The Knockout Cup Competitions are under way in the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League and this year there have been plenty of changes.

KO Cup Secretary Gordon Gatherall says: “The reason for changing the Cup formats was to introduce more competitions for the players in the lower divisions. The later rounds of the Open, Veterans and Mixed Cups often involved the same few teams, and the number of clubs entering was falling.

“This year, each of the Divisions in the league will have its own Cup competition based on the successful format of the old Two-Down and Four-Down Cups. Teams can enter the Cup competition for their own Division, and also for the Division above, allowing them to test themselves against higher opposition.”

Arguably the best performance of the week came from a player who ended up on the losing side. Peter Windley (OCs A) scored two fine wins over Eric Green (5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9) and Chris Buer (8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5) in his team’s 3-5 defeat against Danbury A in the Open Cup.

Steve Whiteley held the Danbury side together with wins over Daniel Berry (8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7) and Charles Yeung (11-8, 11-5, 11-7).

Danbury B (Glen Laing, Neil Want and Peter Hance) are also through to the semi-finals. They beat Maldon 5-1. Colin Napper was on target for Maldon with a fine 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-4, 11-9) victory over Glen Laing.

The tie of the round in the Handicap Cup event took place at Hatfield Peverel where Maldon D beat Hatfield Peverel D 5-4. Clive Forster (playing off a Handicap off 55) who had lost his first two games came good for Maldon in his third encounter. He beat Andy Whiley (handicap of 40) 21-19, 21-14 to seal the Maldon victory.

Whiley had mixed success in his first two games – losing to Shirley Carroll (handicap of 55) 21-17, 15-21, 17-21 but beating Denis Crapnell (handicap of 47) 21-17, 21-8.

The match between OCs C and OCs B was also a good one with the C side winning 5-3 despite trailing 3-1 at one stage. Tanish Kotwal (handicap of 59) started the revival by beating Mick Hayes (also playing off 59) 13-21, 21-15, 21-12 and the C team never looked back after this. David Bishop (handicap of 51) defeated David Porter (handicap of 62) 21- 15, 21-13 and then Kotwal won again, defeating Tom Barker (handicap of 59) 21- 18, 21-17. OCs C were on a roll and Tom Davis (handicap of 45) sealed the victory by getting the better of Mick Hayes 19-21, 21-15, 21-14.

OCs A (Nat Ravlic, Frank Hodge and Peter Windley) are also through to the next round by beating Writtle Excalibur C 5-2. They raced in to A 4-0 lead and although Writtle pulled two games back with wins for Keith Pallet (handicap of 42) over Frank Hodge (handicap of 62) 19-21, 21-11, 21-19 and for Nicola Pippen (handicap of 51) against Nat Ravlic (handicap of 62) 21-19, 13-21, 21-10 it wasn’t nearly enough. Frank Hodge sealed the OCs victory with a very unlikely looking win over Melanie Bonnett (handicap of 52) 21-18, 2-21, 21-17.

Writtle Excalibur A are safely through to the next round of the draw. They beat Danbury E 5-2. The match between Norman Hayes (handicap of 54) and Louis Brown (handicap of 62) could hardly have been closer. Brown shaded it 19-21, 21-17, 25-23 to level the scores at 2-2. This proved to be vital as Writtle went on to win the next three games as well.

Danbury B (Dave Goody, Ken Sheard and Eric Green) are also through to the next round. Eric Green (playing off 72) and Ken Sheard (playing off 62) were both undefeated in their 5-1 victory over Chelmsford B. Green opened the proceedings with a  21-14, 19-21, 21-19 success against Mark Allaway (handicap of 62) and they never looked back after that.

The other results were more clear-cut. Chelmsford C (Jarek Pietraszuk, Dave Parker and Mohammad Mohseni) were 6-0 winners over Chelmsford E and Writtle Excalibur B (Steve Siggs, Dave Moles and Alan Offord) ran out 9-0 winners against CLICK side – Chelmsford A.