Shottery C 5 – 5 Henley A

Veterans 4 – 6 Royal Mail

FISSC 0 – 10 Shottery B

Shottery A 9 – 1 Henley B

In the closest encounter of the week Shottery C shared the spoils with Henley A who would have been disappointed not to come away victorious after losing all three contests to go the distance. In the first action of the evening Rob Poole took the honours in the fifth game against Mike Evetts, despite winning four points less than his opponent over the course of their encounter. The in-form Poole went on to record another treble although, after gaining a two game lead over Alison Stewart, he was again taken to a decider where a lucky ‘net’ saw him edge home 11-9. Poole and Ken Southwell also surrendered a two game advantage in the doubles before gaining a crucial success. Stewart and Evetts each earned braces for Henley with Geoff Shephard also getting on the card.

Royal Mail took advantage of their new status within the Shottery club by including the Villagers’ B team captain Tim Fell in their line-up for the visit to Veterans. He led the way for the Postmen with a treble, although had to overturn an initial deficit against John Hunt. Wilf Chan added a brace, but went one better than Fell as he lost the first two games to Hunt before staging a recovery. In yet another set where the hosts took an early lead, Chan and Dave Fordham secured the doubles to ensure their team went home with a narrow victory. Brian Marston was the pick of the Veterans with two wins, with Hunt and Martin Hamer recording their other successes.

Gareth Hepworth and the ubiquitous Fell were both untroubled as Shottery B imposed a whitewash upon lowly FISSC. However Dave Milton was made to work hard by both Peter Florence and Mark Jones before clinching victories over the distance.

Shottery A looked to be on course for another maximum when, having swept all before them, in the last set of the evening Stephen Foster took a two game lead against Henley B’s Robert McCluskey. However the visiting captain found some late form to stem the tide and claim the next three games, thereby earning his team’s only consolation. That success was well deserved as, in the only other contest of the evening to go to the wire, McCluskey had narrowly lost the decider 13-15 to Graham Poole.