After getting inexorably closer week after week, Netts C have at last taken over the top spot in division three of the Braintree Table Tennis League.

They did so with the help of their own D team who comprehensively beat previous leaders Rayne H 8-2.  But it has been their own efforts that have got them where they are.

The win over Black Notley F that took them to the top was their fourth consecutive 9-1 scoreline and leaves them two points ahead with two matches in hand.

Their latest victory was a typical team effort with Kierlan Richards this time the one to miss out – in straight games to Leon Hewitt – while Max Plumridge and Joe Belsom took their sets comfortably.

Rayne H were the latest team to feel the brunt of the Derek Kennard-Joe Meleschko double act at Netts D.  Without Brian How, beaten only once so far, they managed only two wins against Peter Hardy, although Hardy’s win over Charles Wilkinson was probably the major achievement of the evening.

An unbeaten Jamie Brooks led third-placed Notley E to a 7-3 win over their own H team, although he was stretched to 12-10 in the fifth game by Declan Baines.

Ian Rubens and Barry Mouser were undefeated as Rayne J beat Notley G 9-1 while Notley’s I team overcame a two-person Rayne I 8-2.

It was a slightly curious week in division two where none of the top three were able to win.

Black Notley C suffered 7-3 at the hands of Nomads, for whom Kevin Saunders and Lloyd Bennett-Smith were unbeaten, while both Rayne E and Liberal C drew.

Bennett-Smith’s win over Gordon Fairchild produced one of the more bizarre scorelines of the season: 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-0, 11-7.

Rayne E were held by their own D team, where new signing Kelly Yuenyongpknan’s wins over Dave Punt and Steve Siggs suggest she will be a useful addition to the D team’s ranks.

Liberal C’s Jon Fieldsend, beaten only twice in 21 singles, surprisingly missed out to both Keith Flowers and Steve Willis in their draw with Rayne G, but his side were held together by a typically dependable performance from Garry Fryatt, who stretched his own run to 19 wins out of his last 21 sets.

Felsted RBL A beat their own B team 8-2 and also drew with Rayne F where Mike Pitt, with only one win behind him all season, produced the performance of the week by chalking up two wins.

The B team also lost 9-1 to Notley D, a result which should banish any relegation fears the latter may still have been harbouring.