FISSC won the basement battle with their fellow Knights Lane tenants Veterans after a very competitive evening’s table tennis. Peter Florence led the way with a treble despite being made to work hard by all three opponents. Mark Jones added a brace, and Malcolm Smith their other singles but neither were able to get the better of Peter Rodwell. Smith was involved in both contests to go to the wire with contrasting fortunes. He recovered from a two set deficit only to lose to Rodwell 11-9 in the fifth before, in partnership with Jones, finally clinching the doubles by the same score. David Wye gained his maiden victory to give Veterans their third point but it wasn’t enough to prevent the farmers winning 7-3 to move out of the bottom two league places.

League leaders Shottery A brought in Craig Witheford for their visit to JLM Falcons although, despite him securing all three singles and the doubles in partnership with Gary Stewart, they were still only able to claim a share of the spoils. Stewart earned their other success, whilst the usually prolific Stephen Foster went home empty-handed despite taking an early two set lead against Doug Payne. Jack Davis and Steve Cull each won two games for the hosts who are eleven points behind their opponents but with a match in hand.

Snitterfield’s title hopes were dented when they were also held to a draw by Shottery B. However even that result appeared unlikely after they lost the opening two games with John Price narrowly defeated in the decider by Gareth Hepworth, and Don McAdam overcome by Tim Fell. Fortunately Snitterfield went on to claim five of the remaining encounters with the in-form Alan Cotton earning a treble, and Price victorious over his other two opponents. McAdam came close to securing the match for Snitterfield but was defeated by Ron Shakesheff in the second contest to go the full distance. Hepworth went home with a brace for Shottery B as well as enjoying success in the crucial doubles with Shakesheff.

Henley B took advantage of their rivals setbacks with a 9-1 win over Tanworth Taipans. Stuart Latham-Marr and Dave Milton were untroubled, but Robert McCluskey was denied a perfect performance by Mick Welsh who thereby ensured the whitewash was avoided.

John Taylor produced a treble for Colebridge Pasties who came away from Blazing Paddles with an 8-2 victory. Mike Evetts and Mike Credland contributed braces but neither were a match for Brian Hobill, although Credland will consider himself unfortunate by earning two more points than his opponent over the course of their encounter only to lose the fifth set 16-14 .