With over half their matches played Bristol Nomads continue to look the favourites for the Division One title of the Eastern Valley Table Tennis League. In their latest match the Nomads' Brian Reeves was making his first appearance of the season and he produced a player of the match performance in recording 3 wins in straight sets over Cwmbran Colts. The final result was a comfortable 22-10 win for the Nomads.
The other match in Division One saw Cwmbran Blues attempting to keep up their challenge for the title with a match against YMCA. With the Blues borrowing Tony Collins from the Aztecs to replace the unavailable David Lloyd a comfortable would have been anticipated. However, a player of the match performance from Paul Booth, including a win over Collins and a defeat in 5 sets to Mark Farrow, ensured that the outcome of the match went to the last game which the Blues won 18-17. The Blues are now 27 points behind the leaders the Nomads, but, have a game in hand.
In Division Two, whilst the leaders Cwmbran Panthers were having a bye week, the top match was between the second and third sides Blaenavon Aces and Cwmbran Dynamos. Due to the adverse weather conditions the Aces had only 2 players, however, the Dynamos kindly offered them the services of one of their players to ensure everyone had a full set of matches to play. The Dynamos had already called upon the services of Mike Blatchford from the Panthers to cover player unavailability and with the Dynamos containing 2 of the top 4 players in Division Two a win was anticipated. However, the young Aces players have been improving as the season progresses. This was highlighted with wins for the Pearce brothers Mathew and Ben over Alex Jones, but, they could not get the better of player of the match Blatchford who won his 3 matches. Despite Blatchford's performance Blaenavon Aces won the match 20 - 18 to move into first place in Division Two having played a game more than their closest rivals.
Trying to maintain their 4th position in Division Two, Cwmbran Eccentrics saw off the challenge of Cwmbran Devils 21 - 15 due to a player of the match performance from Peter Alderson who won all his matches. However, the Devils' Stan Williams took Alderson all the way when losing in 5 sets for his only defeat of the night.
As with the other Blaenavon side the Bulldogs also had a player short due to the weather, but, were able to use Lincoln Allford from the Eccentrics in their match against Cwmbran Fellows. Despite a surprise defeat for Allford against Glenda Prytherch the Bulldogs won 19 - 15 to record their second win of the season. There were good performances from the Bulldogs' Joe Hill and Jack Freegard whose only defeats were against Wayne Ford, but Ford was made to work for his wins.
