Liam Pitchford was in good form, but his Florida Crocs team lost two out of three matches in the latest round of Major League Table Tennis in the USA.

The English No 1 gave the Crocs a good start against Seattle Spinners in the first match in Pomona, California on Friday, as he beat Kou Lie 8-11, 11-5, 11-3.

With his team-mates winning three of the other four match-ups, Florida led 10-5 going into the golden game, giving them a five-point head start, with six points going to the winning team. Every team member is involved, with players playing four points each on rotation.

Pitchford’s first four-point set against Kou Lei was shared 2-2, after which Florida led 9-3. However, that lead had been eroded to 15-13 when he came back to the table.

Once again, the Pitchford-Kou series was shared 2-2, making it 17-15, but Spinners fought back to level at 18-18. With the next four points shared, it made it 20-20 and the winner of the next point would take the golden game and the match – and Spinners’ Debora Vivarelli delivered it against Crocs’ Matilda Ekholm.

After that 11-10 defeat, Crocs were up against Portland Paddlers on Saturday and this time Pitchford was last on – and came to the table with the Crocs trailing 9-3. He defeated Hampus Nordberg 5-11, 11-7, 11-9 but, Crocs were not able to overturn the 10-5 deficit, losing the golden game 21-13 and the match 16-5.

Sunday saw them up against Chicago Wind and Pitchford was back on the first match, defeating Emmanuel Lebesson 8-11, 11-10, 11-10 to put his side ahead. Pitchford was 10-6 up in the second and 10-9 up in the third, taking the golden point on both occasions.

Crocs won three of the next four matches to lead 10-5 and this time made it stick by taking the golden game 21-11 to seal a 16-5 victory.

The results leave Crocs bottom of the East Division standings. The next set of fixtures is on February 14-16 on Crocs’ home turf in in Miami – among the opponents will be David McBeath’s Texas Smash.