The new table tennis season got underway at the weekend with the first matches in the Senior British Clubs League. Cippenham Table Tennis Club is hosting two of the divisions, as it has for many years, and fortune has provided that these two divisions are those in which the two Cippenham teams are represented.

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However, neither team was able to take full advantage of familiar conditions as both had disappointing results, that is at least until the very end of Sunday. When the final count was tallied, the Cippenham first team had one win to show from their four matches while the second team went one better with two victories.

 

The Cippenham first team could consider themselves to be a little unlucky on Saturday as both matches finished with the hosts at the wrong end of a 5-4 scoreline in Division A-2. Closely-fought wins for team captain Martin Adams, over Fernando Frandes, and Rob Hansell, over Sienna Jetha, followed by a win in the doubles by Martin and Andy Norwood put Cippenham 3-2 up against London Academy. However, three straight wins for London, albeit two of them by close margins in the deciding game, gave them an unassailable 5-3 lead before Martin completed his personal brace by beating Parsa Yamin.

 

The afternoon match against Fusion 2 followed a similar pattern with Cippenham again establishing a 3-2 lead as another doubles win, this time by Martin and Rob, was followed by singles wins for Rob Hansell and Shae Thakker. Once again, the next three sets were lost as Fusion went into a 5-3 lead before Martin gave the scoreline a more respectable outlook by beating Freddie Wilke.

 

Sunday morning brought more disappointment for Cippenham as Urban 2 ran out 8-1 winners. The only joy for the hosts came when Martin Adams beat Tommy Gritton but Shae Thakker somehow managed to lose a 9-3 lead in the fifth game against Costas Papantoniou, one of four sets that Cippenham lost in the deciding game.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall, the Cippenham second team were playing in Division C-5, two tiers below the first team. They started well enough with a 6-3 victory over Fareham-based Generation 2. Jamie Woodford and Rachael Iles, who was nominated as player of the match, both won their two singles while Will Saint beat his opposite number one, Tim Hampton, and combined with Rachael to take the doubles.

 

Will, Jamie and Rachael all won one of their two singles encounters in the afternoon match against Bristol Associates. Will and Rachel again won their doubles but that was not enough as Cippenham slipped to a 5-4 defeat.

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Worse was to follow on Sunday morning as having won three of the first four singles and the doubles to establish a 4-1 lead, the team inexplicably fell apart and lost all the remaining four to allow Horsham Spinners 3 take both league points. Only Anna Piercey, who unluckily lost the final set 13-11 in the fifth game to Asher Warshawski, offered much resistance.

 

The weekend, though, finished on a high for both teams as excitement reached fever pitch. Both teams’ matches were on a knife-edge, and being only a few meters apart across the hall and in the best vantage positions for viewing, created a huge sense of theatre. Both matches reached a score of 3-2 in Cippenham’s favour after the doubles sets. However, the first team only succeeded in one of the next three singles matches and that was when new signing Andy Norwood pulled off a scintillating 11-9 win in the fifth over Hugo Nguyen, one of two young twins playing for Joola Plymouth. The second team also reached 4-4 as, after Will Saint had seen off Isle of Wight’s number one Christos Hannides 3-1, to make the match score 4-2 in Cippenham’s favour, the next two sets were agonisingly close but resulted in Jamie Woodford losing 11-9 in the fifth to Gabor Bodnar and Jaiden Caldeira missing out by an even closer score, 12-10 in the fifth to Rod McMullan.

 

The final acts of the weekend, with both matches poised at 4-4 and running parallel saw Martin Adams facing Plymouth’s Dan Kerr while a few yards away Anna Piercey was up against the Islanders’ long-pimples wielding Andy Prince who had already beaten Caldeira 3-0 and was attempting to establish a 4-0 win record for his team across the weekend. Both matches swayed backwards and forwards and both Cippenham players went two games to one down. Both then made it 2-2, Martin by the narrow margin of 12-10. Martin was again down in the fifth, 9-6, but to tumultuous acclaim finished the game off 13-11 and Cippenham first team had their first win of the season 5-4. Seconds later, Anna, showing immense composure, did the same except her fifth game was a more comfortable 11-5.