Week six of the Fun88-sponsored Isle of Man Table Tennis Association league saw the second round of doubles fixtures in Divisions One and Two, with the usual singles and doubles in Division Three.

Travellers A remain joint top of Division One, albeit Ramsey made up good ground on them. Travellers C have pulled clear of Peel A in Division Two, while Travellers D are well ahead in Division Three.

Division One

Ramsey A (9) Tower B (0)

Ramsey A were completely dominant in this fixture against bottom-placed Tower B, dropping only one game throughout.

Adam Teare, Becky Taylor and Duncan Alexander ensured an early finish after this masterclass in doubles play.

The win pulls them level with Travellers A at the top of Division One.

Arbory A (2) Travellers A (7)

Travellers A were again without Malcolm Cummings and Liam Chan, but Paul Mathieson-Nelson and Will Shooter stepped up to great success.

Indeed, Scott Lewis and Shooter were unbeaten, as was Mathieson-Nelson. It was slim pickings for Arbory with only Jason Quirk and Sonja Shaw plus Jason and Mike Tamarov picking off single points against Shooter and Mathieson-Nelson.

Travellers B (5) Arbory B (4)

Malc Lewis and John Shooter were unbeaten on the night for the hosts, sweeping aside the Arbory pairings of John Magnall and Dan Levine plus Amit Lanin and Levine.

Lanin and Magnall made a tremendous effort in their match against Lewis and Shooter, taking the second end 11-4 before fading in the final few points, losing out 8-11 in the final end.

But Lanin and Magnall won their other two matches against Shooter and Dave Buck plus Lewis and Buck.

Magnall and Buck then pulled off two solid wins to ensure a narrow victory overall for Travellers B.

Strathallan (8) Tower A (1)

The Strathy pairings of Wayne Taylor, Neil Quane and Andy Patterson always had the edge over Tower A who were sorely in need of a good result.

The one moment of glory for the away side came when Dave Parsons and Mike Bayley defeated Taylor and Quane 12-10 in the third end.

Ken Mitchell and Parsons took Taylor and Patterson to a third end, as they did Taylor and Quane, but lost both in the third end 8-11.

Strathallan will be delighted with eight points and it’s a case of back to the drawing board for the Tower trio.

Division Two

Travellers C (9) Arbory D (0)

Dave Lovelady, Kieran Chan and Luke Begley were impressive in this tie and will feel rather pleased to have taken all nine points. Equally, Arbory will feel disappointed to lose all nine!

The experience of Lovelady and Chan combined well with the youthful energy of Begley as four matches went to a third and final end but each time, to their great credit, Travellers pulled through.

The closest of these was between Lovelady and Begley versus Malcolm Lambert and Bob Borland, with the home pairing edging it 11-9 in the third.

Arbory’s third player was Liav Lanin who was also involved in some close matches.

Desmond’s Douglas A (7) JRTE Marketing A (2)

Desmond’s Russ Kent, Brandon Montgomery and Neil Ronan combined well and had some strong performances in this fixture.

Notably, in each of their seven match wins they didn't drop a single game. The two points secured by JRTE came from the pairing of Darren Smethurst and Paul Mitchinson in three ends against Kent and Montgomery plus Ken and Ronan.

Peel A (5) Ramsey B (4)

Peel A came up against a determined effort from the experienced Ramsey trio of Lisa Lord, Geoff Ball and Adrian Slater.

The visitors battled hard for their wins, with three points coming in the third end. Their other point came from Ball and Slater who notched up a tremendous victory over Stu Perry and Maggie Mulhern 11-6, 11-6.

Perry and Mulhern lost narrowly 10-12, 11-13 against Slater and Lord, then Perry paired up with Jon Taylor-Burt to claim the hosts' closest victory by defeating Slater and Ball 8-11, 11-9, 11-9.

Arbory C (9) Ramsey C (0)

Kevin Drewry, Dave Bufton and JP Banaag will be delighted to have taken all nine points in this fixture against some decent opposition in the form of Darren Shaw, Keith Herrington and Geoff Burchill.

The only match that went to three ends was between Drewry and Bufton against Shaw and Herrington, with the hosts winning 9-11, 11-7, 11-8.

Division Three

Travellers E (1) Travellers D (4)

Youngster Henry Weaver claimed a hard-fought win over the experienced Jackie Gill 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 - each game was extremely close so all credit to him.

He and team-mate Eben Moore battled hard, but Travellers’ Maurice Campbell and Gill were in an unforgiving mood, taking the other four points and thereby consolidating their position at the top of Division Three.

Travellers F (4) Ramsey E (1)

Teddy Clayton claimed an excellent win against Sydnie Weaver. The youngster battled her way back after being 0-2 down to take the next two ends 12-10, 11-4, but faded in the fifth which Clayton won 11-7 to take the match.

Weaver had better success against Ben Hulbert and team-mate Rhys Bufton did well to take two wins in straight ends. #

The doubles was close at times but the home pairing of Weaver and Bufton managed to triumph 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 14-12.

Ramsey D (0) Travellers G (5)

Thomas Taylor-Burt and Max Doyle had an epic week with this 5-0 drubbing of Ramsey D’s Pat Helliwell and Tony Sewell.

That said, there were some notably close games: Taylor-Burt pulled through in the fifth against Helliwell and the doubles went to a final end too, with the youngsters edging it 11-9 in the fifth.

This will surely bolster young Taylor-Burt and Doyle’s confidence with this impressive win.

KEN MITCHELL