Week seven of the Fun88-sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association league saw a resumption of singles play in Divisions One and Two, with the usual singles and doubles in Division Three.
Division One
Travellers A (6), Ramsey A (3)
Second-placed Ramsey A had an opportunity to close in on leaders Travellers A, but instead lost ground.
Despite still missing Liam Chan, Travellers were able to call upon John Shooter who was a more than capable stand-in, dutifully winning two of his matches against Becky Taylor and Chris Holmes.
Scott Lewis was again unbeaten and remains the beating heart of Travellers A. Holmes took a game off him but, other than that, Lewis was untroubled.
Malcolm Cummings then chalked up a great win in four ends against an off-colour Taylor. He was unable to make any impression against Duncan Alexander though, losing in straight ends.
Alexander was also successful against Shooter, the attacking left-hander overcoming the experienced Shooter 12/14, 11/9, 11/6, 11/9.
Finally, Chris Holmes recorded a superb win over Cummings, triumphing 11/8 in the fifth with some tremendous attacking shots to the wings.
Arbory B (3), Arbory A (6)
Mike Tamarov was Arbory A’s rock with another clean sheet, taking wins over John Magnall in five ends (from two down), Amit Lanin in four and Dan Levine in three.
Team-mate Sonja Shaw added a point by coming back from a game down to win 3-1 against Levine.
Malcolm Lambert was playing up again for the A team and once again acquitted himself admirably with two superb wins. In a tight match, he edged past Levine 5/11, 11/5, 12/10, 12/10 and then had a tremendous victory over Magnall, out-foxing him in four.
Tower A (3), Travellers B (6)
Dave Parsons had a hard-fought but valuable win for Tower over Malc Lewis in five ends, then swept aside Keeran Chan in four.
Ken Mitchell also outmanoeuvred Chan, winning in the fourth end. He had two match points in the fourth against Lewis but the wily Travellers player thwarted him, taking the game 13/11 and the fifth 11/9.
Star of the night was the ever-improving Will Shooter whose down-the-line backhand counters meant he didn't drop a game all night against the hapless Mitchell, Parsons and Mike Bayley.
Keeran gained some solace by defeating Bayley in their fourth end.
Tower B (0), Strathallan (9)
Tower B fell victim to a rampant Strathallan team of Julian Briercliffe, Andy Patterson and Wayne Taylor.
Simon Radcliffe nabbed a game off Briercliffe in their four-setter, but other than that it was plain sailing for Strathy who continue to move up the table.
Division Two
Ramsey B (5), Travellers C (4)
Wael Kassim again stepped in for Ramsey with two excellent wins against Paul Mathieson-Nelson and David Buck, each in four ends.
Geoff Ball added two further points by defeating Buck in three, then notched up a notable win over the tough-to-beat Mathieson-Nelson.
Player of the night was once again Dave Lovelady who remains unbeaten this season. His toughest encounter was against Kassim, but Lovelady used all his experience to edge past the Ramsey youngster 11/9, 10/12, 11/9, 11/3.
JRTE Marketing (4), Peel A (5)
Darren Smethurst was always going to be gold dust for JRTE in Division Two with his top-notch table-tennis credentials.
After a 10-year lay-off he has come back with a bang and only been beaten once, adding another three points in this tie.
Having said that, Stu Perry gave him a good run for his money taking him to a fifth before fading out 7/11 in the last. Jon Taylor-Burt also took a game off him.
JRTE’s Paul Mitchinson had a stellar match against Ken Hegarty, pulling off an against-the-odds win 11/6, 9/11, 11/4, 10/12, 11/7.
Ramsey C (0), Desmond's Douglas (9)
The Ramsey C trio of Martyn Howard, Keith Herington and Geoff Burchill on paper are a strong team but they were no match for an even stronger Desmond's outfit.
Brandon Mointgomery, Neil Ronan and Sasha Thomas were just too strong for Ramsey, with only three matches going to a fourth end.
Arbory D (2), Arbory C (7)
JP Banaag once again demonstrated what a good stand-in he is for the D team with excellent wins against Dave Bufton and Rob Wright.
Bufton pushed him all the way but fell in the fifth end 9/11.
JP was stopped in his tracks by player of the night Kevin Drewry who proved too tricky for him, taking it 11/7, 10/12, 11/7, 11/9. Wright did well to add two points for the visitors by defeating Liav Lanin and Bob Borland.
Division Three
Travellers G (2) Travellers F (3)
Thomas Taylor-Burt was star of this tie, notching up two points by defeating Sydnie Weaver in four ends and Rhys Bufton in a tight five-setter.
Taylor-Burt and Max Doyle could not quite match the skills of Weaver and Bufton though, losing the doubles in three ends.
Ramsey E (0) Travellers E (5)
Henry Weaver once again showed how far he has progressed this season by beating Saul Tumblety and Teddy Clayton to retained his 100% record.
Weaver’s team-mate Eban Moore is also progressing well and the young left-hander showed great determination to take both of his wins in the fifth end, with some close games being seen in both matches.
The boys then added a further valuable fifth point to take a 5-0 win.
JRTE Marketing B (5) Ramsey D (0)
Newcomer Anil Paul did well to take two wins for JRTE with a three-set victory over Pat Halliwell and a four-set win over Tony Sewell.
Gary Skillicorn did likewise without dropping a game, and he and Paul combined well to take the doubles 11/7, 11/6, 11/7 which resulted in a 5-0 win.
KEN MITCHELL