B team (Zoltan Karib-Barath, Julie Smillie and Shaun Newcomb) secured their survival in Div 1 the previous week, which was a good job as they lost 2-8 to Ringwood A at Greyfriars in their last match. Karib-Barath won Milton’s only singles as Smillie and Newcomb drew rare blanks and Smillie and Karib-Barath won the doubles. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club improved on their last week’s return in the Bournemouth and District league as they won five matches, drew one and had four defeats. Club factotum Malcolm Floyd had cause for celebration as his first win in what seemed an eternity helped his B team to allay their relegation fears.

The B team needed to take a point off runaway leaders Bournemouth Sports H to keep their heads above water in Div 1 and captain Floyd chose just the right moment to break his four match duck. Floyd and his team mates Shaun Newcomb and Julie Smillie all beat Bourne’s Charlie Chan to snatch the precious point from a 3-7 defeat. As it happened, the two bottom teams also lost, which guaranteed Milton’s survival. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club had a reasonable return in the Bournemouth and District Table Tennis league as they won 4, drew 2 and lost 4. There were some star performances again but Julie Smillie’s first hat-trick of the campaign couldn’t have come at a better time to help out her struggling B team.

Div 1 saw the third from bottom B team (Julie Smillie, Zoltan Karib-Barath and Shaun Newcomb) ease their relegation worries as they beat basement boys Bournemouth Sports G 7-3 for the second time. Smillie (pronounced “Smiley”) played a blinder to come up with her first hat-trick of the campaign, Karib-Barath bagged a brace and Newcomb added one more to the scorecard. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton A table tennis team booked their place in the final of the Times and Directory Handicap Cup for the second year running, but this time they did it the hard way as they were a player short.

Phil Handy was unable to play in their semi-final against Div 5 leaders Ringwood C because of work commitments, and the tournament rules do not permit calling on reserves for the semi-finals and the final. And so it was down to captain Brian Vibert and Steve Hemmings to carry out “mission impossible” as they started off three games down and with large handicap differentials. The Ringwood trio (Steve Heap, Dennis Elkins and Phil Smith) were all playing off +20 (up to 31) and they only needed to win two games to go through to the final.

Hemmings and Vibert were playing off +6 and +4 respectively which reflected their Premier status, and Hemmings literally got the ball rolling by beating Heap 31-25, 31-29. Vibert heaped on the pressure by beating Elkins 31-24, 31-27, then Hemmings beat Smith 31-27, 31-26 to level things off at 3-3. Vibert took Milton ahead as he got the better of Heap 31-26, 31-22 and Hemmings secured victory by beating Elkins 31-30, 31-28. At 5-3, Milton had not dropped a single set and Vibert proved that this was no fluke as he beat Smith 31-24, 31-27 in the sixth although this was academic by then.

In the other semi-final, the Premier’s Kinson B beat Div 1’s Lynwood B 6-0, so it will be an all Premier final between New Milton A and Kinson B. The final will take place at the Merton Club, Southbourne on Tuesday 20th March. Milton lost last year’s final to the youngsters of Bournemouth Sports S so are hoping to have a full side for their second bite of the cherry.

New Milton Table Tennis Club had their best week in the Bournemouth and District league so far this season as they clocked up seven wins out of ten matches. The defeats came from both extremes of the league as their A and B teams lost heavily in the upper echelons, but at least the K team picked up a welcome point from their defeat in Div 5. Read the rest of this entry →

The New Milton Table Tennis Club could only win four out of their ten matches in the Bournemouth and District league last week, and one of those wins came at the expense of one of their own teams in a local derby.

The second local derby between the E and G teams took place in Div 3, and this time the E team avenged their first round defeat by beating their club mates 6-4. The Gees owe their point to Matthew Daish who beat the E’s Simon Golding, Max Doohan and Clive Pitts to claim his sixth hat-trick of the season. Pitts and Doohan beat Matthew’s team mates (Simon Daish and Eddie Tompkins), but Golding lost to Tompkins in an enthralling five-setter. With the E’s being 5-4 up, the doubles proved decisive as Golding and Pitts saw off Matthew Daish and Eddie Tompkins in three straight sets. Read the rest of this entry →