HAVING won the 2005/06 Exeter Table Tennis League's First Division title, members of Newton Batmen further demonstrated their dominance at the individual championships, held last week, by impressively earned victories in every event entered.

Dennis Gibbs celebrated his return to the Exeter League after a six-year absence by winning the men's singles, and the men's and mixed doubles with Batmen team-mates Kevin Nicholls and Sonja Wicks respectively. Gibbs had earlier taken the Veteran Singles. To round off a headily successful evening, Wicks took the Ladies' Singles title. Batmen's fourth player, Tony Halse, was unfortunately not able to enter because of other commitments. In the final of the singles, Gibbs, past winner on five occasions, faced Colin Snow, four times winner. Their league season had produced a win for each against the other, so there was all to play for. Snow's deadly topspin forehand had to be contained if Gibbs was to achieve his aim. Half a step back from the table was the ploy, facilitating the block and giving space for the Gibbs' over-the-table thunderous forehand winners. That said, the mental control of the critical points at the end of each game was probably the deciding factor. In the men's doubles, the Batmen pair faced John Shearman and Stuart Hare, unbeaten during the season. Long-pimpled rubber defence was the difficulty to overcome here, but with Nicholls hitting successfully on rather more occasions than normal and then forcing errors with his disguised spin defence, the Newton pair wrapped up the title. Wicks, Devon County women's champion two years ago has, because of work demands, not been able to practice as much as she would have liked, but was just able to hold off the reigning Exeter women's' title-holder Pat Lyons, though it took a fourth set of long determined push rallies before she emerged as the winner, 14-12. An exhausting evening for Gibbs, who had to be helped out with his silverware, added to at the last by a trophy for the season's individual top average, for a record 12th time. Originally it was to be a one-off return to the Exeter league for him, but there is strong pressure from his Batmen team-mates to continue next season. It must also surely be the wish of the Exeter players to pit themselves against him once more.