THE Cippenham Table Tennis Club boys team won three of their five games during the final weekend of matches in the Junior British League in Derby.

The six point haul was one better than the five gained during the first weekend in November and maintains third position in Division 4B.

Shae Thakker and Mihnea Dascalu both scored six wins over the weekend, while Pranav Gudipati did well to win half of his six games. William Fricker weighed in with one victory.

Cippenham got off to a good start on Saturday morning with a 4-2 success against fourth-placed Fusion 3. Thakker and Dascalu won two matches each, while the South London side were only able to respond by winning their two encounters with Fricker.

Gudipati replaced Dascalu for the afternoon match with leaders Hilton 2. The Widnes-based team eventually won 5-1 with only Gudipati scoring for Cippenham in the final set against Tom Watson.

However, the scoreline belies the closeness of the match in which Cippenham players lost three times by very narrow margins in the deciding game, and no set finished 3-0.

Cippenham got back to winning ways in the final match on Saturday as BATTS B, who fell from second to fifth in the table over the course of the weekend, succumbed 4-2.

Thakker was on top form winning both his matches 3-0, while Gudipati held on to win 119 in the fifth game against Charlie Read. Dascalu secured both points by beating the same player 3-1 in the final set.

Colebridge B were no match for Cippenham on Sunday morning, obtaining only a consolation victory late in the final set when Gudipati was beaten 12-10 in the fifth by Benjamin Rycroft-Stanley.

Prior to this, Thakker dropped just one game in his brace of victories, while Dascalu brushed aside Jake Crawshae 3-0 and then won in the fifth against Henry Belcher. Gudipati did better by winning 3-1 against the same opponent.

A win against Mid Ulster in the final match on Sunday afternoon would have secured Cippenham second place in the division, but it was not to be as their Irish opponents ran out 4-2 winners.

Dascalu and Fricker both beat the opposing number three player, Daniel Urwin, while Thakker lost in four games against both Joe Sheard and Tom Colvin.