The top teams in divisions one and two of the Braintree Table Tennis League may be sailing off into the sunset \u2013 Rayne C\u2019s lead in division two is on a par with Netts A\u2019s in the top division \u2013 but division three has the makings of a tight run to the finishing line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the season\u2019s halfway point, Black Notley E were leading Finchingfield B by 14 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latter had two matches in hand but neither will be straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One is against Rayne F, who were sandwiched in between the top two, four points behind the leaders but from one more match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other is against fourth-placed Netts F, whose team of fast-improving juniors will be no pushover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finchingfield looked well set at the start of the season. They beat Notley E 7-3 in their fourth match and after seven matches had a lead of seven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then came a stumble against Notley H, who held them to a draw, while Notley E finished the half strongly with wins of 9-1, 9-1 and 8-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finchingfield have been led by 17-year-old Lucien Nolan-Bradford, unbeaten in his six matches, while Dave Parker (19 wins out of 20) and Peter Davenport (16 out of 18) have kept Notley E in the hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No such drama for Rayne C who had a lead of 18 points in division two. With a team of Matthew Brown, Steve Buer, Dave Marsh and Paul Wellington that was no surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rayne E are adrift at the bottom, but the other eight teams in the division ended the year amazingly within five points of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rayne D and Notley C led the pursuers, both on 46 points, the latter climbing impressively from ninth place last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Sudbury Strollers, five points behind, have a match in hand while Finchingfield A have gradually moved into contention after losing their first five matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Individual averages up to the end of the year (qualification one-third of team\u2019s matches):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Division 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 David Fiddeman 9 wins in 9 sets, average 100 per cent; 2 Matthew Brown 22-24, 91.7; 3 Charles Calisin 19-21, 87.5; 4 Dean Andrews 12-14, 85.7; 5= Roy Hooper 20-24, Richard Whiteside 10-12, 83.3; 7= John Colvin 15-20, Matt Stephenson 9-12, 75; 9 Jamie Brooks 17-24, 70.8; 10= JJ Calisin, Lawrence Grantham 10-15, 66.7<\/p>\n\n\n\n Division 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Lucien Nolan-Bradford 18-18, 100; 2 Dave Parker 19-20, 95; 3 Trevor Laird 14-15, 93.3; 4 Ben Southgate 22-24, 91.7; 5 Peter Davenport 16-18, 88.9; 6= Karl Bowden, Dave Whiting 18-21, 85.7; 8 Conrad Gomes 12-15, 80; 9 Tom Verrier 7-9, 77.8; 10 Wayne Wilson 20-26, 76.9<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Report by Ron Fosker<\/p>\n\n\n\n The top teams in divisions one and two of the Braintree Table Tennis League may be sailing off into the sunset \u2013 Rayne C\u2019s lead in division two is on a par with Netts A\u2019s in the top division \u2013 but division three has the makings of a tight run to the finishing line. At […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4235,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions\/4235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"