Tight matches feature in latest round of action in the Leamington Table Tennis League

Damon Fenton’s hat-trick enabled St Georges A to overcome Wellesbourne 6-4. Tony Deren and Gary Jackson added singles and Fenton and Jackson secured the doubles 3-1. Pete Barrow’s brace in reply included a 12-10 in the 5th win over Deren and Alan Cotton’s double also featured a 5 set win against Jackson.

St Georges B also got home 6-4 against Free Church C thanks mainly to Mark Jackson’s triple. Andy Woodcock contributed two and Earl Sweeney one. Ming Fan, Tom Hunt and junior Dan Stone all scored a win and Hunt and Stone won the doubles.

Free Church B settled for a draw when hosting WCC Bats. James Berry posted a treble with Tom Brocklehurst and Greg Swan taking singles. Nilton Green won twice for Bats though he was taken to 12-10 in the 5th by Brocklehurst and Martyn Todd won two. Green and Todd called the doubles first and won it 3-1.

WCC Coots had a successful visit to Whitnash A, winning 8-2. Arun Jogi starred with a maximum, Mark Freeman won twice and Cliff Jackson emulated him, the pair winning the doubles in 5. Richard Smith won the home side’s points, his win against Jackson going to the wire , 12-10 in the 5th. Andy Coonan lost narrowly, 9-11 in the 5th to Freeman.

Eathorpe A edged Colebridge B 6-4 with Walter Warburton in top form and winning his three. Marius Morariu and Kieran Podbury took singles and combined for the doubles. Dean Hicks replied with two and Andrew Rowland and John Swinburne nailed singles, Rowland also taking Warburton to 10-12 in the 5th.

Three teams recorded 10-0 verdicts in Division 3. Nomads Dragons showed no mercy to Eathorpe D with Catherine McAuley, Jonathan Waters and Mike Weaving in top form. Whitnash B in the guise of Len Coonan, Tamas Nemeth and Paras Tejani, swept aside WCC Dinos by the same score and Free Church F white-washed Ashorne A despite including reserve Ankit Sharma for his 3-a-side debut. Cherry Matthews and Mark Singleton provided experienced support.

Moreton Morrell’s Kannan Nithi continues to impress , his treble including the scalp of WCC Flounders’ Steve Proctor. Lloyd Pettipher and Pablo Smith grabbed singles and Smith joined Nithi for the doubles and to take the match 6-4. Simon Chalker (2) and Proctor(2) responded.

Free Church G overcame Eathorpe C 6-4. Skipper Radu Draghici recorded three wins, Michael Khovanov won 2, losing to Jamie Sayer 10-12 in the 5th and Bethan Jones came from 4-8 down in the 5th to beat John Ablett. Sayer won 2, Darren Hadley 1 and held the doubles with Ablett.

Joint division A leaders, WCC Flounders, were thwarted by Eathorpe E, losing 2-3. Andy Caine won 2 for the top side but Eathorpe’s Darren Hadley and Toby John were not to be denied taking singles and doubles. In fact John only went down 10-12 in the 5th to Caine .

The other joint leaders, Eathorpe F, also fell 2-3 to Ashorne B, for whom Alex Plianos won twice. Richard Grover added one falling to Kieran Podbury in 5. Podbury and Ben James won the doubles 17-15 in the 5th.

Rugby F felled FISSC 4-1 with Peter Ratcliffe winning both singles and Jo Outhwaite taking one, losing to Robert Bartowski. Rugby won the doubles.

In Division B Free Church I gained their third win out of three when beating Free Church K 4-1 but they only sit third in the table. Sam Groom (2) and Alex Bosworth (1) plus the doubles got them home but Alex lost deuce in the 5th to his Dad, Chris. Rugby G walloped Free Church L 5-0 with Bernard Burke and Katsuko Nagata knowing too much for their young opponents. Free Church M’s youngsters Alfie Green and Johan Pretorious played very well against Radford A but had to bow to the experience of Gary Edwards and Ian Ogden who won 5-0.

Eathorpe G defeated Free Church N 3-2 in Division C in a match which could easily have gone the other way. Richard Freeman won his singles and then helped Dave Hawker snatch the doubles 12-10 in the 5th. Susheel Gupta and Jacob Sherratt both won singles for Church.

Eathorpe H overcame Free Church P 4-1 in Division D thanks to a Gary Shaw double and one from Dave Hanson, who lost to Keerthi Bakthisaran before winning the doubles.