David McBeath’s Texas Smash prevailed over Liam Pitchford’s Florida Crocs in the latest round of Major League Table Tennis in the USA – but both teams won only one of their three matches across the weekend.

Playing on Crocs’ home ground in Miami, Florida got off to a great start in thee first round of fixtures, defeating Chicago Wind 14-7.

Pitchford played the last of the singles matches, with the score poised at 6-6, and his 11-9, 11-10, 8-11 win over Emmanuel Lebesson gave Crocs the edge. They then won the golden game 21-14 to seal a 14-7 overall victory.

Meanwhile, Texas were up against Bay Area Blasters and fell to a 12-19 defeat, despite McBeath & Hiromitsu Kasahara defeating Wenzhang Tao & Eric Jouti 8-11, 11-8, 11-5.

The two English players met during Saturday’s round of matches and it finished 12-9 in favour of Smash, with Pitchford & McBeath both winning their individual matches.

Pitchford this time played in match 1 and defeated Kasahara 10-11, 11-8, 11-7, while McBeath & Kasahara won the doubles 11-10, 11-10, 7-11 against Daniel Gorak & Andy Pereira.

Crocs led 9-6 going into the golden game, but Smash won that 21-17 to take the overall win.

Sunday’s matches saw Texas well beaten by Chicago, who clinched a 16-5 victory despite McBeath & Kasahara continuing their good doubles form by beating Lebesson & Tom Feng 11-9, 11-6, 8-11.

Crocs again led going into the golden game but saw opponents Blasters come back to win it 21-19 and won the tie 12-9. Earlier, Pitchford had defeated Taehyun Kim 11-6, 5-11, 11-10.

It means Smash have now won eight and lost seven in a tight West Division, which they lead ahead of Blasters. Crocs have won six and lost nine and are fourth in East Division.

Crocs and Smash are both next in action on the weekend of 7-9 March in Katy, Texas, and will be up against Portland Paddlers and Carolina Gold Rush.