The battle to avoid relegation from the Braintree Table Tennis League’s first division could be one of the most intriguing in recent years, with no clear candidate for the drop.
Two of the contenders – the teams that were promoted last season – met last week and battled to a draw. Neil Freeman was the man in form for Black Notley B, taking three wins, while Richard Fifield took two for Sudbury Wanderers.
Rayne B, who like Rayne C avoided bottom place by just five points last season, were beaten 7-3 by Netts B, who finished two places above them in their previous guise as Notley A. Chris Parr won his three singles for Netts and was the only one to beat Peter Hance.
Liberal C, who were at the table, joined their B team this year and it was a mix of the two drawing with Notley A. Adam Cuthbert led the way with his three singles.
Alistair Hill was undefeated for Liberal’s A team, but could not avoid a 6-4 defeat to Rayne A.
Rayne C maintained his 100 percent record division two with a 7-3 victory over their own D-team, but not before Adi Kamma had recorded three victories for the D-team, including a rare defeat for Matthew Brown, his first of the season.
Netts D retains second place, but was held to a draw by its own C team. Charles Calisin faced both his father and brother for the first time. He defeated his father easily enough, but had a battle royal with brother JJ before coming out 3-2 (4-11, 8-11, 14-12, 12-10, 11-9).
Rayne’s E team share third place with their D team after an 8-2 win over Notley C. Richard Whiteisde and new signing James Grimston were undefeated.
Notley C had earlier defeated Netts C 6-4. In a nice bit of symmetry, Matt Stephenson, playing, won his three singles, as he had the week before when representing Notley D against Netts D.
Yeldham Whitlocks A recorded their first win of the season, 6-4 over Notley D, but promoted Finchingfield A continued to struggle. They fell 7-3 to the Sudbury Strollers, despite the dual threat of Ken Lewis and John Colvin, who were both undefeated.
Rayne F tasted defeat for the first time division threeand it was an inspiring performance from 16-year-old Harry Wilson that led to their demise against Notley H. His three singles in the 7-3 win included a first defeat of the season to Conrad Gomes – also in consecutive matches.
There are no such problems for Finchingfield B, who shared first place with Rayne F last week. They defeated Rayne G 8-2 with three singles from Trevor Laird.
Laird was the only one to beat Karl Bowden, but he almost didn’t. He trailed 2–1 in matches and was taken to 18–16 in the fourth before recording victory in the decider.
Notley G defeated Yeldham B 7-3 – three sets ahead of Ben Southgate – while the other two matches finished 10-0, Notley E vs Sudbury Drifters and Notley F vs Netts E.
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