Leaders push on with an emphatic win
Maidstone Working Men’s Club A extended their lead at the top of Division 1 of the Maidstone & District Table Tennis League. They pushed on with a 9-1 win against their C team in week seven. Coxheath A were the other 9-1 winners as they trounced a makeshift Kings Hill B team, who rallied at the end to take the doubles. Barming A were kept to six points by Chris Knight and Chris Drury’s efforts for Working Men’s D. Richard Beckham made it 17 unbeaten trips to the table for Barming B and heads the individual averages table, but his side lost out 6-4 to Working Men’s B. Continuing to average in excess of eight and a half points a match, Coxheath B – 9-1 winners over Barming F – have a healthy lead at the top of Division 2. Second-placed Barming E were held 5-5 by Sutton Valence A, buoyed by the return to action of talisman Nigel Hammond. TT Traders’ 9-1 win against a two-player Coxheath C moved them closer towards a promotion slot. Larkfield A were led by an unbeaten Rob Hart as they drew their mid-table clash with Trosley A.
Defending champions Maidstone contested the Kent Intermediate Team Tournament at the Howard School in Rainham. Coxheath’s Petar Tancevski, Adam Simpson and Paul Godson won their pool to qualify for the semi-finals. Despite their efforts however, they subsequently lost out 3-1 to Folkestone B, the ultimate runners-up to trophy winners Thanet A.
Teams representing the county were in action at the weekend in the Veterans County Championships, featuring several Maidstone league regulars. Kings Hill’s Brian Lees and Pam Butcher were part of a Kent 4ths team at Reading under the captaincy of former Hillreed player Dean Chipperfield, but came up against strong opposition and were twice on the wrong end of the result. Kent 2nds had mixed results in Division 1B at Slough, where Barming’s Martin Hewett and Working Men’s Chris Knight contributed to an 8-2 win against Dorset, but Kent slipped to a 7-3 defeat against Bucks. Kent 3rds posted two wins at Harlow in Division 2C, against Surrey and Middlesex.