Week two of the nascent season saw the meeting of Bexhill A and Hastings Academy B in the Hastings & District Table Tennis League, the two teams most likely to challenge Academy A for their Division One title. Bexhill A won 7-3 with Lewis Mayhew unbeaten and Martin Kapusta winning two while Dave Butler won twice for Academy B. The match hinged on two sets, with Mayhew and Kapusta taking the doubles 11-9 in the fifth before, in a clash between two former Hastings Closed champions, Mayhew edged out Butler 11-8 in the deciding game.

Tackleway A had their second draw when they shared the points with Tackleway B. No player dominated, with Mike Funnell and Gina Rogers both winning two for the A side and Roger Pingram and Sue Pingram doing likewise for the B team.

Hollington A gained their second win with two wins each for Kevin Barry, Shaun Godfrey and Ron Davenport in a 7-3 defeat of Academy C, despite Rose Rainton’s maximum for the losers.

In Division Two, Nalgo A gained the result of the week when they beat promotion favourites Hastings Academy E 6-4, thanks to excellent unbeaten performances from Paul Hyland and Mike Courtnage.

Monarchs A came from 3-5 down to gain a hard-earned draw at Tackleway E with Bob Lowe winning three for Monarchs. Andy Brown and Aaron Pain won two apiece for Tackleway.

There was an even closer encounter at Hollington in Hollington B’s 5-5 draw with Tackleway D when Alan Blackman won three and Owen Hatter two for Tackleway while Rob Clemence won twice for Hollington. The vagaries of the flexible playing order left Tackleway 3-5 down and ‘super veteran’ Owen Hatter to play both the last two sets. Unperturbed, Hatter won both over five games to draw the match.

Tackleway F beat Hollington D 7-3 in Division Three with a Steve Milton maximum and two from Ali Rastgoye while Joanne Clarke won two for the losers.

Dom Goodson won three times to keep Bexhill H in a 5-5 draw with Willett & Phillips who had two wins each from Phil Bailey and Ken McEwan.