THE Basingstoke and District Table Tennis League is now up and running after the Summer Break, writes PAUL MYERS.

In common with a number of other local leagues, here in Basingstoke we have restructured our league to include a Premier Division.

In the Premier Division, Hannington A last season’s runners up started their season with a whitewash against St Peters B with Sam Ricks, Malcolm Cummins and Richard Fettes all unbeaten on the evening. Last season’s champions Saints suffered a 6-4 reverse against Hannington B with Tony Browns treble on the night claiming the man of the match honours. St Peters A got their campaign off to a winning start beating Queens B 7-3 with James Wright claiming a hat-trick. Queens up and coming youngster Ian Parkyn took the notable scalps of Sean Pickin and Peter Matthews in what looked like a great evenings table tennis. Finally, KG A and Aldworth A fought out a draw with the highly ranked newcomer to the league Mircea Neagu winning an easy three with both KG’s Micky Lang & Aldworth’s Jamie Cole grabbing hard fought braces for their sides.

In the First Division both Queens D and Queens G opened up with 9-1 victories. The D sides George White and Peter Martin were both unbeaten on the evening with Oakley A’s John Golding beating Martin Gilbey(2wins) to avoid the whitewash. Golding later in the evening had to concede with a back injury we hope it’s not too serious. Well done to Aldworth C’s Andy Jeffrey coming from 2 sets down to beat Melvyn Lovegrove(2wins) 11-9,11-8,8-11,12-14 & 9-11 to prevent the drubbing with Queen G’s Steve Wan and Gabriel Bori both bagging trebles on the night. St Peters C beat Queens F 8-2 with both Keith Russell and Alan Lipscombe undefeated whilst Phil Russell chipped in with a pair. A strong Hannington C topped off a great week for their club winning 8-2 against KG B with Mark Pettengell and Peter Henderson undefeated, the notable performance on the evening was Kg’s Dave Kimberley comeback win against James Clark(2wins).