Thankfully Michael didn't see my message until much later in the day as all his players arrived early.  Much to my surprise George was there when I arrived and ready to play after all.

This looked to me a very strong Outcasts team, so we were always going to be up against it from the very beginning.

I opened proceedings with a surprising 3-0 win over Nabil. George followed with a 3-0 loss to Petko. Two straight matches bucking the trend of the last two weeks.

The third match was me against Ben, a very promising young player and one to watch for the future. After 3 dominate sets either way I led 2-1. In the fourth I raced into a 7-1 lead; Ben fought back to 7-7. Was a final set on the cards? Thankfully no, with me continuing the periods of domination and winning 4 of the next 5 points to win the match.

Match 4 saw George lose again 3 straight to Nabil.

At this point Ronnie arrived about 7.30 pm. He was even later than usual because his bus had broken down. I am grateful to Outcasts for allowing him to play. The order of play is shown in brackets on the scorecard for matches played out of sequence.

Ben caught Ronnie cold and proved too powerful, winning in 3.

Up next and earlier than expected, had me pitted against another old rival Petko. I had previously beaten Petko in our last 3 meetings, but was taking nothing for granted with a possible maximum (my fourth of the season) on the cards. Petko hadn't played for the past 6 weeks and may help explain my easier than expected passage to another maximum.

Ronnie lost in 4 to Nabil, but on another night the match could so easily have gone the other way.

George lost again 3-0; it's not been a particular good season for George.

In Ronnie's final match of the night v Petko he found himself 2-1 and 9-6 down in the fourth set. Ronnie took control of the match from herein winning the final set.

The final doubles match was very much about combinations of play, ie who served and who received as displayed by the 2 sets we won and the 3 we lost.

We may have just done enough to stay up, but with our final match against Comets A and Outcasts' final match against Karma, nothing is certain.

I'll be putting the champagne on ice for a little longer.