Moving into the final weeks of the season Postling A are sitting top of the league, but Ashford TT A are only a point behind with a game in hand.

With Ashford TT A not playing this week, Postling A & Ruckinge A had the change to creep ahead in the table.  Postling A hosted Little Chart A, who are not in the title race but in no danger of relegation.  Player of the Match on the night was our Over 40's Champion Malcolm Skates who continued his form from thr tournament taking a hat trick of wins.  Alan Provan managed to win one leg but never really troubled Malcolm, Kevin Coleman was a long way off the pace losing in three straight.  However Paul Smallman pushed Malcolm in every leg, with the first leg ending 17-15 in favour of Malcolm it was always going to be tight, Paul took the second 11-9, but the confidence in the Postling player saw him through 11-8, 11-9.  After an unusal day at the tournament Nick Owen added a brace for Postling , only losing out over five legs to Alan Provan.  Postling's third, Chris Hooper, chipped in with a single win over Kevin Coleman, but Skates & Owen added the icing with a doubles win over Provan & Smallman.  The 7-3 win propelled Postling into top spot, and opening the gap between Little Chart and the relegation slot to 14 points with four matches to play.

Ruckinge A did not fair to well on their visit to Iron Room B.  It was a bad night for the reigning champions, and had it not been for Joe Britnell it could have been a lot worse.  In the reverse fixture Ruckinge had beaten Iron Room 8-2, it was time for revenge.  Refresh from his tournment wins in the junior events Shem Legarde showed his growing talent by coming passed Charlie Richards and Hrvoje Crnko without the losss of a set, then recovering from 2-1 down against Mens Open Finalist Joe Britnell to win 3-2, and record only his season treble of the season.  Vince Corbin can very close to not getting on the boarrd, but fifth leg wins over Charlie and Hrvoje saw him register a brace.  The Paul came past Hrvoje 12-10 in the fifth, and Charlie 12-10 in the fourth to match his team mate.  Shem and Vince then combined to beat Hrvoje & Charlie over five legs in the doubles to win 8-2 on the night (and tie 10-10 over the season!).  The result meant Ruckinge slipped to third, but Iron Room leapt up to fourth just a single poit behind.

The final match was a local derby and relegation clash.  Promoted Challock C took on their A side.  Top man, Paul Amos, was untroubled for Challock A running through his three games without losing a leg.    After a first leg reversal to Jamie MacDonald, Tim Pichowski reeled off three legs for the loss of nine points, then beat Nigel Stansfield in three.  However he had to settle for a brace with Darren Richardson coming from a leg behind to beat Tim 3-1.  Darren also beat Lee Hirst in 3-0 to finish his brace.  Unfortunately for Challock C that was their only reward for the evening.  Jamie lost out to Lee in a five leg thriller which ended 12-10 in the fourth, and 12-14 in the fifth.  Nigel and Lee also went the distance, buit the final tow legs both ended 11-4 with Lee coming out on top in the final leg.  Jamie and Nigel did well to take a single leg in the doubles, but Tim and Paul proved far to strong.  8-2 to Challock A leaves Challock C 10 points away from safety, and the team above (Challock A) have a game in hand.

This coming week sees Postling A have a week off, with the other contenders avoid each other and have the chance to leap frog the top side.

For full league details please visit www.tabletennis365.com/Ashford.

Community Table Tennis continues at Repton Connect on a Thursday evening from 8pm for those interested.