The Liberal table tennis club was formed in 1977 when the Liberal Club in Coggeshall Road, Braintree, built an extension and its secretary, former men’s singles champion Peter Byford, used his influence to ensure the room was big enough for table tennis.
The Cressing club, where Byford was playing at the time, was packing up and the A team of himself plus Harold Bickmore and John Millbank moved en bloc to the new club where they were joined by Dave Atterbury, moving a few yards up Coggeshall Road from Crittall.
They also had a second team that year, including long serving players Ivan Buck and Ken Rogers.
Later when Lake and Elliot folded, Liberal took on their players including the combination of Ray Fairless, Ken Edwards and Derek Finch who like the A team formed an enduring partnership.
The A team, who won the second division on three occasions, all retired together at the end of the 1995 season although Byford has since made a return.
Over more recent years numbers of club members interested in playing table tennis have dropped and in the 2004-05 season it was touch and go whether the club would actually have a team in the league. However they managed to soldier on with some outside help and in 2005-06 are back to two teams.
