First team survive relegation dog-fight

Cippenham’s three teams in the British League saved their best performances for the final weekend of matches and all three ended up retaining their positions in their respective divisions.

Cippenham hosted the two First Divisions in which the club’s first and second teams played. Division 1 South was an incredibly competitive division throughout the season with results impossible to call. Such was the closeness of the teams in this division that the team starting the weekend in fourth place ended up as champions and the team starting in fifth place ended up eighth and last!

The Cippenham first team started in sixth position, knowing that poor results over the weekend could end in relegation. Saturday morning was a tough assignment. Opponents DHS London Progress II were only mid-table this season but highly dangerous being led by the vastly experienced Cameroon international Marco Essomba. Matches between the two great clubs west of London are always eagerly contested and this was no exception. It ended in a 4-4 draw that Cippenham accepted as a point won rather than dropped with neither Mark Butler nor Martin Adams being able to get the better of Essomba. Both won their other matches while Lee Dredge and Rob Lemon also picked up one each in a great team effort.

Generation 2 had started the weekend in last place but had also picked up a useful point in the morning with a 4-4 draw against York Gardens. It was tight at the bottom with only one point separating the last four teams. The afternoon match between Cippenham and Generation was viewed as critical. A pulsating match ensured with five of the eight sets requiring a fifth and deciding game. Martin Adams’ celebration at beating Adam Proszko 14-12 in the fifth to square the match at 1-1 was an indication of the tenseness of the occasion. Adams’ emotions are not normally so visible. However, the Cippenham number one was unable to stem the flow from an inspired Wesley Bush-Harris and Cippenham slipped to a 5-3 defeat and the worrying prospect of a potential winner-takes-all match against Byng Hall the following morning.

Byng Hall had a disappointing Saturday and, fielding a weaker team had slipped to the foot of the table. Sunday was different, they came with a much stronger team determined to fight it out to avoid relegation. The equation was simple: the loser of the morning match between Byng Hall and Cippenham would probably go down. Cippenham were faster out of the blocks and, in a twinkle of an eye were 3-0 up as Adams thrashed Mark Romano, Butler was hugely impressive in defeating the defensive skills of Mark Brown and Lee Dredge got the measure of Will Power. There was a falter as only Adams won in the next four sets but Lemon came to the rescue to defeat Power 3-0 and bring both points to Cippenham in a 5-3 victory. Relegation had been avoided.

Brighton had won their first six matches of the campaign and had hung on to top spot ever since. In the final match of the season they just needed to beat Cippenham for the title. Cippenham had other ideas. The immense pressure of the relegation threat had been lifted and the Cippenham players produced a display of flair, resolve and commitment that left their south coast opponents all at sea. It seemed the match had hardly started and Cippenham raced to a 6-0 lead and Brighton’s dream had disappeared. The eventual score was 7-1 and that put Cippenham in fifth place and handed the title of the division to the south London-based Fusion.

The Cippenham third team, playing at Southall, also fought a successful fight against relegation from Division 3 South. Bottom at the start of the weekend, five points out of a possible eight meant the club rose one place to seventh. An epic final match, that finished a full hour later than all the others in the hall, nearly produced an even better result. Eventually, Cippenham succumbed 5-3 to York Gardens II in that final match but four of the five sets lost by Cippenham required a fifth and deciding game. A draw would have denied York Gardens the divisional title.

Prior to that Cippenham had enjoyed a good run of results with 5-3 wins over OLOP Impact II and Hastings and a 4-4 draw with Horsham III. Gemma Chapman won five of her eight matches, Steve Smith four and Paul Baker three. Eddie Mitchell played one day and won three out of four while Phil Clarkson played the other and won two.

The Cippenham second team did not have any relegation worries from Division 1 South and Midlands following the expulsion of the Oxford Fireplace Centre team. This was just as well as the team operated with two reserves all weekend. However, that did not stop them from a great 5-3 win over Urban Progress II. Matthew Tucker came in to the team and scored a brace while Danny Baxter led the team well with two of his own. It was left to Graham Trimming to secure the maximum points with a last ditch win in the final set of the match. Eddie Mitchell marked his debut in Division 1 with the solitary win in a 7-1 defeat to runners-up Westbury while Baxter and Mark Jackson both scored in the 6-2 defeat against Bedford Modern.

League tables:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Division 1 South
Fusion I	14	8	2	4	69	43	18
Brighton I	14	8	1	5	56	56	17
DML Woolwell I	14	7	2	5	58	54	16
DHS London Progress II	14	5	5	4	62	50	15
Cippenham I	14	4	5	5	53	57	13
Generation 2 I	14	3	6	5	53	59	12
York Gardens I	14	4	4	6	51	61	12
Byng Hall I	14	2	5	7	44	68	9
Division 1 South and Midlands
OLOP IMPACT I	12	10	2	0	72	24	22
Westfield I	12	8	2	2	66	30	18
DHS London Progress III	12	7	1	4	63	33	15
Carrara Polska I	12	6	1	5	52	44	13
Urban Progress II	12	4	0	8	35	61	8
Bedford Modern I	12	2	1	9	27	69	5
Cippenham II	12	1	1	10	21	75	3