THE Netts club have landed two of the three cup trophies in the Braintree Table Tennis League.

The A team took the Team Knockout Cup for only the second time – in contrast to their five league titles – while the club’s juniors in the D team carried off the Handicap Cup.

Nomads kept the Restricted Cup on their shelf for the third year running.

Netts A started strong favourites against Liberal B, who had finished six places behind them in the league, but they were made to work hard for their success.

After a comfortable win in the first doubles and a three-game win for James Mullane over Robin Armstrong, the first hint of trouble came when Mike Johnston unexpectedly pinched a game off Paul Davison.

Then things became really interesting as Adrian Pitt changed ends 5-1 down in the fifth game against Alistair Hill but stormed through to win 11-8.

Pitt then took to the table with Armstrong against Davison and Mullane and after a lengthy tussle emerged victorious 15-13, 4-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-7.

Johnston came desperately close to levelling the scores when he stretched Mullane to 11-9 in the fifth game and finally Armstrong took Hill the full five games but an 11-6 victory in the fifth gave Netts A the title.

It was the second successive win for Mullane and Hill, who were in the Netts B team that surprisingly beat the A team in last year’s final.

Nomads were similarly hard pushed to clinch the restricted cup against Rayne E.

And it was largely Dave Punt, playing in his first cup final of any kind after nearly 50 years in the league, who made it tough for them.

After coming desperately close to a win in the opening doubles when Steve Siggs and Dave Miller lost at 13-11 in the fifth against Ken Lewis and Richard Kemp, Punt stepped up to the table to beat Kevin Saunders and level the match.

Three more wins put Nomads on the brink of victory but then back came Punt with his second win of the evening, 11-5 in the fifth over Kemp.

Miller then pulled a further set back when he got the better of Saunders but Lewis does not lose many sets at this level and his win over Siggs completed a 5-3 victory.

For Netts D, it was much more straightforward.

With handicaps of +8 or +10 (up to 21) against Black Notley D, Joe Belsom, Max Plumridge and Kierlan Richards seldom looked in trouble.

Adam Clift and Peter Foster stretched Belsom and Plumridge respectively to three games, but that was about it and Netts declared at 6-0.