The scrap to avoid the bottom rung in division one of the Braintree Table Tennis League has developed into a tight three-way battle.

After Black Notley B picked up their first win of the season the previous week, it was the turn of Liberal B to put their first success on the board – with a 6-4 victory over Notley’s A team. A top-form Ashley Skeggs was mainly responsible, taking his three singles and the doubles with David Razzell.

Notley B meanwhile came off worse by the same score against relegation rivals Sudbury Wanderers. Rev Matthews was the player in form this time, taking his three singles and a doubles for Notley but they ran into availability problems and had to field two reserves.

The bottom of division two has also livened up after Rayne E, once well adrift, won their third match in a row to lift themselves up three places. Richard and Scott Whiteside and James Grimston all won twice in the 7-3 win over Notley C but Jamie Brooks proved too good for all of them.

Just four points separate the bottom seven teams, with three teams sharing the bottom rung on 48 points.

Sudbury Strollers are one of those but they improved their position with a 7-3 win over Finchingfield A, bringing them level with their opponents.

Netts D are the third team on 48 points after their 6-4 defeat by their own C team. That meant a match-up between Charles Calisin, beaten only three times this season, against his father Jimmy, whose defeats outnumber his victories. But it was no easy ride for Charles, who scraped home 11-6 in the fifth game.

The top two in division three did not have it all their own way. Leaders Notley E were stretched to 6-4 by lowly Sudbury Drifters while second-placed Finchingfield B were held to a draw by a Rayne G side also at the wrong end of the table.

It was a last-gasp win for Finchingfield’s Lucien Nolan-Bradford over Karl Bowden at 11-9 in the fifth that saved their – and his – unbeaten record.

Bowden suffered another deuce-in-the-third defeat when representing Rayne F in their draw against Notley H. It was the third win of the evening for Wayne Wilson.

Notley’s F team were 9-1 victors over Netts E – three wins for Tony Brown and Aivars Taimins – while the club’s G team won the last three sets of the evening to snatch a 6-4 win over Yeldham Whitlocks B.

That match was notable for one of those rarities, a set in which all five games were decided by two points, Steve Baines beating Richard Taylor 3-2 (15-17, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10, 14-12).