Table Tennis Rob Pownall claimed his maximum for Ely IV against Fulbourn V, though he needed the fifth against David Lam to complete the feat.

Greg Ozog tried his best to provide some back-up, taking Lam to five and pushing Nick Gatherer hard but succeeded only against Julian Atudosie. Gatherer and Lam took the doubles against Ozog and Karen Byford to give Fulbourn the match 6-4.

Fulbourn III’s Sammy Hague was clearly not well but made no complaints as he despatched the Soham Comrades IV team of Martin Logan, Mick Wells and Mick Foreman. Phil Hague did likewise, though he was taken to five by Logan. Dave Roitman came unstuck against Wells, coming from two down to square the match, only to lose the fifth. Constant Fulbourn pressure gave them the match 9-1 to consolidate their second place in the table behind Soham Comrades II.

In Division 3, two wins each for Brian Mitchell and Steve Foulger plus one from Tim Atkinson saw Countess home to a very satisfactory result against Fulbourn VII.

The closest matches were Atkinson beating Manu Hathirimani and Foulger overcoming Carl Woolf in the fifth. However, Woolf beat Mitchell and Rob Powell beat Foulger to make for a crucial doubles. Atkinson and Mitchell went two up, Powell and Woolf pulled back the third and cruised the fourth but Countess took the fifth and the match by 6-4.

Richard Bramley, of Fulbourn VI, is never afraid to take the match to his opponent and presented a real challenge to Ely V before going down at deuce in the fifth to both Pete Salmon and Simon Braschi.

He was joined by Sabina Burmester in the doubles when they again took the match to five against the Simons, Braschi and Bickers. Otherwise, it was largely straightforward for Ely with only Tim Hands averting the whitewash against Braschi. Soham Comrades V got off to a flying 3-0 lead against visitors Elsworth II but then Bill Knibbs, Colin Fotland with two and Richard Smart also with two reeled off the next five games. Lito Jumilla pulled one back beating Bill Knibbs in four before Smart and Fotland took the doubles to give Elsworth the match 6-4 and further cement their place at the top of the table.

In Division 1, Howard Morley gave NCI the perfect start with a faultless performance to defeat Clive Woollard of Soham and give NCI a 1-0 lead.

However, Soham were quickly back in control of the match with Tony Everitt and Andreas Elia easing through all their games undefeated. NCI kept the pressure on Woollard for the rest of the evening with his remaining games going to five sets but he held his nerve to beat Colin Taylor 14-12 and Kelvin Mitchell 11-9 in nail-biting deciding sets. Elia and Everitt combined for a doubles victory against Morley and Mitchell to wrap up a 9-1 win for Soham.