26/09/2025
Week 1 of the new season - Match reports below!
Letcombe Legends v Moreton Mavericks (9-1 win)
Richard 'Tricky' Taylor - 3/3 (POTM)
Ian 'The Painter' Mead - 3/3
Stephen '"The Guv'nor" Smith - 2/3
Also playing a team from Moreton, and with our captain in The Land of the Rising Sun, resident ringer Ian Mead made an early appearance. This meant we were able to pick up a handy 9-1 victory. Steve got his full moneys worth with all his matches going to 5, losing to a lad 50 years his junior. Experience isn’t everything obviously, and he was too knackered to even consider playing in the doubles!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Letcombe Bee's v Sutton Lynxes (10-0 win)
Josh 'The Hair' Boult - 3/3 (POTM)
Michael 'The Serve' Harrison - 3/3
Dale 'The Sweater' Ballard - 3/3
Playing against Sutton is always a difficult game with their unorthodox playing style, make it the first game of the season & this could have easily been a bump in the road for the Bee's. Fortunately, the boys all turned up with their A game and managed to each secure 100% all around. Josh went the evening without losing a set, whilst Michael & Dale both only dropped 1 set all night. Despite losing the first set in the doubles, the lads managed to claw it back to get a 3-1 victory. We learnt many things from this evening of table tennis;
- Dale is a superb summer signing
- Michael can't serve
- Josh still has awful hair.
Overall, a great night of table tennis - finished off with a pint in the Plum Pudding afterwards.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Letcombe Cowboys v Abingdon 'A' (9-1 Loss)
Hugh Owen - 1/3
Ashley Knight - 0/3
Paul Gildersleeves - 0/3
Letcombe Cowboys trotted into their Division 2 debut with a tough away fixture at Abingdon A – a side who were relegated from Division 1 last season and came into the match looking to bounce straight back up.
Despite the gulf in recent experience, the Cowboys showed plenty of fight and flashes of quality throughout the evening with games taken in every match. Hugh managed the solo win, including a game going to 19! with the doubles a closely contested affair but just falling short. Thankfully no shots were fired as the Cowboys retreated to the saloon for some moonshine!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Letcombe Desperados v Moreton 'E' (5-5 Draw)
Lucas Daly - 2/3
Chris Burr - 2/3
Ryan Welton - 0/3
Desperados first bar-brawl of the season was against the visiting Moreton E.
Desperados were 5-4 down going into the doubles, which we won comfortably, so the game ended in a 5-5 standoff. These cowboy metaphors are a bit stretched, aren't they!
In some ways Desperados were unlucky not to do better, as we lost all three of the 5-game sets. One of those, agonisingly was lost 17-19 in the final game.
Moreton had been practising their spinny serves over the summer. This caused all of us some problems, but particularly Ryan, who experimented with some unorthodox (and ultimately unsuccessful) tactics in the final game, such as aiming for the opponent instead of the table; one of the opponents will return to Moreton with bruises looking as though he has been in a paintball fight, if not an actual gun fight.
