The four-horse race to win division six of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis Teague has now been reduced to three after Maldon D produced a five-star performance to hammer Danbury K 9-1.

Steve Mays and Dave Marsh were both unbeaten and the only consolation for Danbury was a success for Neil Want over Barrie Gooch.

Ray Beckwith produced one of the best performances of the season to steer Danbury J through to a 7-3 win over OCs F.

His superb hat-trick of wins included victories over both Stuart Wintle and Gerard Esser. Esser showed his class by getting the better of Norman Hayes.

OCs F bounced back with a 7-3 win over Excalibur C but may well feel that they could have done with all four points.

This was confirmed when the new favourites Danbury J took no prisoners with a 10-0 win over Ingatestone B, while ECC M could only field two players against Baddow Village H but Linda Bennett and Tim Smith dominated to such an extent that they won 7-3.

The race for top honours in the first division could well go all the way to the last game of the season with the three leading teams all scoring four point wins.

ECC A beat a two-man Danbury B 10-0 while third-placed Rawreth thrashed Billericay 9-1.

Billericay included the redoubtable Ray Murray in their line-up but the Rawreth trio of Rob Harris, Duncan Taylor and Simon Woods all beat him.

Brian Warren replied for the losers with a win over Harris but only at a time when all thoughts about taking a point had been long forgotten.

ECC B who are second with a game against Rawreth to play, beat Baddow Village A 8-2 but not before Waseem Qureshi and Ian Wright had both distinguished themselves with three games wins over Martin Hogg.

The most inspired performance of the week in this division (and arguably one of the best of the whole season) was achieved by Tony Forster who beat both Terry Dowsett and Chris Jacob to stay unbeaten as Danbury B beat the mighty Elmtree Graphics A 6-4.

Boreham A went some way to retaining their first division status by beating EEV A 6-4, new signing Paul Grant scoring twice and only missing out 22-20 in the third against Dave Richardson.

Fellow strugglers EEV A have a difficult run-in but gave themselves a chance of avoiding relegation by sharing the points with Billericay despite the fact that none of their players could beat Ray Murray.

Dave Richardson was involved in three titanic three-enders just losing out to Murray at 23-21 in the third but seeing off both Brian Warren and Keith Ashton, while EEV's new Australian import Adrian Verrusio beat Ashton at 25-23 in the third.

Danbury C and EEV B, who have both been in the promotion positions all season without ever managing to shake off their challengers, now look like having sealed promotion from division two.

Danbury really excelled with an 8-2 win over OCs A; Dave Finlayson and Geoff Beavington both remaining unbeaten.

EEV B moved right back on track with a 8-2 success over Prison with Lucy Wang and Pip French both taking maximums and they shared the points with ECC C.

Ray Sutton won the battle of the left-handers with a good win over Pip French.

Despite still being in the relegation zone ECC C recorded a terrific 6-4 win over OCs A and they are now only two points away from safety.

Reserve John Darling made a significant contribution with victories over Roy Moore and Robbie Burton.

ECC D, who looked potential challengers three weeks ago, were held to a 5-5 draw by Rawreth B.

Andrew Halling was easily the best player on view with three decisive singles wins. Keith Woodcock and Joe Lewington both scored against county no. 1 junior Joe Benson.

The battle for honours in the third division has been a two-horse race for much of the season.

OCs B added seven points to their total with a good 8-2 win over Danbury E and a 6-4 win over ECC E.

Ashton Parker took all six singles and Trevor Palmer provided superb support by winning five times.

Writtle A against relegated OCs C and reserve Tony Lambert played his part by beating Roy Sleet.

The fate of Ingatestone A was also sealed and their 9-1 defeat against ECC F sees them relegated as well. Peter Lewington and Roy Haffield were both unbeaten for ECC.

Hatfield Peverel B leap-frogged above Danbury E into third position after beating them 8-2 with Malcolm Jacobs and Tony Stredder both staying undefeated.

Peverel's fine form continued with an 8-2 success over a two-man ECC G side with Jacobs again remaining undefeated.

League Chairman Richard Hiskey played a real Captain's role as he led Excalibur B to a 6-4 win over Baddow Village C getting home narrowly over three ends against both Andy Skues and Graham Turner.

In division four, League stalwart Johnny Ginn's absence though ill-health for much of the season means that OCs D look to have too much to do to avoid relegation and they were forced to concede to Baddow Village D.

The League Committee wishes Ginn, who has been involved in Chelmsford table tennis for 40 years, a speedy recovery after he goes into hospital for an operation.

With Geoff Chatterton struggling with tennis-elbow the OCs club and this team in particular have been hit by their fair share of injuries.

Leaders Maldon C took another step towards the title with a 8-2 win over Writtle B in a good match in which five games went to a deciding leg.

Colin Barrell and Cathy Eakin were both undefeated but Barrell only just got the better of Barry Lummis 23-21 in the decider.

ECC H had too much fire-power for Baddow Village E and the 7-3 scoreline owed much to Geoff Morris who scored fine wins over Cecil Butcher and Jeff Lewington.

Danbury G also impressed with a good all-round team-effort against Hatfield Peverel D.

Brian Ellis and Dave Good both took full-houses as they notched up an 8-2 success.

EPHQ have battled away bravely all season but despite Ian Hockley taking all three singles against Hatfield Peverel C they look likely to be relegated as well.

Steve Hawthorn, Guy McKenzie and Dave Bridge all took three singles to see Peverel home by a 7-3 margin.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.