Press Report 22.9.08

by Graham Trimming

British League 1^st Weekend (20-21.9.08)

Disappointing start to season

Cippenham made their traditional slow start to the British League season at the weekend, although the second day saw all teams picking up points especially the third squad who experienced a Super Sunday.

Once again, Martin Adams was the most successful player with five wins out of eight but he received insufficient support from the rest of the team. Just one point out of eight was the dismal return for the Cippenham first team playing in Division One South at their home venue. Cippenham were a little unlucky in that two matches were lost by the narrow margin of 5-3.

Cippenham’s only point came in the 4-4 draw with York Gardens on Sunday morning. This was a match that promised to provide both points as Cippenham won five games more than their opponents but three sets were lost 11-7 in the deciding fifth game or closer. The two 5-3 losses came at the hands of Brighton and VRS Generation (Fareham) but, once again, a 11-9 fifth game defeat for Mark Butler in the match against Brighton and 11-8 in the fifth for Rob Lemon in the Generation match determined the difference between defeat and elusive league points. Sandwiched in between was a horror 8-0 defeat to Urban Progress, a team relegated from the Premier Division last season.

Lee Dredge, with three wins, played well but Mark Butler and Rob Lemon tasted victory only once each.

The Cippenham second team, playing at the same venue and at the same level as the first team in Division One South and Midlands fared somewhat better, gaining three points. As with the first team, it was the Sunday morning match that bore most fruit. A 5-3 win over Fusion II was gained with braces from Danny Baxter and new signing Martin Gray with Cippenham’s other new signing, Owen Clutterbuck, adding the fifth.

Steve Munson was the star in the other profitable match from which a 4-4 draw was gained from Urban Progress II. Munson beat Csaba Baliant and Darius Atashroo, both three-straight, while Clutterbuck and Baxter, respectively, also demeaned the same opponents.

Martin Gray also won one each in the 6-2 defeats to Sycamore and OLOP IMPACT to finish with four wins from eight matches on his Cippenham debut while Baxter did better with four out of six. Clutterbuck won half of his six matches, Munson had a similar return from four matches, while Mark Jackson and Steve Buck failed to score in their six and two matches respectively.

The most successful team was Cippenham III playing in Division Three South at Southall Sports Centre. Saturday was unsuccessful with defeats 6-2 against Ashford II and 5-3 against Hastings. A changed team, with Paul Baker and Tony Stead replacing Steve Smith and Phil Prady, produced a upturn in fortunes with two wins on Sunday. Fusion III were despatched 6-2 and hosts DHS Greenhouse Progress IV 5-3. Incredibly, both wins featured recoveries from 2-0 down. Stead, on debut, was the star, winning all four of his matches while Baker won once in each match. Eddie Mitchell played both days and emulated Martin Adams’ performance as the club’s most successful player of the weekend with five wins from eight while Chris Hansell, playing in the tough number one position, gained one win in each of his team’s matches for a fifty percent record. On Saturday, Steve Smith won one out of four but Phil Prady failed to register a win.