THE early results of the first round of this year's Malvern Table Tennis League Handicap Competition have brought mixed fortunes for the Juniors.

Juniors B gained an outstanding victory over the experienced Broadheath Bellters outfit. The star of the evening was Matt Lang who took points off Roger Bates (11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7) and Dave Elliott (8-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-9). Matt and Anthony Wiseman also took a game each off Pete Roberts.

Juniors A however found CSSC Rovers a hard nut to crack and the handicap of 95 was too much for them to pull back. For the Juniors side Joe Higgs had a most successful evening and was more than a match for the CSSC team.

Two Division One teams fought out a close match just before Christmas when Pumas beat Grosvenor Eagles by four points.

Jon Dyke and Dave Mallam took points off Norman Merchant and Jon did well to go evens with Ian Bell (12-10, 9-11, 13-11, 10-12). By the end of the evening the 120 handicap advantages was enough to see Pumas through.

In another close encounter two CSSC teams locked horns in a tense match. Trojans had the advantage of a 90 point handicap and together with a good team effort this was enough to see them win by 23 points.

Trojans will be joined in the second round by CSSC Nomads. The first four sets of the match went to Nomads but Upton came back into the contest by winning the next four. In the ninth Matt Jones and Dave Backhurst each won 39 points leaving Upton 12 points ahead. In the last set Dave Huntley beat Roger Davies by 15 points giving Nomads a victory of three on the evening. With a handicap of 85 the Nomads winning margin was 88 points.

RESULTS: Juniors B (180) 468 bt Broadheath Bellters 408; CSSC Rovers (95) 457 bt Juniors A 374; Manor park Pumas (120) 424 bt Grosvenor Eagles 420; CSSC Trojans (90) 415 bt CSSC Ramblers 392; Upton 380 lost to CSSC Nomads (85) 468.