By Ron Fosker

Sible Hedingham have been inching their way towards the division two title in the Braintree Table Tennis League, but last week’s win represented a bigger stride than usual.

It came against second-placed Black Notley B, whose own hopes of the title have now more or less vanished.

It was a tight match in which no-one remained undefeated but all won at least once.

Richard Jennings and Roy Hooper won twice for Hedingham and Gordon Fairchild twice for Notley.

Elsewhere in division two, Nomads, with Ken Lewis and Richard Kemp in full flow, beat Rayne E 8-2, while Notley E got the better of their own D team 7-3.

Brian Speller had a good win over Sean Clift at 12-10 in the fifth game but lost to Peter Foster.

Hedingham Lions took advantage of an out-of-touch Alastair Brown to pick up three points against Rayne F.

In division one, there were routine wins for the top two.

Netts A beat Felsted RBL A 10-0 – only their third 10-0 of the campaign – while Liberal A beat their own B team 9-1.

Adrian Pitt scored an excellent win over Ian Hayden to register the B team’s one success.

Liberal A, in a rearranged match, won 8-2 against Rayne D.

It was a storming and almost stunning night for Rayne D’s Hector Rogers.

He had superb wins over Scott Dowsett and Ian Hayden and was only denied his hat-trick by Peter Hayden’s win at 14-12 in the fifth.

After five wins in a row, third-placed Rayne A were surprisingly held to a draw by their own B team, thanks largely to the efforts of Lee McHugh, who won his three singles and shared in a doubles win with Ryan Pitt.

In their previous match, Rayne A had beaten Felsted A 10-0.

Netts B moved closer with a 9-1 win over Notley A in which they lost only the doubles while Rayne C picked up their first win in 12 matches, a 6-4 success against their own D team.

New-signing Scott Bills’ three singles were mainly responsible.

Guy McKenzie notched up his first unbeaten evening of the season in Notley A’s earlier 7-3 win over Rayne C.

Paul Lombardi, playing up from division three, will be pleased with his win over Chris Parr.

Richard Whiteside was another one playing above his station, in his case from the C team to the B team.

And he did not let his team-mates down, taking his three singles in their 9-1 win over Rayne D.

Rogers’ win over Peter Hance was the one that got away.