Only two points

Cippenham teams gained a total of only two points from a possible twelve from the short one-day third weekend of British League fixtures on Sunday. Those points were gained by the first team in the morning match against Fusion. Fusion are an up and down team – in their last three matches they have thrashed Division 1 South leaders Brighton 7-1, had an equally impressive 6-2 win against a star-studded London Progress team who currently lie third, and lost to Cippenham 5-3.

Martin Adams and Rob Lemon were the architects of this result. Adams, playing at number one, and Lemon, at number four, impressed with two wins each. Adams’ 3-0 win over Remi Petrosius was the Fusion number two’s third-only defeat of the season and this was followed up with a 3-1 win over the in-form Tom Cutler. Lemon had 3-1 results against both Simon Phillipz and John Dennison. Mark Butler also beat Phillipz.

The afternoon match was full of great table tennis with five of the eight sets going the distance of five games. This time Cippenham could not rely on Adams – he lost to both Wing Yung Chan and Dorian Robinson in five and the host team lost to York Gardens 5-3. Cippenham’s wins came from Butler, over Robinson, Lee Dredge, over Ian Girdler, and a walkover given to Lemon against the same injured player in the dead rubber. The pivotal points of the match involved Lee Dredge. With the match score 2-1 down Dredge went two games down against Girdler and then had to save two match points in the fourth but eventually won 11-6 in the fifth. Against Chan it was the opposite story. Dredge went 2-1 up and then had three match points in the fifth before succumbing 15-13. With those match points went Cippenham’s chances of a draw and a share of the league points.

The Cippenham second team, also playing at their home venue in Division 1 South and Midlands, came up against two very good sides. In the morning match against a strengthened Carrara Polska team only David Hayes and Danny Baxter managed to win matches, against Tomasz Gretchel and Dan Kolesnik respectively. Steve Buck went the distance with Kolesnik but lost in the fifth while Mark Jackson won one game only as he went down to Michael Kiszka and Marcin Pijanowski. In the afternoon table toppers OLOP IMPACT were far too strong and ran out easy 8-0 winners although Hayes, against Stephen Gertsen, and Jackson, against Neil Wright, did go to deciding games.

The third team, playing at Southall in Division 3 South, played well but suffered two 6-2 defeats that keep them rooted at the foot of the table. Against TTK Greenhouse II four sets went to a deciding game and Cippenham lost three of them. Phil Clarkson, against Jipe Olulabi, and Jonathan Evans, against Sullivan Morris, were the Cippenham winners. Clarkson also got Cippenham off to a good start in the afternoon match against Ipswich but only Paul Elliot was able to add to it with Steve Smith going through the day without a win.