In a week where England's 3-2 loss to Portugal in Euro 2000 will have been reported in millions of words throughout the World this scoreline has proved decidedly popular in the first round of matches in the Chelmsford & District Summer Table Tennis League.

In the first division Danbury played well to get the better of ECC 3-2 with Geoff Beavington excelling to win both of his singles.

Gordon Gatherall also made his mark with a good win over Keith Woodcock.

ECC Dodos went one better getting the better of GEC 4-1 with Andrew Halling preventing Ian Brown and Gavin Bloomfield taking a clean-sheet.

Three of the four matches in division two were decided by 3-2 scorelines and the pick of the performances was that of League President Norman Smith, who led Danbury C to a 3-2 win over OCs A with excellent wins over Trevor Palmer and Robbie Burton and he also claimed a share in a doubles success with Nicky Reece-Ford.

Excalibur A also eased home 3-2 with Chelmsford League Chairman Richard Hiskey getting the better of both Derek Lloyd and Reg Innes; again a most impressive performance.

St. Peters had to rely on star-player Gary Ward to see off Hatfield Peverel B 3-2, with Ward getting the better of Tony Stredder and Malcolm Jacobs.

Danbury B became the early leaders of this division after a workmanlike 4-1 win over Baddow Village A.

Nicky Duce, who played in division four in last year's Winter League, impressed by getting the better of Alastair Brown (who played in division three) and most impressively first division star Ian Wright.

Warley Stars B made a flying start in division three with a 5-0 win over Hatfield Peverel C with Paul Morris and Bill Wall both staying undefeated.

Peverel will consider themselves unfortunate not to have got on the scoresheet with Neil Freeman twice losing out at deuce in the third end.

Favoured Invicta missed out 3-2 against Writtle. However as Writtle fielded an impressive newcomer in Paul Haigh a new recruit from Cambridge it is impossible to read too much into this result at this stage.

In division four, John Gardener produced one of his best performances for some time to help OCs C get the better of Highwood 4-1. Nigel Parmenter added good support on this occasion.

Mountnessing also looked highly impressive as they beat Hadleigh Forum 4-1 with Paul Singleton taking both singles.

The keen and friendly rivalry between OCs C and Danbury D which proved so evenly matched in last year's Winter League division six, continued with Danbury once again getting home.

Ray Beckwith and John Skuse combined to win 3-2 although neither of them could get the better of Gerard Esser on this occasion.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.