The overall results may not set pulses racing but there were some intriguing vignettes among recent matches in the first division of the Braintree Table Tennis League. 

Zach Harrington, for instance, illustrated the continuing improvement in his form this season with an excellent win over Maria Boulton in Liberal A’s 9-1 defeat by Rayne A.

Boulton had beaten him 11-5, 11-5, 11-2 in their first meeting earlier in the season but this time it was Harrington who came out on top 11-4 in the fifth game.

In doing so he bettered teammate Scott Dowsett for the first time, an achievement in itself as Dowsett had lost only twice before that match.

It means that Harrington, who won only two of his first 15 singles, has gone on to lose only four of the next 15, including to Paul Lucas and Adam Buxton in this match.

Oliver Hicks was another one to make his mark, although not perhaps as he would have wished. After his landmark victory over his dad James in the previous match, he re-registered with Rayne’s A team only to find himself facing his old Rayne B colleagues in his first match for the current champions.

But his former teammates showed no sentimentality and both Steve Pennell and Ian Whiteside got the better of him in the A team’s 8-2 win.

In Rayne B’s next match, it was Dave Moles who stood out. Normally in division two, he stepped up to take a singles in the top sphere when he overcame Black Notley A’s Chris Parr, never an easy task.

This was one of those curious matches – although not as rare as logic would suggest – where no one won all three and no one lost all three. Sean Clift and Sam Burrows won two for Notley A and Whiteside two for Rayne B in a 6-4 victory for Notley.

It was Parr who outscored his teammates in Notley A’s other match, a defeat by the same score to Liberal B, where he was the only one to beat James Mullane. Adam Cuthbert remained unbeaten for Liberal B.

Liberal B’s other match was another round-the-houses affair, where A beat B, B beat C, C beat D and D beat A. 

The flesh on those particular bones amounted to Karl Baldwin and Ken Lewis winning two each for Sudbury Nomads and Mullane and Alistair Hill winning two for Liberal B. The match appropriately ended in a draw.

Sam Burrows and Steve Noble were both unbeaten in Notley B’s 8-2 win over Netts B while Netts’ A team racked up another 10-0 win, this time over Rayne C.

The only frisson of excitement in the latter match came from Keith Martin stretching men’s singles champion Paul Davison to five games, something that doesn’t happen very often.