New – or newish – players were to the fore in the first week of the new Braintree Table Tennis League season.

Champions Netts A got off to a winning start with an 8-2 win over promoted Sudbury Wanderers.

There were expected three wins for Paul Davison and James Hicks but Richard Fifield and David Hitchen, both new to the league last season, got the better of Joe Meleschko.

Alesha Ellis-Austin, also in her second season and promoted this year to division one, joined her Black Notley A teammates in remaining unbeaten against the club’s B team.

There’s nothing new about Chris Parr, Sean Clift and Adam Clift, but they are appearing in Netts B’s colours this season after their move from Black Notley, and opened their account with a 9-1 win over Liberal B.

Paul Lombardi’s time in the league goes back a long way but he can scarcely have played better than his performance for Rayne B against last season’s runners-up Rayne A.  He won his three singles and joined Keith Martin to win the doubles in the 5-5 draw.

In division two, Netts D’s new signing Christopher Gibbons made an unbeaten start to his Braintree career in the 10-0 win over newly promoted Sudbury Strollers. He was joined by JJ Calisin, up a division from last season, and dad Jimmy Calisin.

The other Calisin, Charles, moved up to division two last season and showed his continuing improvement with excellent wins over Dave Marsh and Adi Kamma in Netts C’s 8-2 defeat by potential title challengers Rayne C.

Matthew Brown carried on where he left off last season and was the only one to overcome Calisin.

Last year’s division three champions Finchingfield A got off to an unfortunate start when Peter Clark injured his back and had to pull out after one set of their match against Rayne D.

He had lost at 11-8 in the fifth game against Richard Whiteside, who went on to win his other two singles in the 6-4 win.

Former Liberal player Trevor Laird has joined Finchingfield B in division three and was unbeaten in their 8-2 win over Yeldham Whitlocks B.  Lucien Nolan-Bradford’s evening was similarly unblemished.

Notley H’s new signing Wayne Wilson took his three singles against the club’s E team.  That included a win at 11-9 in the fifth game against Peter Davenport, who lost only nine out of 47 last season.

Karl Bowden started his Braintree League career with three wins for Rayne G in the draw with Netts F.

Aivars Taimins and Jonathan Acharya, both products of Notley’s casual club, made their league debuts for Notley E in the 6-4 win against Notley G.  Taimins won two and Acharya one.

Peter Foster, back in action after a two-year absence through injury, also won twice but none of them could get past Ben Southgate

There were six more familiar names in Rayne F’s 8-2 win over Netts E, two of whom, Conrad Gomes and Dave Whiting, remained unbeaten.

Report by Ron Fosker