Danbury A, long-time leaders of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis first division took another step towards winning the title by beating fourth placed Galleywood A 7-3. Gary Young, their most regular player this season, stayed undefeated but he had to pull out all the stops to get the better of Lucy Wang 3-2 (13-11, 9-11, 11- 7, 9-11, 12-10). Charles Sweeney repeated his first half win over Steve Kerns but he missed out in four against Wang (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4).

Second division leaders Chelmsford A were held to a draw this week by Danbury D. Waseem Qureshi was undefeated for the Chelmsford side whereas Lewis Ewers and Chris Buer both won twice for Danbury. Ewers just prevailed 3-2 (11-2, 15-13, 9-11, 8-11, 12-10) against Mick Richardson in the closest game of the evening.

Elmtree Excalibur B did well to beat the higher placed Hatfield Peverel B 7-3. Ryan Pitt and Richard Storey both picked up maximum returns.

Maldon C were comfortable 8-2 winners over Hatfield Peverel C in the third division. Tom Elder picked up a hat-trick and Dawn Baldry and Brian Riedling both won twice.

Trevor Collin picked up two wins for the losers. Elmtree Excalibur stay top and they beat Danbury F 7-3. Paul Sturton (three wins), Rod MacLennan (one win) and Lin Attridge (two wins) all played a part in this success.

In division four, Chelmsford E did well to beat Danbury K 7-3. Richard Baxter and Richard Upson both won their three singles encounters.

The match between OCs F and Chelmsford D finished all square. Jarek Pietraszuk won his three singles for the Chelmsford side and he completed his hat-trick with a 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-8) success against Charles Yeung.

The match between Galleywood C and Danbury J also finished tied at 5-5. David Getherall won twice for the Galleywood side but he couldn’t complete his hat-trick. That honour went to Rob Kneale who came out on top in their five-game encounter (11-4, 8-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4).

In division five, Danbury L recorded two 10-0 wins. Mick Robinson, Roger Tiffin and Norman Hayes were all on target against both Elmtree Excalibur E and Chelmsford G.

Leaders Writtle were held to a draw by Highwood despite the fact that Frank Neill won his three singles for Writtle. Martin Goddard and Kevin Barber both won twice for the Highwood team. Goddard gave Highwood an excellent start by getting the better of Colin Griffith 3-2 (11-2, 11-5, 9-11, 7-11, 11-7) in the first game of the evening.

The Cup competitions have been running simultaneously with the League matches. Galleywood (Peter Radford, Steve Kerns and Lucy Wang) ran out 5-0 winners over Elmtree Excalibur in the Mixed Cup Competition Semi-Final. In the game that Elmtree really had to win to mount a serious challenge Steve Kerns fought back from 2-1 down to beat Simon Webber 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-6, 11-3).
Galleywood will meet OCs A in the Final. OCs ran out 5-4 winners over Maldon B. John Cleasby (two wins), Trevor Carter (one won), Sue Hickman (one win) plus one doubles success saw OCs come out on top.

Division two leaders Chelmsford progressed from their quarter-final but they only just made it past Elmtree Excalibur, the division three pace-setters. Elmtree’s Phil Smith was the outstanding player in this match and he beat Ryan Gooday in five ends and then crucially Waseem Qureshi 3-1 (11-4, 11-6, 5-11, 12-10) to level the scores at 4- 4. With everything to play for it was the Chelmsford duo of Waseem Qureshi and Mike Johnston who defeated Phil Shippen and Rod Maclennan in four ends (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10) to secure their semi-final place.
Galleywood B ran out 5-3 winners against OCs A. James Hicks played his part with a 3-1 (11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 13-11) victory against Frank Hodge and another (11-5, 11-2, 11-13, 11-3) against Daniel Berry.

There were wins for Danbury B (Dave Goody, Rob Kneale and Dave Powell ) and Chelmsford (Jarek Pietrascuk, John Barrett and Jason Clark) in the Four Down Knock Out Competition. They beat Galleywood and Elmtree Excalibur respectively.