RACQUETSRound-up from the courts and tables

BEACON ELECTRICAL PLYMOUTH & DISTRICT TABLE TENNIS LEAGUE by David Williams

WITH only 10 teams and 18 league fixtures in Division Three, Four, Five and Six, all teams are playing their Divisional Cup matches as a round-robin. Each division is split into two sections of five teams with four matches to play. The top team in each section then play-off for the title.

In Division Three Section A Inter City B are doing better than their league from and have beaten both their C team and Naval Stores A 6-4. City, with only two players, also picked up five points against Elburton. Elburton (Ben Warren 3) had a convincing 8-2 win over Inter City C.

Crafthole District B and Woodland Fort C have both scored 10 points in Section B. Crafthole, with three from Tim Collings, beat Woolwell H 6-4 but then lost by the same score to Siblyback A (Colin Jago 3). Fort C, with six sets from Mike Willis and Barry Nile, beat Woolwell H 8-2, but with a weakened team lost 8-2 at Inter City A who had maximums from Adrian Osborne and Martin Holman.

One of the most bizarre results came in Division Four Section A when Astor E hosted Crafthole District D.

Astor allowed Chris Ford to play all of his matches and then leave. Ford won all three and with James Taylor beating Ron Parnell Crafthole led 4-0 before Astor reduced the deficit to 5-3.

Nick Taylor (Crafthole) had by then broken his bat but was loaned a bat by Astor but he lost to Gerry Elliott to make the score 5-4.

Crafthole players for the doubles now had one broken bat, one serviceable bat and the one other bat was deemed unusable due to a large blister.

With Ford having left Crafthole had to concede both doubles leaving Astor 6-5 winners. Much more straightforward were the wins by Crafthole D over Inter City E 6-3 and by Crafthole C over City E 7-3

Lee Mill are doing well in Section B with wins over Saltash (7-3) and Molyneux Associates (8-2), with Richard Smaridge unbeaten. Railway Club E lie second after defeating Woodland Fort D 7-3 but losing 6-4 at Saltash

Woodland Fort G are carrying their good league form into Division Five Section A and beat Astor F 7-3 and Woolwell K 8-2. Two each from Ted Morrish, Bob Steele and Rob Jenkins gave Naval Stores B a 8-2 win at Woolwell K.

Inter City G in Section B found Woolwell J (Ollie Davis and Pete Andrews three each) too good 8-2, but did well to draw with Woodland Fort F thanks to three from Cliff Jones. Despite having only two players in Mike Taylor and Aidan Wiseman, Woolwell I beat Inter City F 7-3.

Siblyback B lead in Division 6 Section A after winning 6-4 at Crafthole District E and defeating Woolwell N 9-1.

Two Woolwell teams have 15 points in Section B. The L and M teams drew 5-5 and then both won 10-0 against Woolwell Q and Woolwell R respectively.

MANNAMEAD WINTER TENNIS LEAGUE

AT THE end of the first half of the 2009/10 season, 21 matches are still waiting to be played in the men's divisions mainly due to the very wet and then icy conditions from late-November onwards.

In Division A there are nine outstanding fixtures with Division B having three unplayed and nine in Division C.

The current Division A champions, Neil Hunt and Mike Paskins, have played seven of their eight matches and lead with 135 points.

In second place are Phil Harbottle and Phil Ruse on 111 points, also from seven matches followed by Jeremy Kevern and Matt Redshaw on 98 points from five matches.

Only one pair have played all eight matches and Chris Williams and Paul Wardle have finished just three matches to date.

Three other pairings, John Davies and Tim Randell, Tony Maestri and Umberto Fontinari, and Kevern and Redshaw, have three matches not completed.

The position in Division B is much better with four of the nine pairs having played all eight matches.

There are joint leaders with both Andrew Leigh and Alex Peers-Jones together with Simon Yeo and Ashley Scoble having 141 points from seven matches.

Two points adrift are John Mullin and Luke Rodd.

Only Max Goodison and Bart Dudley, with three to play, have more than two unplayed matches.

Ron Cole and Rob Thomas are still unbeaten in Division C with an impressive 175 points out of 184 from eight matches.

Paul Matthews and Paul O'Connell, having played all nine matches, are two points behind with Patrick Poon and John Jacobs third with 146 points from nine matches.

Needing to catch up rapidly with their fixtures are Jake Daykin and David Graham, who have been on court on only four occasions.

Other pairs having played only six matches are Andy Westlake and Graham Martin, and Dudley Tolkien and Ashley Jarwood.

The second half of the season was scheduled to start this week weather-permitting.