Champions Netts A completed the first half of the season in the Braintree Table Tennis League with another win to give them nine out of nine.

But they had to work hard to overcome Liberal A, who for only the second time this season turned out both Scott Dowsett and Adam Cuthbert.

They won twice each to limit Netts’ margin of victory to 6-4, the closest so far.

Netts were grateful to an in-form James Hicks, who won his three singles, plus the doubles with Andy Holmes, although it was a knife-edge victory over Cuthbert, who stretched him to 13-11 in the fifth game.

With Netts B and Sudbury Nomads inactive, Black Notley A took advantage to jump back up to second place with a resounding 9-1 win over Sudbury Wanderers.

Luke Burridge and Steve Noble were unbeaten while David Hitchen took the one for Wanderers.

At the other end of the table, Notley’s B team could not quite do enough to lift themselves off the bottom rung.  They succumbed 6-4 to Rayne B, despite three wins from Steve Kerns, recovering from the unexpected nil return in his previous match.

In division two, Rayne D moved up to second place with a 6-4 win over Notley D. Dean Andrews and Peter Rickwood won two each for Rayne, while Graham Chinnery and Matt Stephenson did likewise for Notley.

Rayne D take over second spot from Notley C, who tumbled 8-2 to Sudbury Strollers, for whom David Fiddeman and John Colvin were unbeaten.

Finchingfield A jumped up two more places with a 7-3 win over Yeldham Whitlocks A.

James Grimston tasted defeat for the first time in Netts C’s 7-3 win over Rayne E when Charles Calisin got the better of him.

Netts’ E and F teams shared the points when they faced each other.

Adrian Boeriu and Tony McShane were the E team’s main scorers, with two each, but Tom Verrier held the F team together with his three singles.

At the top Notley E pulled further away from Finchingfield B, who were again without a match, by dispatching their own F team 8-2. 

The headlines nearly belonged to the F team’s Wendy Day, who had a match point in her favour when two games and 11-10 up against Dave Parker.  But the vital point was lost and Parker preserved his record of one defeat in his seven matches so far.

Notley G jumped up two places by beating Rayne G, the team immediately above them, 9-1 while Sudbury Drifters moved up one with a 7-3 win over Notley H.

Report by Ron Fosker