Wymondham lead the way in the Senior British Clubs League Championship Division after an opening weekend on which no team remained unbeaten.
Watch EVERY Championship fixture on demand at TTE.TV from Tuesday 24 September.
TTE.TV is a membership benefit, so to renew your membership and enjoy free access, click here – all categories of membership, including our FREE Supporter Membership, qualify for TTE.TV access!
Click here for all the results, averages and other stats from the weekend on TT Leagues.
With last year’s champions London Academy – who remained unbeaten all season – no longer in the division, it had the look of a well-matched league in which any team can take points off any other.
And so it proved as every team picked up at least one point and eight of the 10 sides had at least one victory.
Wymondham’s three wins out of four sees them top, just a point ahead of newly promoted Woodford Wells, hosts Nottingham, Perry Dale and BATTS II.
Things did not get off to a good start for the Norfolk side, however, as they lost their opening match of the season 6-2 to another promoted side, Milton Keynes, for whom Kieran Smith and Joseph Dennison both won twice.
The big winners in the opening round were Nottingham and Ormeau, who respectively defeated Wensum and Urban, both by a 7-1 margin.
The other two matches were drawn 4-4, and both featured terrific comebacks from 4-1 down.
Two wins for Vladimir Pandurevic and one apiece for Adam Alibhai and Lucas Papantoniou put Woodford Wells in control against BATTS II.
That Papantoniou victory was against Ethan Walsh, making a welcome return to the BATTS ranks, and it was Walsh who started the comeback, defeating Alibhai 3-1 (16-14, 11-4, 5-11, 11-6). Luc Miller then saw off Zoltan Hosszu and Ryan Choong sealed the draw with a four-game victory over Papantoniou to complete a personal double.
Perry Dale came back from even closer to the brink against Ormesby II and Sam Wilson experienced the highs and the lows in that fixture. He saw his first opponent, Graeme Barella, come from 2-0 down to win in five, putting Ormesby 2-0 ahead – a lead they stretched to 4-1 as Barella notched a double and Tom Rayner and Zac Greenhough one each.
After Joseph Marlor pulled one back by defeating Rayner, Wilson then put in his own comeback from 2-0 down to defeat Josh Weatherby 3-2 (10-12, 10-12, 11-3, 11-8, 11-2), and Max Radiven sealed the draw with his second victory, against Greenhough.
The second round of matches on Saturday saw Ormesby defeat Urban 6-2, but all the others were closer, including 5-3 victories for Wymondam over Woodford Wells, Ormeau against BATTS and Perry Dale against Wensum.
Woodford were 3-2 up after Pandurevic beat Adam Fuzes 16-14 in the fifth, but James Hobson, Connor Whitehead and Shun Hei Chang turned it around for the Norfolk side.
Ormeau won five of the first six matches to see off BATTS, and it looked as if Perry Dale were on course for a similar story as they led 4-0 against Wensum. However, Wensum hit back to take the next three, only for Radiven to slam the door on a possible draw as his 11-3, 12-10, 11-2 win over Wayne Mason clinched it for Perry Dale.
The other match finished 4-4 between Milton Keynes and Nottingham in a match which started with a 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-6) win for Joseph Dennison against his older brother, Adam.
Milton Keynes led 1-0 and 2-1, then trailed 3-2 and then led 4-3, but Owen Brown snatch a point for Nottingham as he defeated Takuya Nakai 3-2 (11-9, 7-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7).
There was a similar pattern to Sunday’s first round of matches, with 6-2 again the biggest win – this time for Woodford Wells over Nottingham (who led 2-1), three matches finishing 5-3 and one 4-4.
Milton Keynes were again involved in the draw as they faced Wensum, and they may feel it got away from them as they led 2-0 and 4-2 – doubles for Veton Zeqiri and Mason saw Wensum to their point and it was a dramatic one for Mason as he overturned a 2-0 deficit to win the final match 3-2 (7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10) against Nakai.
Wymondham went to the wire before completing their 5-3 win over Ormeau. They led 3-1, but saw their Irish opponents hit back to level, before Israel Awolaja beat Conor Nugent 11-7 in the fifth and Shun Hei Chang went even closer with James Skelton before eventually prevailing 3-2 (2-11, 16-14, 14-16, 11-5, 12-10).
BATTS looked as if they would drop at least a point against Ormesby in the battle of the second-teams as they trailed 3-2. But Walsh beat Rayner, Miller overcame Weatherby and Choong saw off Greenhough to turn it around.
Meanwhile, doubles for Radiven and Simon Noutch saw Perry Dale triumph 5-3 against Urban, who had recovered from 3-1 down to level and raise the possibility of getting their first point of the weekend. Alim Hirji got a double for Urban.
It was not to be on that occasion, but Urban did get that elusive point as they drew 4-4 with Wensum in Round 4 – and they recovered from 4-2 down too as first Leon Thomson beat Zeqiri 12-10 in the fifth and then young Pablo Ramirez Rioja defeated Mason in four. Wensum’s Lauren Charles was the only player to get a double in that match.
Underscoring that this is going to be a highly competitive league, the four other matches in Sunday afternoon all finished 5-3.
Among them, Wymondham made sure of topping the table with victory over Ormesby II, a match which they led 5-1 as Awolaja won both his ties 11-7 in the fifth.
Nottingham won three successive matches in the fifth through Olly Cornish, Brown and Howard Onweng, opening up a 3-1 lead on their way to a 5-3 scoreline against Ormeau.
BATTS were always ahead against Perry Dale, Miller taking a double, while Woodford Wells moved into second place with their 5-3 win over Milton Keynes, with two each for Pandurevic and Bryan Kwan – Nakai won two for MK.
In the averages, Kwan and Awolaja both won all four matches for Woodford and Wymondham respectively, but pride of place goes to England Junior Radiven, who won all eight of his matches for Perry Dale.
The second Championship weekend is on 16-17 November.