Tough weekend in Wolverhampton sees Cippenham's promotion hopes dashed

Mia Lakhani.

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A weekend which started with so much promise for Cippenham’s first team in the Women’s British Clubs League Division 1 ultimately ended in disappointment with the side missing out on promotion.

They came into the weekend in second place, but with a group of teams separated by just ‘sets difference’.

However, their hopes of building on an encouraging first weekend of matches and gaining promotion to the Premier Division - the top tier of women’s table tennis in Britain - were dashed by a series of poor results.

One win and four defeats from their five matches in Wolverhampton were, unsurprisingly, not enough to put them in contention with Cippenham finishing down in third place, seven points adrift of champions Worthing.

The opening encounter of the weekend was against Enfield-based Ellenborough with Cippenham falling to a 4-2 defeat. This had much to do with some early defeats setting the tone for the match - and ultimately, the entire weekend.

Mia Lakhani was the first to suffer, losing 11-9 in the fifth and deciding game against Hurey Ahmetoglu.

Anna Piercey then went the same way against Sanja Clements.

Between those two defeats, an even closer match saw Rachael Iles just get the better of Sara Williams.

Lakhani offered Cippenham some hope with a 3-0 win over Clements and so it was left to Piercey to bring home a point in the final match against Williams.

England’s number one veteran woman, though, got the better of Piercey over five games and Ellenborough ran out 4-2 winners.

It was a similar story for Cippenham in their second match against Ormeau. Plenty of openings and opportunities, but ultimately, they came up short in another 4-2 defeat.

Their Irish opponents won all three encounters that went the distance of five games while both Lakhani and Iles beat their number one player Sabina Devereux more comfortably.

Worthing, who won nine out of ten points during the weekend in contrast to Cippenham, proved too strong in the final match on Sunday.

Rachael Iles and Mia Lakhani both lost narrowly to Darcie Proud and Sally Hughes respectively and the South Coast side stormed into a 5-0 lead before Lakhani beat Holly Holder to put Cippenham’s only point on the board.

Cippenham’s solitary win of the weekend came early on Sunday morning as bottom team Byng Hall were swept aside 5-1 with Anna Piercey being adjudged player of the match for her two wins against Annabelle Baker and Jurate Brazaityte.

Rachael Iles also won her two matches.

But with Anna Piercey unable to continue through injury, the weekend concluded with another 5-1 defeat, this time to Halton where Iles was the only Cippenham player able to grind out a victory.