In the end they didn’t break any records but from very early on it was clear that Netts A were the strong favourites to regain their Braintree Table Tennis League title.

In their first 16 matches, they conceded only 12 sets, three of them when they were forced to field a reserve.

Had they kept that up they would have been the first team since Bocking in 1994 to concede fewer than one set per match.

They faded in the final run-in and doubled their tally over their last four matches but the title was heading their way long before that.

They relied largely on the same three players as last season, when they finished 19 points behind Rayne A, but with the important addition of Gary Young, undefeated in his 24 sets before going on to take the open singles title in the individual championships.

The core three also stepped up, each of them improving their averages.  Paul Davison lost only one out of 49, compared with four last season, James Hicks went up from 75 per cent to 82 and Andy Holmes from 79 to 81. 

They also didn’t need to call on reserves as often.  Last season they used a reserve ten times, this season just four.

Rayne A, by comparison, failed to match the consistency that brought them the title last season and, crucially, did not have the back-up services of 2019 men’s singles champion Lee McHugh to call on.

The crunch came in the first meeting with Netts A, whose 9-1 win set the tone for the season.

The other success story was that of Sudbury Nomads, who jumped up four places to third in only their second season in the top division.

They were able to field their main line-up of Karl Baldwin, Aron Jordan and Ken Lewis more regularly than last season, with Jordan’s 75 per cent return from his 32 sets a major factor.

Baldwin can also reflect on a satisfactory season, jumping from 51 per cent to 62, while Lewis, now 76, showed that age has not yet wearied him, posting an average of 59.6, almost identical to last season.

Liberal C propped up the rest for the second season but they won four times compared with two last season and had the satisfaction of knowing that had the league been calculated on two or three points for a win, they would have avoided the bottom rung.

Next week: a review of divisions two and three.

Report by Ron Fosker