After taking no chances the week before by eliminating their top three players against Sudbury Nomads, Braintree Table Tennis League leaders Netts A showed their strength in depth as they turned to their second-choice players for their next match against Rayne B – and still came away with an 8-2 win.
Szczepan Ziobro was unbeaten in his first appearance of the season, while Joe Meleschko won two, as did Charles Calisin, who played from the second division.
It was back to full strength for their next match, or even full strength plus one when they introduced Andy Dosher for his first match in Braintree for many years.
He and Paul Davison were undefeated against Black Notley A, but it was James Hicks who had the busiest night. He beat Steve Noble 11-9 in the fifth game and Sam Burrows 13-11 in the fifth, but couldn’t quite get the hat-trick, losing 12-10 in the fifth to Luke Burridge, the only set the team dropped.
Netts B are in second place after three straight wins, 6-4 against Liberal A, where Adam Clift was unbeaten, 6-4 against Sudbury Wanderers, where Chris Parr was unbeaten, and 10-0 against Notley B, where both, and Sean Clift, were unbeaten.
Like Netts A, Liberal A have a wide choice of players to call upon and most of them were unavailable to face Sudbury Nomads which was bad news for Nomads as Liberal managed to build a team that would be able to challenge for the title if they played every week. Brandon Crouchman and Scott Dowsett each won three and Adam Cuthbert two in their 9-1 win.
Nomads recovered to win their next match 10-0 against their club mates, the Wanderers.
Colin Moss came closest to preventing the whitewash by taking Richard Fifield to 12-10 in the fifth.
After a slow start to his recovery from knee surgery – one win in six – former men’s singles champion Steve Kerns made the more famous return of three wins in Notley B’s draw against Liberal B.
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