Den Club have strengthened their position at the top of the premier division with a 9-1 victory over basement side Speen. Father and son duo Nick and Robert Hansell both won three each plus the doubles and keith Bartlett chipped in with two. Keith Taylor was the only victor for Speen. The big game this week sees Den take on second place Downley with Downley needing a win to make up the seven point difference. In the game between Apollo C and Chalfont C a return to form saw Pete Calam take two and nearly the third. The doubles match was clearly the highlight of the match between Trevor Gaffney and Pete Calam of Apollo facing Gerald Finesilver and Peter Schmid. Which went the way of the Chalfont duo 14-16 11-6 10-12 11-9 11-8. At North Dean Apollo B were unlucky to come away with only one point against Hazlemere A. Both Brian Hamilton and Chris Humphrey were unlucky in their matches against mark Croucher and Mick Jeffries. Fortunately Apollo B ,amaged to win the last two matches of the evening with a cracking game between Chris Humphrey and Paul Curry with Chris hitting superbly. Dawn Pearce then managed to overcome Mick Jefferies after being two sets down.

In division one an extremely good natured match between Apollo D and Hazlemere B threw up some interesting similarities between the teams. Each side had a bleary-eyed father to a newborn baby, born 1 day apart. Congratulations Tim Sparks and Tim Sallis. There was a player with a dodgy knee on each side and the other player from each team was not in the first flush of youth and were certainly old enough to be able to brag about Cholesterol test scores. Nick Hunt, Des Morris and Tim Sparks played at home for Apollo whilst the visiting team was made up of Tim Sallis, Kedric Rhodes and John Stacey. Only 3 of the legs were kept to 3 games, the rest went to 4 or more often 5 which meant that the match didn’t finish until 11:30pm! Opening the match, Morris took on Rhodes and looked to be in a commanding position after winning the first two 11-6 and 11-8 but Rhodes showed his tenacious side, dug deep and played what he admitted was some uninspiring but consistent table tennis to win the next 3 and take the leg. Nick Hunt took advantage of recent returnee John Stacey’s slight lack of mobility and took the next leg comfortably. The 2 new fathers then stepped up and in a close game, Sparks was just able to scrape a win against Sallis whose normally devastating forehand just wasn’t working as expected. In the fifth, Morris was initially struggling against Sallis’ forehand which was starting to come across nicely but was able to use his experience to tie his opponent down and take the leg. With the doubles going to Apollo, the score was 4-2 to Apollo. Tims Sparks and John Stacey were next, two players who used to play together so know each other’s game inside out. In a strangely scored 8-11, 7-11, 11-2, 8-11 game, Stacey was able to play to his opponent’s weaknesses and won through. Of the final 3 games, Nick Hunt’s defending against Tim Sallis’ now on-form forehand was fascinating to watch but wasn’t quite good enough to win. Tim Sparks and Kedric Rhodes had a 5 set marathon with neither player getting the upper hand until Rhodes won in the 5th at 9-11. Finally, at 4-5 down, Des Morris played a key game for Apollo and kept John Stacey off balance to win the game and get the draw for Apollo.
Broomwade A moved five points clear of the chasing pack with a maximum six points thanks to three wins each from Steve Ludlow and Paul Dolphin and the doubles against Wesley B. Pam Spooner helped Hazlemere C to a point against runaway division two leaders Apollo F as she won two and teamed with Jean Gloster in the doubles. Andy Walsh continued his impressive form and showed why he is the form player in the league with only one loss from 15 games as he won all three including a hard fought five setter against Spooner. Second Placed St Andrews B had a surprise defeat against second bottom Telecom A going down 6-4. Lou Radmore and Richard Dellar both had two wins and an excellent doubles victory to put them three points behind Stargoat A.

Great Kingshill have gone 2 points clear at the top of division three although second placed St Andrews C have a game in hand. Kingshill beat fifth placed Union A 6-4. Three Wise Men moved a place ahead of Union A with a 9-1 win against Telecom B who are still second from bottom. Angela Oetiker has shown some real improvements over the last few weeks and this showed as she took three wins against third placed Stargoat B to seal a draw for Flackwell D.
Union Baptist came back into form against two man Flacwell E with a ten nil win with two apiece for John Saunders Bryan Morris and Ernie Barnett. It was obviously the week of the youngsters at Flackwell as thirteen year old Michael Davies won three games against Hazlemere E. Davies playing with the vastly more experienced Ken Norris and Bob Smith helped the team to an 8-2 victory including a win against Junior league rival Thomas Mcewen.