His chance of regaining the men’s singles title disappeared in the semi-final, but Brandon Crouchman has proved that he is still a class act by finishing top of the individual averages in the Braintree Table Tennis League, a position he occupied in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

He suffered only one defeat, to Lee McHugh, who went on to beat him in that semi-final. He included last year’s rating topper Paul Lucas among his victims but he did not face current men’s singles champion Paul Davison – he missed the first match and Davison missed the second.

Davison, who finished in third place, lost four times, to Harry Chivers, Kaung Paing, Mark Mulley and Lucas.

Lucas lost five. His defeats by Davison, Paing and Crouchman were less surprising than reverses against Andy Holmes and Omar Wasi.

Chivers, Mulley and McHugh did not play enough to figure in the ratings.

The revelation of the season was the form of Maria Boulton, rising from 13th place to second. Her transfer from Netts to join Rayne A was a crucial part of the latter’s championship win. She missed the matches against the top players but showed a level of consistency that had eluded her last season.

It was little surprise that Jon Hill, a regular first division player very recently, topped the division two averages, where again his consistency stood out.

He was stretched to five games only twice in 17 sets although his record appeared to be in danger in his final match when he had to come back from behind to beat Lawrence Grantham 3-2 (14-16, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8).

And consistency is always the watchword for Sean Clift, who has risen from sixth in 2022 to fourth last year and now second.

Szczepan Ziobro made the jump from division three to two look a mere stride as he took third place with only six defeats behind him.

For most of the season it looked as if Charles Calisin, 18 last week, would top the division three averages.

After registering only a 35 per cent average last year he stormed through his first seven matches with only one defeat, to Dave Whiting.

His defeat to John Barrett was no great surprise considering that Barrett’s only defeats have been to players who were in division two last season or the season before, but reverses against Lorraine Burgess and Doug Sanders, both of whom he had beaten first time round, dented his record further.

Instead, it was the steady form of Graham Chinnery that claimed the top spot. He lost to Calisin and, more unexpectedly, to his father Jimmy in November but was unbeaten thereafter, avenging the defeat by the elder Calisin in a match that his son missed.

Jimmy Calisin nonetheless finished in a creditable fourth place, improving his average from 60 last year to 85.7 this.

Individual averages (qualification one-third of team’s matches):

Division 1

1 (5) Brandon Crouchman 26 wins out of 27 = 96.3 per cent; 2 (13) Maria Boulton 22-24, 91.7; 3 (3) Paul Davison 30-34, 88.2; 4 (1=) Paul Lucas 36-41, 87.8; 5 (9) Andy Holmes 30-38, 78.9; 6 (10) Adam Buxton 31-41, 75.6; 7 (4) James Hicks 33-44, 75; 8= (11) Alistair Hill, (-) Omar Wasi 20-27, 74.1; 10 (-) Aron Jordan 13-18, 72.2; 11 (7) Scott Dowsett 20-29, 68.9; 12 (-) Oliver Hicks 29-43, 67.4; 13 (8) Steve Pennell l27-43, 62.8; 14 (-) Ken Lewis 30-50, 60; 15 (19) Ian Whiteside 14-25, 56; 16 (17) Chris Parr 25-48, 52.1; 17 (12) Victor Chan 20-39, 51.3; 18 (26) James Mullane 16-33, 48.4; 19 (-) Sam Burrows 15-32, 46.9; 20 (16) Ashley Skeggs 19-41, 46.3.

Division 2

1 Jon Hill 17-17, 100; 2 Sean Clift 39-45, 86.7; 3 Szczepan Ziobro 31-37, 83.8; 4 Adi Kamma 15-18, 83; 5 Richard Whiteside 31-42, 73.8; 6 Dave Moles 33-45, 73.3; 7 Rev Matthews 35-48, 72.0; 8 Ian Shrubsole 36-51, 70.5; 9= Louise Hartshorn 34-51, Jamie Brooks 28-42, Kierlan Richards 26-39, 66.7.

Division 3

1 Graham Chinnery 43-45, 95.6; 2 Charles Calisin 41-45, 91.1; 3 John Barrett 24-27, 88.9; 4 Jimmy Calisin 36-42, 85.7; 5 Tim Schafer 23-27, 85.2; 6 Lorraine Burgess 37-44, 84.1; 7 Doug Sanders 35-44. 79.6; 8= Ron Fosker, Stewart Grant 13-18, 72.2; 10 Brian How 15-21, 71.4.