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HALF WAY ROUND UP If you are a regular viewer of the BVTTC website then you may have been following the progress of our teams in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League over the first half of the 2005/06 season. To bring it all together here is a brief round up. The League Tables and Press Reports for the League can, of course, be found on the League website. Promoted to the first division the A team (Neil Gooday, Waseem Qureshi and Peter Barrett) have improved on the start they made two years ago and are currently just below mid-table with 37pts with the team below them on 27pts. With wins over Writtle A, Bocking A and Rawreth & Hullbridge they have done well. But there is no room for complacency and the same standard will need to be maintained to the end, or improved upon, if they are to stay up. The B Team (Alastair Piper, Adrian Pitt, Ray Lawrence and Julie Vansertima) in Division 2 are also mid-table, but with games in hand they could find themselves higher come the end of the season. One of the notable results was that of the draw against Danbury C who are currently top of Division 2. The C & D Teams in Division 3 are currently 3rd and 4th from bottom respectively. The C Team of (Mike Johnston, Duncan Elloy, Alastair Brown and Ryan Pitt) had a poor start to the season with 3 straight losses, but since then has not lost a match with 3 wins and a draw under their belt. The D Team of (Frank Neill, Stuart Skippings, Steve Muth and Steve Back) have fared slightly better of the two, even though they have only won 1 game so far. They are one place higher than the C Team in the Table separated by just 1 point. Needless to say when the C & D teams met, the score finished 5-5. For the E Team (Graham Turner, Bob Francis, Laura Pyman and Bradley Hudgell) the first half of the season has been a bit of a roller-coaster, with two junior players testing themselves at this higher level for the first time. Although the team is currently 3rd from bottom they have only lost 3 matches! Problem is they can't win! But with Bradley and Laura improving all the time and with the experience of Graham and Bob on their side they should be able to do enough to stay in the division, but it will be hard! The F & G Teams are both in Division 5, and both have had mixed fortunes. The mostly junior team of Rykki Vansertima, Sam Pitt and Haydn Upson led by Richard Upson stood in 6th spot at the halfway stage with perhaps their best result a win against 3rd placed EPHQ. If the boys could just generate a little more consistency they are quite capable of pushing on further. The G team (Mike Robinson, Colin Gooday, Steve Clift and Phil Twite) are just 1pt behind but with a game in hand. With the experience of Mike and Colin they have every possibility of moving up into the top half of the table. 4th position my be a realistic aim come the end of season ... let's wait and see! With 4 teams in division 6, derby matches seem to occur almost every week! And the form book has been nothing to go by in this division. The K Team, led by our reporter Eric Clift and supported by Mike Pitt and juniors Alex Stone and Andrew Orme, have had an excellent first half and currently lie in 2nd spot. Both juniors have shown real improvement on moving up from CLICK with Alex leading the way. Realistically they cannot catch the top side but on this form they will be aiming to hang onto the runners-up spot. By contrast the two senior sides, the H & J Teams have not fared so well. The wealth of experience available to the H Team (Fred Henwood, Ron Arthur, Peter Revell, Chris High, Les Webb) ought to be enough to see off most opposition, but with just 3 wins so far it has simply not been the case. However on their day this team are still capable of taking any of the teams in this division. Captain Diane Pitt will be a little disappointed by the performance of the J Team in which she is joined by Ian Austin, Jacqui Smith and Andrew Lager. They find themselves third from bottom, but with a game in hand and just 7pts separating them from the third placed team they could easily move up if only they could all find their form at the same time. Some serious motivation and leadership from the captain seems in order! The surprise package in division 6 has been the juniors of the L Team, Adam Pitt, Matthew Skeoch, Richard Napper and Hannah Pitt. Richard is proving a real handful to all teams and has achieved some excellent wins, including the scalp of one of the divisions top players David Gatheral of Danbury. Adam is improving all the time, and if he could just curb a little more than he has already the slight tendency to lose concentration through tantrums then he would be hard to beat at this level. Matthew has put in some fine performances catching out several more experienced players through his more unorthodox approach. As for Hannah... what can you say! Moments of brilliance marred by occasional indiscipline. But at 12 maybe that's still to be expected? Sitting in 3rd spot at the halfway stage the team have well outperformed expectations. And if they can hold onto this place they will deserve every bit of praise. In the introductory league CLICK the club's 3 teams have all performed well. The M Team of Tom Lee, Matthew Davis and Gavin Trodd currently sit at the top of the table after an 8 match unbeaten run that has seen Tom through the first half of the season with a 100% record. The team have really fought hard and have shown great spirit and determination. At times it's been close so they can expect further challenges in the second half as other teams improve. The O Team of Clare Austin, James Austin and Aled Upson have also performed very well, with Clare putting in some great performances to lead by example. James is also making real strides and Aled is also starting to pick up games. The team currently lie in 4th spot but with a game in hand and just 2pts behind 3rd they have a real chance of moving up one if they continue to improve. The N Team of Scott Dowsett, Brandon Crouchman and Damien Laverty have also done better than expected. All 3 players are showing real improvement and the team have picked up points in every game played. They are currently 6th but are looking increasingly capable of challenging any of the other teams - as the M Team found out in a very close encounter towards the end of the first half! So those above them better watch out! All in all it's been a reasonable first half. It doesn't look as if we are going to have many winners this season come the final round up, but it will certainly be the case that we have competed well at every level. |