Table Tennis Ely I were forced into calling up players from their lower teams for the vist of Fulbourn III.

First match of the evening was Ely’s Emily Birt against Phil Hague and with both players on the same handicap, a close game was anticipated. Hague prevailed over two close legs to give Fulbourn the early lead. Fulbourn’s Dave Roitman provided another point for Fulbourn in another close encounter with Ely’s Howard Middleton. The third match saw Fulbourn youngster Sammy Hague in the unusual position of giving points away to Ely’s John Dyal. After an error-strewn first leg from Hague he tightened his game to beat Dyal in four legs. Birt chalked up Ely’s first and only point with a win over Roitman before Middleton and Sammy Hague produced the best table tennis of the evening; Hague’s controlled attacking game meeting its match in Middleton’s determined defence.

With the first two legs shared, the decider was heading towards a very tight finished when fortune, and the edge of the table, favoured Hague. Hague senior wrapped things up with a win over Dyal to make it 5-1 to Fulbourn.

In Division 1, Fulbourn II took good advantage of a re-arranged match with Soham to secure some valuable points.

Dan Bates, of Fulbourn, set the pattern of the match with a close five-set win over Soham’s Ian Boggie. The next four games went Fulbourn’s way before Tony Everitt managed to stop the rot by defeating Bates.

There was no stopping Fulbourn however as they swept ahead claiming the remaining singles matches, with Nigel Bates and Jannek Hauser recording maximums. Boggie and Everitt salvaged a second point for Soham by defeating the father and son Bates combination in the doubles, leaving Fulbourn with an 8-2 victory.

After long-term injury, Richard Hatley made his seasonal debut for Fulbourn II against Soham Comrades I, beating Mark Lillyman and coming from two down to overcome Kin Choi Chan. However, he lost out to Nathan Stewart in a real nail-biter. Peter Xie scored his maximum for Fulbourn, needing the fifth against Kin.

The doubles proved to be an epic with Hatley and Derek Fuller taking the first two 15-13, 12-10 but back came Stewart and Kin to take the third and fourth legs. At deuce in the fifth it was anybody’s game, but it fell the way of Fulbourn to give them the match by 7-3.

In Division 3, Syd Rushton provided spirited resistance as Fulbourn VII sought to overcome Soham Comrades VI. He took Fulbourn’s Carl Woolf to five and joined up with Peter Diver to take the doubles 13-11 in the fifth against Woolf and Rob Powell. Phil Gannon had added to the Comrades tally when he beat Manu Hathirimani but Fulbourn took the match by 6-4.

In the Handicap Cup there was not much between the teams in terms of players’ handicaps but quite a difference on the night as Soham Comrades II beat Ellesmere I, 5-1.

Rhys Davies had got Ellesmere off to a good start by taking the first game of the evening against Robin Wallis but unfortunately his colleagues, Rob Boyce and Aldo Galea, could not match his efforts as Boyce lost to Wallis and Bela Szabo and Galea lost to Szabo and Kin Choi Chan. Comrades finished it off when Kin beat Davies.