QUEENS F trail Aldworth B by 13 points at the top of Basingstoke and District Table Tennis League Division Two after a well-contested 5-5 draw with AWE A.
Queens will hope that soon-returning star Kam Pang will reignite their title chase.
Bill Stamatiou, affectionately known amongst his side as ‘Greek Bill’, earned a hard-fought treble including a five-game win in the match of the night against George Wilson.
But Wilson managed his own five-game thriller in the final match against Melvyn Lovegrove after quickly stretching into a two-game lead. Perhaps with the daunting shadow of scoring zero, Lovegrove managed to reel Wilson back to tie.
Eventually, the effort proved insufficient as Wilson won the deciding game 14-12.
Steve Redstall took a double for his Portals side as they faced a two-man St Peters C missing Tom Speed.
The pivotal match-up proved to be that between Redstall and defensive style arch-nemesis Alan Lipscombe, which saw the Portals player emerge victorious in five games.
Richard Faulkner also managed a double, albeit against three players, with commendable wins over Peter Blunden and Gary Walters.
A Queens E team missing Nigel Cooper, due to the recent snow conditions, had to call on the services of Bill Bavister. This proved a waste of time – in the opinion of the home scorecard comments – as they lost 8-2 to their fellow Queens G side.
Robin Burns took the only treble of the fixture and appears the player in form with seven wins from his last nine matches. Celia Hooker spared the blushes of Queens E with defeats of Tommy Wan and George Freeman.
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