As another table tennis season ends, Saints A have regained the championship of the  Hastings & District League which they last won in 2010/11. Their squad of Ritchie Venner, Dave Butler, James Winchester and Graham Deeprose were worthy champions, pulling away in the last month to win with a 6 point margin. Venner was unbeaten and was not taken beyond three games until March, Butler was beaten twice, in the first and last matches of the season and number three Winchester achieved  85%.

Hollington Academy A (Paul Barry, Basher Obeyed, Andy Furnival, Stacey Furnival, Chelsea Furnival) finished a creditable second after being dogged by injury in the latter stages.

After consecutive titles, Bexhill A had to settle for third place, two points adrift of Academy. With Lewis Mayhew available for just over half the matches, Bexhill were forced to call on no fewer than nine different players to back up their mainstays Rob Warner, Martin Kellaway and Bob Lowe.

Bexhill C, with Graham Gillett to the fore, just edged out Hollington Academy B for fourth place with Rose Rainton (92%) having an outstanding season for the Academics.

The table shows a gap of 19 points between fifth and sixth place where Tackleway A and Hollington Academy C finished with identical points and sets figures.

For the third consecutive season, the Second Division champions finished at the foot of Division 1, in this case Tackleway C, despite the best efforts of James Gorridge.

Tackleway C finished ten points behind nearest rivals Tackleway B.

Dangerously close to the drop were Saints B, despite another fine season for Ron Davenport. Saints had a poor second half of the season after losing John Wond to knee surgery.

Tigers A were indebted to Tony Catt for their position of relative comfort while Bexhill B had to call on seven players from the lower divisions during the season.

The individual averages serve to reflect Saints’ success with unbeaten Venner top, Butler second and Winchester sixth. Rose Rainton’s outstanding form continues and she shares third place with Lewis Mayhew.