ASHFORD TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE DIVISION 2 ROUND-UP

With Iron Room A sitting eight points of Ruckinge B at the top of Division 2 having both played five matches it was down to Challock B to try and slow them down.

Challock B finished second last time out, and were expected to be challenging for the top again this quarter, but were tied for sixth place and 20 points behind the leaders albeit with a game in hand.

Iron Room A started the match with the only unbeaten record in the division, and maintained it with a 6-4 win.

The result puts Iron Room 14 points clear at the top but everyone else has games in hand.

Challock B captain Cliff Ball started the evening brightly for the away side with a 3-1 win over Keith Harris before Steve Smith (last season’s averages winner) faced off against Keith Yarnley.

It had been almost a year since Smith had felt defeat in the Ashford League, and Yarnley was able to bring this run came to an abrupt end win a straight sets win, 11-9, 11-6,11-9.

Men’s singles champion, Jonny Bispham then recorded a 3-0 win over Bob Baker to put Iron Room A 2-1 up.

Yarnley handed out another 3-0 defeat, to Ball, before Baker pulled one back for Challock with a 3-0 victory over Harris.

This was to be the last win for Challock in a while as Bispham beat both Smith and Ball 3-0, and despite winning one leg Baker was unable to overcome Yarnley.

These wins put Iron Room 6-2 up with two to play.

In the final singles Smith and Harris were going head to head to avoid suffering a whitewash, with Smith coming through 3-0 to reduce the team deficit to 6-3.

Reigning doubles winners Johnny Bispham and father Steve (guesting for the evening) took on Smith and Cliff in five-leg thriller.

The first four legs were shared alternately, and it was the Challock pairing who proved the more consistent taking the win, and restricting Iron Room to a 6-4 victory.

In that other match, Ashford TT B defeated Ruckinge C 7-3 in an early relegation match.

Ruckinge C went into the match a mere three points ahead of Ashford, so it looked on paper to be a tight match.

Ashford B already faced an uphill battle with one of their regulars unavailable, so Bob Young was called up from Division 4.

Ashford’s Matt Hills started with a straight sets win over Terry Yeomans.

Ruckinge C hit back with Dan Simmons edging past Luke Garvey in five, before Young was brushed aside by Clive Devlin to leave Ruckinge 2-1 up.

Matt Hills then threatened to thrash Simmons winning the first leg 11-1, but Simmons fought his way back before losing in five legs.

Yeomans then got his name of the board with a 3-0 win over Young, but sadly for Ruckinge that was it for the night.

Luke Garvey overcame Yeomans and Devlin without losing a set, and Hills notched a hat- trick with a 3-0 win over Devlin.

However upset of the night was Young coming from 2-0 behind to beat Simmons 3-2.

With Ashford bubbling with confidence it didn’t take them long to tie up a 3-1 win in the doubles, and a 7-3 win on the night.