Would the Braintree Table Tennis League be about to have Leicester City moment?
A championship that was won by just three clubs – a net, Rayne and Liberal – will look rather open this season with Sudbury Nomads in the mix in the past 15 years.
Happy by uncertainties about availability, nets have decided to merge the A and B teams of last season, with title winners Paul Davison, James Hicks and Andy Holmes who share the spotlights with at least three other players. They also lost the services of men’s champion Gary Young, undefeated in the competition last year.
Rayne A, competition winners in 2024 and second last year, as well as the six years before their title win, have suffered even more seriously. All three of last year’s team, Paul Lucas, Adam Buxton and Maria Boulton, are not available, although Buxton did not exclude a comeback later in the season.
All this means that the eyes can turn to the team that finished third last season.
The Leicester parallel may not be strictly accurate because Nomads have added players and have gradually climbing in recent years instead of getting out of nothing.
Ken Lewis joined in 2018 and Karl Baldwin in 2020. They were accompanied by Aron Jordan for a few games in 2023-24 and last season more often.
They rose from seventh to fourth to third to third place before they won the division two title in 2023 and subsequently finished seventh and third in Division One.
This year’s team will receive the support of Natalie Dodd and Richard Fifield, who both came to the club last season in Divisions two and three, respectively and quickly that they belonged to a higher atmosphere.
Much will depend on how Netts chooses to rotate their players, but it is clear that their deficiency defense is strewn with more potential pitfalls than before.
Just like Netts, Liberal also drops a team by the three Division One teams from last year in two in amalgamation. The chances that their B team repeats their fourth place is therefore slim.
Fifth placed Black Notley B (now A), Rayne B (also now A), Liberal A and Rayne C are more or less unchanged, while Black Notley’s a team of Chris Parr, Sean Clift and Adam Clift and Bloc have transferred to Earls Colne and the B-team of Netts will form.
Notley retains two teams in the top division by rev Matthews, 86 percent in Division Two, last season, with Neil Freeman and Paul Nicol, plus the recurring former men’s champion Steve Kerns, back in action after a hip operation.
The last place is taken by the B team of Sudbury, De Wanderers, who left two with 40 points last season with a division.
Last year’s team from Ian -Strakgang, Louise Hartshorn, Colin Moss and David Hitchen stay available, with Dodd and Fifield also available for calling.
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