Perfect day as Cippenham's first team moves up to second

Hari Gehlot

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The Cippenham first team enjoyed a very profitable day on Saturday in the Senior British Clubs League. They won both their matches comfortably and, in doing so, leapfrogged Waterside to claim second place in National Division B-2 with four matches left to play at the end of March.

The day got off to the perfect start with a runaway 9-0 thrashing of Crusaders. Rob Hansell and Andy Norwood were made to work hard by Angus Norman and Jaydan Griffiths respectively, but after that it was pretty much one way traffic.

Bristol Associates were the second team to be put to the sword. Martin Adams, Rob Hansell, Hari Gehlot and Andy Norwood all won their opening matches to put Cippenham 4-0 up in double quick time. Adams and Gehlot lost a close doubles match and then Hansell won a close tussle with Lee Phillips over five games to give Cippenham a match-winning 5-1 lead. Adams dominated Scott Cooper, conceding a mere seven points in three games, before Norwood just got the better of Danny Harris close in the fifth game. At the conclusion of the match, Gehlot suffered a close loss against Svilen Andreev thus making the final match score 7-2 in Cippenham’s favour.

The Cippenham second team were unlucky to come away from the day without adding to their points tally, suffering close 5-4 defeats to two of the top three teams in Division C-5.

Despite being on the losing side, Sai Prasanna Kumar, still only eleven years old, was named player of the match against Godalming Simply Let after beating both Kinga Oryl and Sean Au. Sai’s brother Bharath Prasanna Kumar also beat Au while Maciej Dlugozima also beat Oryl.

The second match presented the toughest of all assignments against an Ellenborough side that have won all ten of their matches this season. Cippenham actually boasted a 3-1 lead early in the match as Dlugozima beat Sara Williams, Bharath Prasanna Kumar beat Bethany Yang and his brother Sai eased past Aidan Lees, all while dropping only one end between them. The brothers then suffered a defeat in the doubles and results started to go against Cippenham. Steve Joel could not match up to Williams, Bharath lost in four games to Kyle Murphy, and Dlugozima failed to hold onto a 2-1 lead he held against Lees. With Ellenborough now 5-3 up, Sai Prasanna Kumar completed his brace with a 3-0 win over Yang.