Don't forget today is the last day to get your entries to Nigel Houseago. The entry form is under the Downloads area.

Swanton Morley C beat their E team 6-3  in the only preliminary fixture to be played, Joe Taplin's maximum helping them on their way.

Swanton Morley D were too strong for Watton, winning 7-2 and Hunworth were largely untroubled against Swanton G, winning all games played.

Closer though was Bintree A v Bradenham, the Division 1 side coming through a tight game 5-4.

Swanton Morley H beat Hingham 6-3, the handicap system working extremely well with nearly all the games ending with close finishes, apart from Hingham's Jamie who, with his tail up and an 11 start, was far too good on the night for Swanton's Richard Norman.  Martin Sneesby, making a welcome return for Swanton, contributed well with a couple of wins, but the star of the show was Neil Powell with a marvellous maximum.  The Hingham trio played well all match and certainly made their opponents fight hard for their 6-3 win.

Bawdeswell conceeded their match against Windsor Park and RYBS had to do the same against Bintree B.

This year's championships are being held on the evenings of Monday 4th and Wednesday 13th January at Swanton Morley Village Hall. Please see the entry form by selecting Downloads on the navigation area on the left of the screen. The form is available to view in Microsoft Word format. I don't have the facility at the moment to provide a pdf due to a recent computer upgrade. I believe its what's called progress. If you can't access the file please get in touch.

Entry forms need to be returned by Monday 21st December. Please make sure all your team are aware of the competition and have every opportunity to enter.

09/12/2009, played at Foxley Village Hall.
Hunworth beat Swanton Morley G 7-3.
A great evening of competitive table tennis which was considerably closer than indicated by the final scoreline. Hunworth's Jon Cheyette was involved in long five set matches for all his games, losing 11-9 in the fifth to Tony Brown, but winning 11-7 against Ian Taylor and 14-12 against Ron Duncan. And this was after a first leg which Duncan took 18-16. Luckily cakes were on hand to keep everyone alert for what was a pretty late one!

02/12/2009, played at Swanton Morley Village Hall.
Swanton Morley H beat Hingham 9-1.
Against Swanton Morley H, newcomers Hingham proved that they have the right spirit and attitude to compete in the Dereham League. Although on the night Swanton proved to be too strong for them, brothers Andrew and Jamie together with Mum, Tessa fought bravely throughout and had some reward with a win for Andrew against Neil in an open topsy-turvy game, 12-10 in the fifth end. Hingham nearly snatched a second point in the doubles but Tessa and Andrew couldn't quite take it going down 11-6, 2-11, 11-8, 11-13 and 12-10 to Neil and Richard.

The draw for the above is as shown below. Please note that as we have 17 team entries the first match shown shows a match which should be treated as a preliminary round, i.e. Swanton C v Swanton E. The winner of that match will then play Swanton F in the first round proper. Please see the centre of your handbook which shows how to apply the handicaps, and please note all games are best of 3 legs up to 21 points, just to give you a taste of the old days.

HANDICAPS

01/12/2009, played at Toftwood Junior School.
Watton lost to Swanton Morley E 1-9.
A comfortable result for Swanton, but Watton's Carol Almond prevented the whitewash with a fine win over Derek Sidgwick. After losing the first set Carol took the next three, finishing with a 14-12 win in the fourth.

02/12/2009, played at Wood Norton Village Hall.
Bintree B lost to Fakenham Conservatives 2-8.
The match saw Jenny Hodges step up from Division 3 for her first D2 match, and she played well to take a leg off John Ashley. John's game against Bruce Bishop went to the wire, but the doubles was a cracker as Bintree's Matt Hubbard & Bruce Bishop fought back from 2 games & 9-2 down to take take the last three sets 13-11, 15-13, 11-9. As far as comebacks go that one has got to take some beating!

01/12/2009, played at Toftwood Junior School.
Windsor Park lost to Hunworth 2-8.
Windsor Park were actually very pleased with an 8-2 defeat which sounds a bit odd, but their objective before the match was to not lose 10-0! The Hunworth guys wanted to nominate Matt and Phil Denton jointly as man of match, Phil winning against Barry Evans, and Matt almost beating John Cheyette in a five set game.

30/11/2009, played at Swanton Morley Village Hall.
Swanton Morley D drew with RYBS 5-5.
With RYBS looking good at 5-2 up Swanton D staged a fine comeback to clinch the draw. First it was Steve Sheldrake with a three-straight win over Joe Barber, then David Appleby did the same with Colin Smith, to record his maximum. That left the doubles, and Appleby with Chris Wood put in a determined display to come out on top against Smith and Phil Barber to make it shared points overall.

17/11/2009, played at Toftwood Junior School.
Hingham lost to Swanton Morley I 4-6.
Swanton Morley I shaded a competitive match against Hingham 6-4. Hingham's Tessa Nicholls lost out in the fifth set to both Jane and Ben Sheldrake, results which clinched the win for Swanton.

In the only first round match to be played Swanton Morley A beat their C team 9-0 and will now entertain Bintree A in the quarter finals.

The Mission played Swanton Morley D in their quarter final match and go through to the semis, this game also producing a whitewash scoreline