The scrap to avoid the bottom rung in division one of the Braintree Table Tennis League has developed into a tight three-way battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Black Notley B picked up their first win of the season the previous week, it was the turn of Liberal B to put their first success on the board \u2013 with a 6-4 victory over Notley\u2019s A team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A top-form Ashley Skeggs was mainly responsible, taking his three singles and the doubles with David Razzell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notley B meanwhile came off worse by the same score against relegation rivals Sudbury Wanderers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rev Matthews was the player in form this time, taking his three singles and a doubles for Notley but they ran into availability problems and had to field two reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bottom of division two has also livened up after Rayne E, once well adrift, won their third match in a row to lift themselves up three places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard and Scott Whiteside and James Grimston all won twice in the 7-3 win over Notley C but Jamie Brooks proved too good for all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just four points separate the bottom seven teams, with three teams sharing the bottom rung on 48 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sudbury Strollers are one of those but they improved their position with a 7-3 win over Finchingfield A, bringing them level with their opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netts D are the third team on 48 points after their 6-4 defeat by their own C team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That meant a match-up between Charles Calisin, beaten only three times this season, against his father Jimmy, whose defeats outnumber his victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was no easy ride for Charles, who scraped home 11-6 in the fifth game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top two in division three did not have it all their own way. Leaders Notley E were stretched to 6-4 by lowly Sudbury Drifters while second-placed Finchingfield B were held to a draw by a Rayne G side also at the wrong end of the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a last-gasp win for Finchingfield\u2019s Lucien Nolan-Bradford over Karl Bowden at 11-9 in the fifth that saved their \u2013 and his – unbeaten record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bowden suffered another deuce-in-the-third defeat when representing Rayne F in their draw against Notley H. It was the third win of the evening for Wayne Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notley\u2019s F team were 9-1 victors over Netts E \u2013 three wins for Tony Brown and Aivars Taimins – while the club\u2019s G team won the last three sets of the evening to snatch a 6-4 win over Yeldham Whitlocks B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That match was notable for one of those rarities, a set in which all five games were decided by two points, Steve Baines beating Richard Taylor 15-17, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10, 14-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report by Ron Fosker<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scrap to avoid the bottom rung in division one of the Braintree Table Tennis League has developed into a tight three-way battle. After Black Notley B picked up their first win of the season the previous week, it was the turn of Liberal B to put their first success on the board \u2013 with […]<\/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\/4334"}],"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=4334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4336,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions\/4336"}],"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=4334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"