Table tennis

After a poor start to their Ashford & District Table Tennis League campaign, not helped by only fielding one player, Challock B bounced back in style with an 8-1 win over Ashford A. Demoted from Division 1 last season, they showed their pedigree with both Tim Pichowski and Paul Amos easing through their three wins over the considerably less experienced Reuben Tozer, Dean Burfield and Matt Hills. Dean Burfield did scrap a point for the Ashford side over Challock’s Lee Hirst to avoid a whitewash. Ruckinge D edged past Ruckinge C 5-4. The victory was only sealed in the final singles match by Colin Bingham, making his comeback from injury. Ruckinge’s club secretary beat Will Glennie by three legs to one but the real credit for the team win should go to Colin’s son, Luke, who put in the performance of the night, beating Glennie, Alan White and Paul Hickman for the loss of just three legs. Simon Dale came away with a win over Glennie but lost out in his other two matches without a leg to his name. The only other match in the division saw newlyformed Postling C continue their impressive form with an 8-1 win over Sportsman A, who had been clear at the top of the division after the first round of matches. The only thorn in Postling’s side was Douglas Ho, a relative newcomer to the sport. He put in a gritty attacking performance against Postling captain Terry Roome to win 11-9 in the final leg. Julian Thorne had failed to win his first two matches against Roome and Nigel Stansfield but came good in his final singles against Adam Gajewski, taking the first and third legs. Gajewski scraped the second leg 15-13 and then edged to a five-leg win 11-9, 11-9 in the final two legs. Sportsman’s final player, Howard Brightling, came away empty handed but did push Gajewski to an impressive 21-19 score in their third leg.