SHIPTON Gorge B travelled to table toppers Park District in hope rather than expectation and so it turned out as they were thumped 30-4 in the Weymouth & District League.

Most matches were keenly contested but Park’s years of experience at this level was a key factor in a game that is often about small margins and the overall score was never in doubt as they recorded a perfect 10 wins.

Brian Cammell (2) played a hard fought five-game match against Richard Willshere (9), coming back from two games down.

Match of the night was between Luke Hunt (9) and Graham Albertella (2) who managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in games four and five with Luke coming back strongly to take the match.

Elsewhere, Springfield B put in a much improved performance in their return match against Springfield A. Although Springfield A only dropped one point – Paul Arnold (9) coming from two sets down to see off James Green (8) – the B team took five matches to five legs with all three of the home side players taking points to turn in an unexpected double figure points total.

Preston B may be bottom of Division One but they showed plenty of spirit during their 26-16 defeat to Shipton Gorge A who had Rob Hawes (9) ably assisted by Miranda Edwardes (8) and Terry Whitworth (6).

Edwardes and Whitworth both lost in five-setters to Roger Lovell (6).

Thierry Roy (5) also got the better of Whitworth whilst Eddie Chapman played-up from Division Two for Preston gaining four valuable points.

Preston A secured a 30-10 win over Springfield C whilst Wey Valley saw out a hard-fought 22-18 win over Preston C.

It was a busy night for the youngest player in the All Saints A v Budmouth B match, Sam Melhuish.

The youngster won all three of his singles games against the more experienced All Saints boys, though every match went to a fifth-game decider.

Even more remarkable was the closeness of each of the deciding games, with Melhuish winning the fifth 12-10 against Richard Lane (5), 13-11 against Ethan Clark (5) and 15-13 against Ollie James (5).

Melhuish also played in the doubles which went to a decider, but this time lost 11-9.

A great night’s table tennis saw Wyke A pip Shipton Gorge C 22-19 with all of the matches being fiercely contested with four going to five sets.

Tony Dobbs (8) was the strongest player of the night, although was eventually outplayed by some very solid attacking play by Tom Baldrey in one of the five-setters.

All the Shipton players put in a good shift picking up a solid six points as did Wyke’s Stuart Walden.

Ian South (5) was having a good night having picked up five games in his first two matches, until he played his final match against Dan Corren, losing 3-0 through making too many errors.

The match was very finely positioned prior to the doubles at 19-18 but Wyke proved too strong in the end, fairly comfortably taking the doubles 3-1 to win the match.

There were many close legs when Budmouth C took on Wyke B but the more experienced Wyke players were able to get over the line much more regularly.

The Budmouth boys gained some consolation by winning the doubles 3-1 in a hard-fought match which Wyke won 28-8.

The game of the night in All Saints B’s 22-13 win over Budmouth D involved a great comeback from Alfie Moggeridge (2) against the much more experienced Jean Baker (9), who cruised into a 2-0 lead.

Moggeridge played superbly to level at 2-2, with Baker just pulling away to win 11-6 in the decider.