Paul Davison is used to being the favourite for the Braintree Table Tennis League men’s singles title, but this season the odds on him adding to his eight wins are shorter than ever.
Nearly all of his challengers or conquerors of recent years will be absent this time. Current champion Gary Young has not played in the league this year. Nor have Lee McHugh, winner in 2019, or Michael Andrews, the champion in 2022.
Paul Lucas, beaten by Davison in the 2023 final, has only just started playing again, as has Adam Buxton, winner over Davison in the 2019 semi-final.
One player who is in the draw is Luke Burridge, whose defeat of Davison was the major surprise of last season.
Can he do it again? A relatively modest league return of 73 per cent (and 47 per cent in Colchester) suggests not, but his average was only marginally higher last year before he rose to the occasion in the quarter final.
Seeded to face Davison in the final is his Netts A teammate James Hicks, ultra consistent in the league this year with 32 wins out of 33, the defeat coming at the hands of Burridge.
Burridge is seeded third alongside Scott Dowsett, beaten only twice in his 18 sets this season.
Davison and Hicks are top seeds in the men’s doubles with Burridge and Sam Burrows, or last year’s finalists Karl Baldwin and Ken Lewis the likely challengers.
Sadly, there were not enough entries to run a ladies’ singles but the junior boys’ singles could throw up an intriguing contest.
Ethan Collins, at 10 the youngest ever winner of the title last year, faces the fast-improving Lucien Nolan-Bradford, beaten only once in 39 sets in division three.
The preliminary rounds of the individual events, plus the finals of some minor events, will be held at the Earls Colne Recreation Centre this weekend, with finals night the following Friday.
A few t’s were crossed and i’s dotted in the final week of league fixtures.
Black Notley B needed to better Sudbury Wanderers’ result by five points to stave off relegation from division one but fell three short.
Notley’s A team did their bit to help by beating Wanderers 10-0, but wresting five points from Rayne B proved beyond the B team. Adi Kamma was unbeaten in Rayne’s 8-2 win.
Sudbury Nomads had already secured the runners-up spot but had the satisfaction of beating the team immediately below them, Rayne A, in their final match.
Rayne’s Paul Lucas continued his comeback from injury by taking his three singles and the doubles with Steve Pennell in the 6-4 defeat.
In the second division, Sudbury Strollers at last leaped out of the pack into the runners-up spot. They jumped up from sixth to second with a 6-4 win over Notley C followed by a defeat by the same score against Netts D.
David Fiddeman was unbeaten at Netts but against Notley C he met his match in Jamie Brooks, who repeated his win in the restricted cup the previous week, this time in straight games, compared with 12-10 in the fifth game in the cup.
Netts C and Rayne E, who drew with each other, can still overtake them but Strollers still have two matches left compared with their one.
In the other match in the division, Notley D confirmed they will finish last but they went out with a bang, a 6-4 win over Rayne D, with Graham Chinnery and Matt Stephenson unbeaten.
In division three, Notley E took the point they needed – and seven more – to clinch the title against their own F team.
There were three wins each for their mainstays, Peter Davenport (40 wins out of 44) and Dave Parker (38 from 43).
Finchingfield B ended their four-match winless run with an 8-2 win over Rayne F, a team they had lost 7-3 to the previous week with only one change in each line-up. Ray Bradford and Trevor Laird were unbeaten in the second match.
Netts F finished their programme with a comprehensive 10-0 win over their own E team to claim third spot. Their top two James Howard and Tom Verrier were unbeaten in both.
Notley G beat Rayne G 8-2 with Steve Baines and Ben Southgate unbeaten, while Sudbury Drifters finished their season with a 6-4 win over Notley H.