Ellenborough

The first match was against the team currently occupying 2nd place and the bookies favourite to remain there at the end of the season. We did not get the best of starts with an out of sorts Damien Nicholls losing 3-0 to the ever improving Liam Pitchford. Shaun Marples was up next against Lawrence Trumpauskas a player he had defeated 3-0 the previous weekend in the County Championships. However, this time Shaun just lost a narrow 4 setter 10-12, 9-11, 19-17, 7-11. Chris Doran looked very sharp in disposing of Jimmy Walsh 11-9, 11-3, 11-3. Next up was John Fuller making his premier league debut against Swede Jon Nilsson. John battled admirably and did himself no harm at all but it was Nilsson who was that little bit stronger to win in straight sets 11-9, 11-5 and 11-7.

At the halfway stage Westfield were 3-1 down and in danger of suffering a heavy defeat. Damien however, returned to the table a totally different player and disposed of the earlier impressive Trumpauskas relatively comfortably 3-1. Chris then retained this momentum with an impressive 3-1 victory over Liam Pitchford recovering well after getting hammered in the first set 11-2 to come back to win 3-1. Shaun carried on where Damien and Chris had started off by also recording a 3-1 victory over the consistent Nilsson and all of a sudden the match had a totally different complexion with Westfield leading 4-3. The last match saw John Fuller up against Jimmy Walsh and victory for John would give Westfield a very unlikely 5-3 victory. John had chances in both the 1st and 2nd sets before Walsh came through to take both 12-10 and 11-9. John mounted a comeback to take the 3rd but this merely seemed to galvanize Walsh who moved up a few gears to win the 4th 11-1.

A 4-4 result is one that Westfield would have certainly taken at the start of the day especially after having fallen 3-1 down. So a good start to the weekend against the team who remained in second position.

Drumchapel Glasgow

Westfield were never going to win this match but were perhaps a little disappointed with an 8-0 score line. There is not a team in England with the financial backing of the Sky Sponsored Drumchapel team who have the luxury of fielding England international Terry Young at No 3 in their Line up.

Fusion

First match of the Sunday was a battle of the two teams who gained promotion to the Premier Division from Division 1 last season. This was sure to be a match more closely contested clash than that against Drumchapel. First up was Damien Nicholls against Fusion No 2 Tom Cutler. The first 3 sets were all keenly contested but once Damien won these he eased through the third to come through 9-11, 11-9, 14-12 and 11-3. Shaun Marples then faced Fusion No 1 Nial Cameroon and in an equally fiercely contested match Shaun narrowly missed out by the scores of 11-13 11-7 11-9 11-9. Chris Doran then came to the table and secured a straightforward 3-0 victory against fusion No 4 John Dennison. David Przybysz then stepped up for his first taste of the premier. David fought valiantly and gave a very good account of himself but had to eventually succumb after battling back from 2-0 down; 11-9 11-5 8-11 8-11 11-5. So at the halfway stage Westfield were tied at 2-2 and the match was living up to its expectation of being fiercely contested. Damien returned to the table for the battle of the No 1 against Cameroon. However it was Cameroon who called all the shots as Damien never really got going, Cameroon winning 11-9 11-2 11-6. Chris leveled it up at 3-3 with a tough 12-10 5-11 11-9 13-11 over the all action Tommy Cutler. Shaun Marples gave Westfield hope of the win by seeing off Simon Philipz 3-0 in a very workmanlike performance. David once again fought for every point and again took his opponent to 5 games but fell just shot 11-3 in the 5th to John Dennison.

The match resulting in a 4-4 the second draw of the weekend for Westfield in a match that both teams felt they could have nicked with the draw perhaps being the fairest result.

DHS Greenhouse Progress

The final match of the weekend saw Westfield take on 10 times former champions DHS Greenhouse Progress (formerly London Progress). Damien got Westfield off to the perfect start getting the better of Progress' No2 Dong Da Quin easing home in the 4th after having edged a close 3rd set by the 3-1 score line 11-3 9-11 13-11 11-7. Chris Doran just about made it 2-0 after a monumental battle against his best mate and arch rival Matt Ware coming back from 2 sets to love down and 6-1 to make it 2-2 and having to save a further 2 match points at 10-8 in the 5th set. Chris eventually coming through 12-14, 13-15, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12. Shaun Marples then disposed of Chris Lewis comfortably 3-0 and Westfield had gained a healthy 3-0 lead over Progress. Ashley Stokes halted Westfield's momentum however by quickly defeating Dawid 2-11, 11-13 and 5-11. Damien however, reasserted Westfield advantage beating Matt Ware surprisingly straightforward after a small blip in the 3rd game 11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 11-4. Shaun will feel hard done by to have lost 3-0 to Dong Da Quin having a reasonable chance to win any of the 3 games just succumbing 9-11, 9-11, 8-11. At this point Westfield played over two tables due to Drumchapel easily defeating Fusion on the adjacent table. Therefore we needed either Dawid to defeat Chris Lewis or Chris Doran to beat Ashley Stokes. Try as he might Dawid could not beat Lewis who put in a workmanlike perforce to beat Dawid 11-13 7-11 6-11. So it was left to Chris to defeat Stokes a player he would expect to beat and had done so in the earlier encounter in the season. It was Doran this time who was on the receiving end of a dramatic comeback. After having trailed Stokes by 2-0 Doran fought his way back to 2-2 and a 10-6 lead in the 5th but could not get over the line with Ashley winning 6 points in a row to take the match 12-10.

A 4-4 draw that in the end felt a little disappointed for Westfield having led throughout but overall still a good weekend for the team. We managed to secure 3 draws and just the 1 loss with a weakened team against 4 strong teams and with 2 weekends remaining there is still everything to play for.

The Westfield team of Ben Barlow, Chris Doran and David Mcbeath plus new recruits Shaun Marples and UK School games champion Damien Nicholls made their way to Southall sports centre for the first matches of the 2008/09 Premier British league.

Greenhouse Progress

Westfield first match was against 10 times former champions Greenhouse Progress (formerly London Progress) which promised to be a tough opener. Progress however fielded a refreshingly young side all under the age of 19 Matt Ware, Garth Kinlocke, Ashley Stokes and Chris Lewis. Ben Barlow had the honour to play the first match in the Premiership against the inform Matt Ware and easily lost the 1st set 11-4. The 2nd was 16-14 to Matt and Ben won the 3rd 11-9 before losing the 4th 11-6. Damien Nicholls debut match was never in doubt as he dispatched Garth Kinlocke 3-1. Chris Doran was next up and secured a 3-2 win against Ashley Stokes. Shaun Marples on his debut had a straight forward 3-0 victory against an out of sorts Chris Lewis. Damien then returned to the table in the match against his fellow No 1 Matt Ware. Damien secured a 3-2 victory with a strangely lopsided score line of 8-11, 11-3, 1-11, 11-9, 11-5. A 4-1 score line in Westfield favour looked good until Ashley Stokes scored a surprisingly easy 3-0 victory over Ben Barlow which soon became 4-3 as Shaun Marples was denied 12-10 in the 5th by Garth Kinlocke. Chris Doran then secured the 5-3 victory after a shaky start against Chris Lewis to win 3-1.

Ormsby

The 2nd match of the weekend saw Westfield fitted against former Champions Ormsby from the North East.

Damien Nicholls was matched against Justin MA. Justin took the 1st leg 11-9 then Damien won the next 3 with a clever combination of superb placement and spin nullifying the all action MA. Although Ben Barlow won the first set he lost next 3 to lost his match 3-1 to David Meads. Straightforward victories for Shaun Marples over Andrew Wilson and Chris Doran over Nigel Eckersly gave Westfield a 3-1 lead .Westfield unfortunately lost the next three matches Damien to David Meads, Shaun to Justin and Ben to Nigel. Chris then defeated Andrew Wilson in 3 straight games to secure a 4-4 draw.

At the end of the day the Westfield team had secured 3 points out of a possible 4 yet felt disappointed that they had not secured all 4 after having led Ormsby 3-1 at the halfway stage.

The 2nd day saw Damien Nicholls return home for a previously arranged family commitment and David Mcbeath stepped into his shoes prior to moving to Sweden for 12 months.

TTK Greenhouse

Without England internationals Gareth Herbert (resting injured) and Andrew Rushton (playing Professionally in Switzerland) Westfield easily dispatched an inexperienced Greenhouse team 8-0 with Westfield only conceding 3 sets in total in all 8 games.

Batts Team Peniel

The last match of the weekend saw Westfield up against Batts team Peniel. Unlike London Progress Peniel had retained their Chinese players Wang Zheng at No 1 and "Katie" at No 3. With Craig Bryant England ranked No 11 playing At No 2 and John Holland England ranked No 16 playing at No 4 Peniel were by far the sternest test to date. The first match saw Shaun Marples defeated in straight sets by Wang before Ben Barlow gained a very creditable 3-1 win against Craig Bryant. Chris Doran then looked very sharp as he beat "Katie" Xu Shuying in 3 straight sets . David Mcbeath had a high quality match against possibly the best No 4 in the premiership John Holland going down closely 3 games to 2. From here on in Westfield had a harsh lesson in the reality of the premier league as they lost the next 4 matches by 3 sets to love and the match 6-2.

At the end of the weekend Westfield obtained 5 points out of 8 and sit in third place in the table. The next weekend will be an even harder test with matches against the two toughest teams who top the table Drumchapel and Ellenborough.

The Westfield A team kicked start the British League Premier Division at London Progress with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Chris Doran, Ben Barlow, Damien Nicholls, David Mcbeath and Shaun Marples all played their part in the results. Chris Doran won a brilliant 7 out of 8 matches, Damien won 3 out of 4 matches, Shaun Marples won 4 from 8, David Mcbeath with 4 wins from 8 and Ben Barlow with 3 wins out of 8 matches. These results also inlcuded a notable win over a weakened London Progress side who have won the division for the past 8 seasons.

This was a great start to the season and puts them in 3rd place out of 8 teams after 4 matches. This will put them in a good position to keep their place in the Premier Division for the following season and hopefully help them make the top 3 or 4 positions in the league at the end of the season.