The eighth round of fixtures in the Fun88-sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association league took place last week.

Division One

Tower B (0) Travellers A (9)

Travellers A remain firmly in top spot in Division One after a 9-0 drubbing of Tower B, who were largely powerless in this tie.

All matches were settled in three ends in favour of Paul Mathieson-Nelson and Liam Chan, with the exception of Steve Curtis' plucky performance against Malcolm Cumings.

The tenacious Tower veteran pushed the Travellers player all the way to a fifth end before bowing out 4/11.

Mathieson-Nelson was playing up for the A team and acquitted himself very well with sound wins in all his matches.

Arbory B (1) Ramsey A (8)

Ramsey A kept within reach of Travellers at the top with a further well-earned eight points.

Only John Magnall was able to break the Ramsey stranglehold when he overcame Becky Taylor in four ends. Arbory’s Amit Lanin had an exciting contest with Duncan Alexander which went in favour of the Ramsey player with a 15/13 scoreline in the fourth.

Arbory’s third player Mike Levine was playing up for the B team. Adam Teare was in supreme form once again for Ramsey, defeating Lanin and Levine in three ends and Magnall in four.

Tower A (3) Arbory A (6)

Arbory A’s Mike Tamarov and Jason Quirk were as solid as ever, going unbeaten on the night.

Tower’s Ken Mitchell, Dave Parsons and Mike Bayley were all able to overcome Sonja Shaw who played well but ultimately was unable to thwart the Tower trio.

Strathallan (5) Travellers B (4)

John Shooter was unbeaten for Travellers with three well-crafted wins over Andy Patterson, Julian Briercliffe and Wayne Taylor.

He beat Briercliffe in four ends, with Taylor and Patterson falling in three. Malc Lewis and Taylor had an epic battle, with the Travellers player narrowly edging it in the fifth end 11/9.

Taylor had a very good win against Will Shooter, defeating him in four ends. Briercliffe added to Will’s misery with a five-end win, while Patterson also notched up two wins for Strathy, with Will and Lewis falling victim to him.

Division Two

Arbory D (5) Ramsey B (4)

Wael Kassim continued his excellent form with three superb wins over Liav Lanin and Bob Borland in three ends, and JP Banaag in four.

Roland Bouchat added another point for Ramsey with a three-end win over Borland, while 11-year-old Liav improves week on week and he notched up two points for the home side with good wins over Darren Shaw and Bouchat.

Banaag added two more points for the home side and Borland a further one to take the home win on the night.

Ramsey C (0) Peel A (9)

Peel continued their excellent form with this emphatic win over the unfortunate Ramsey trio of Keith Herrington, Martyn Howard and Geoff Birchall.

Jon Taylor Burt was in supreme form once again and he was backed up well by Stu Perry and Ken Hegarty.

That said, Martyn Howard was involved in some extremely close matches - not least in his five-setter with Hegarty, with the Peel player coming back from 1-2 down to take the win.

Howard’s four-setter with Perry looked even closer, with a scoreline of 3/11, 10/12, 14/12, 11/13.

JRTE A (3) Travellers C (6)

JRTE were only able to field two players for this one, but Darren Smethurst was his usual efficient self, notching up three wins against Keeran Chan, Luke Begley and Dave Buck.

Match of the night was Smethurst v Chan, with the JRTE player storming back after losing the first end to take the next three and the match.

This result means Travellers C are now only one point clear of Peel A at the top of Division Two.

Arbory C (2) Desmond’s Douglas (7)

Brandon Montgomery and Neil Ronan were stars of this tie, both notching up three wins.

Russ Kent was a little off-colour, losing in five to Rob Wright and in four to Kevin Drewry - full credit to Wright and Drewry for their well-deserved victories.

It was unusual to see Dave Bufton coming away without a win for Arbory, but he pushed Montgomery all the way, only losing out 9/11 in the fifth end. Drewry’s match against Neil Ronan was also really close, with the latter just pipping him 9/11, 11/7, 11/9, 12/14, 11/9.

Desmond’s remain firmly in third place in Division Two.

Division Three

JRTE B (0) v Travellers D (5)

Unfortunately the home side were unable to field any players for this tie and therefore had to forfeit the match to Maurice Campbell and Margaret Forsyth of Travellers, who gratefully accepted five points and an early exit.

Travellers D look increasingly like they will gain promotion back to Division Two if they continue their good form, even at this early stage.

Travellers G (1) Travellers E (4)

Thomas Taylor Burt picked up an excellent win over Eban Moore, taking the point over four ends.

Moore was able to sweep past Max Doyle in three ends for some recompense. His team-mate Henry Weaver was player of the match though, with two solid three-end wins over Taylor Burt and Doyle.

Weaver and left-hander Moore combined well to take the doubles in four ends to conclude the 4-1 match scoreline.

Ramsey D (0) Travellers F (5)

Rhys Bufton and Sydnie Weaver combined well once again to take an excellent 5-0 win against the experienced duo of Pat Helliwell and Tony Sewell.

Bufton was impressive and largely untroubled in both of his singles, as was Weaver. The youngsters then took the doubles 11/6, 11/5, 11/3 to make it a clean sweep.

KEN MITCHELL