Six clubs took to the table in the third round of the British League, Premier Division, with some fantastic table tennis played and streamed live on Facebook (all six-and-a-half hours of it) for the first time, attracting thousands of viewers!

Making a triumphant return to the table after a week out, Ormesby played Cardiff City and re-established their dominance with an 8-0 win.

Despite the landslide score there were a couple a close battles as City put up a fight with the league favourites. In the end though, the experience from the team of Danny Reed, Darius Knight, Filip Szymanski and Liam McTeirnan really shone through.

For Cardiff, Tom Maynard and Benedict Watson were both making their debut; Watson kept the crowd on their toes and the Facebook viewers gripped by going to deuce in two games against Szymanski.

There was also a close five-set battle between Lloyd Gregory and Liam McTiernan (11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 7-11). City next face Drumchapel, who have not dropped a point yet.

The latest victims of the Glasgow club were Batts, who took a blow to their scoreboard, losing 8-0. Going into the match Batts recognised they had two close to unbeatable opponents in the Chinese Players He Zhi When & Tao Shi, but this did not stop the team putting in a bold performance.

He Zhi Wen lost his first set of the season when playing Adam Nutland but went on to win in four (6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3. The team only dropped three sets from the eight games played but each of these could have gone either way with the match being much closer than the scoreboard suggests.

The club also benefited immensely from the introduction of the live streaming, with more than 1000 people tuning in to their Facebook page.

Even though they did not pick up a point in this match, Neil Brierley (Batts club secretary) said:

“This was table tennis at its best, and it’s not all about winning.”

The club are striving to stay in the league and they are sure to be on their way to achieving this with the performances they have shown so far.

Bouncing back from an 8-0 loss in the last round, North Ayrshire secured a win against Halton in their second match of the season.

A late change to the line-up didn’t affect the team’s performance when 13-year-old Martin Johnson stepped in to replace Chris Main. Coming from the national C4 team and making his Premier League debut, Johnson won both his matches, one in spectacular straight sets against Jordan McGarry (11-2, 11-5, 11-4).

Their new signing, Viktor Gorman, also won both his matches against Halton’s Harry Watson and Richard Lightowler.

Halton are still struggling to secure a full team for each match as a result of the team having four away games in a row, making it difficult for the players to work it around other commitments.

They also had a drop-out as McGarry replaced Tomasz Rzeszotko. Coming from Halton 4 to be a last minute replacement and then going 15-15 in one of his games, McGarry proved that he was up to the challenge and is sure to take this experience and build upon it.

Despite the turbulence with the team selection, Halton committed to putting in a strong performance and took home a point when Lightowler beat Sean Doherty in straight sets (11-5, 11-8, 11-7).

November 5^th will see the next round of the Premier League, with Fusion returning after a weekend out and having their first home fixture.