For the second year running Rayne A have denied Netts A a double success in the Braintree Table Tennis League by beating them in the semi-final of the team knockout cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was achieved with an entirely different team from last year, when Maria Boulton, Adam Buxton and Paul Lucas took them through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time it was down to Victor Chan, Steve Pennell and reserve Matthew Brown, who won 5-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul Davison was missing from the Netts team but on paper a line-up of James Hicks, Andy Holmes and Joe Meleschko looks the stronger combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hicks did his bit by taking his two singles, but two from Brown \u2013 able to play up from the C team under the new regulation that allows players who have already represented one team to play one match up – and one each from Chan and Pennell plus the Chan\/Pennell doubles was enough to upset the forecasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown proved he could live in the first division with straight-game wins over Meleschko and Holmes, the latter probably the pivotal point of the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other semi-final was also a repeat of last season, Sudbury Nomads beating Rayne B 5-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karl Baldwin and Richard Fifield both won two out of two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the restricted cup, the Black Notley club narrowly failed to get two teams through to the final when their D team were beaten in the final doubles in their semi-final against Netts D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Graham Chinnery was unbeaten for Notley D but crucially Netts D won all three doubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final they will face Notley\u2019s C team, who beat Sudbury Drifters 5-3. Jamie Brooks\u2019 two singles and two doubles were instrumental in taking them through, notably his deuce-in-the-third win over David Fiddeman, beaten only once \u2013 by Matthew Brown \u2013 in the league this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netts F will be aiming to make it five wins in a row for a Netts team in the handicap cup after their 5-1 win over Sudbury Drifters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Howard and Tom Verrier won two out of two while Terry Hunneybel\u2019s win (off +3) over Reece Arundell was the only one to disturb the scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will play Rayne E, who dealt with Sudbury Strollers 5-3, despite three wins from Ian Whipps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the league, Finchingfield B\u2019s unhappy run in division three continued, Rayne C at last stretched their lead to an insurmountable gap in division two while in division one Netts A lost their unbeaten record, then got it back again as a result of an oversight by their opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking the last one first, Notley A were congratulating themselves on beating Netts A 6-4 with three wins for Tom Hinds, including the first defeat of the season for Paul Davison. However, Hinds had not been registered and so 6-4 turned into 2-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rayne C\u2019s success in division two, which has looked nailed on for more than half the season, finally became reality last week with a 10-0 win over bottom team Notley D. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surprisingly it was their first 10-0 win of the season \u2013 and Notley D\u2019s first defeat by that score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In division three, one-time leaders Finchingfield B played twice but could not arrest their winless streak, now four in a row and seven out of nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They drew with Yeldham Whitlocks B and then lost 7-3 to Rayne F, where Alastair Brown\u2019s late-season form surge continued with his first unbeaten evening of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere in division one, Liberal A turned out one of their strongest teams of the season \u2013 Scott Dowsett and Adam Cuthbert in tandem \u2013 to register an 8-2 win over Notley A that took them above Netts B, who were beaten 9-1 at Rayne A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rayne team not only included a third appearance for Paul Lucas but a welcome return for Adam Buxton for his first match of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the other end of the table, a surprise 8-2 win for Notley B over Liberal B lifted them to within four points of Sudbury Wanderers, who drew with Rayne B, for whom Adi Kamma was unbeaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concertina effect in the middle of division two has now squeezed down to just six points between second place and ninth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three teams, Netts C, Notley C and Rayne D, are level on points immediately behind the leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netts C unexpectedly tumbled 8-2 to Finchingfield A, where John Barrett and Peter Clark were unbeaten, while Rayne D were also on the wrong end of a scoreline, in their case 6-4 against Sudbury Strollers, who borrowed Graham Turner from the third division and were rewarded with his three singles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In division three, Notley E need only one point to secure the title after their 9-1 win over Rayne G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netts F increased the likelihood of finishing third with a 6-4 win over Rayne F, the team just behind them, a position enhanced by one more point in rearranged matches when they beat Rayne G 8-2 while Rayne F dropped three points against Finchingfield B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeldham B and Notley H shared the points while Notley F racked up their first 10-0 of the season with a win over Sudbury Drifters, an occasion also marked by Wendy Day\u2019s first unbeaten evening in her first full season of competitive table tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report by Ron Fosker<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the second year running Rayne A have denied Netts A a double success in the Braintree Table Tennis League by beating them in the semi-final of the team knockout cup. It was achieved with an entirely different team from last year, when Maria Boulton, Adam Buxton and Paul Lucas took them through. This time […]<\/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\/4498"}],"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=4498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4499,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions\/4499"}],"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=4498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"