Veterans 4 – 6 FISSC
Shottery B 6 – 4 Shottery C
Royal Mail 1 – 9 Shottery A
Henley B 2 – 8 West Warwicks
FISSC gained a narrow win over Veterans in the battle of the Knights Lane tenants. In the opening game Malcolm Smith just got the better of Mark Kingham before going on to hit a rich vein of form that rewarded him with 16 of the set’s last 18 points which secured victory.
Peter Florence earned a treble for the Farmers, including his first league success over John Hunt. However the Veteran secured his other two encounters, with the team earning further wins from Kingham and Brian Marston. The final outcome of the fixture depended upon the doubles where Veterans looked odds-on to share the spoils after racing to a two-game lead. However Smith and Florence turned the tide to claim the set and, with it, their team’s first victory of the campaign.
It was a similar result when Shottery B took on their own third string. The senior side gave a debut to Birmingham league player Jamie Fellows who responded with a treble without the loss of a game. However Fellows wasn’t able to make it a perfect evening as he and Tony Remes lost out in the doubles to Rob Poole and Ken Southwell.
B team captain Tim Fell was involved in all three sets to go the distance. He surrendered a two-game lead to Poole but then overcame an initial deficit to defeat Southwell. Fell’s closest encounter was against the greatly improved David Lincoln-Lewis where he found himself set point down before calling upon all his experience to pull through.
Poole was simultaneously in action on the adjoining table for Shottery A when they took on Royal Mail in what was a more one-sided affair. Both he and Gary Stewart recorded trebles, with Stephen Foster’s defeat to Nello Mauri proving the Postmen’s only consolation.
When Henley B entertained West Warwicks the first set of the evening proved the only encounter to go the distance. It featured the battle between captains Robert McCluskey and Alison Stewart with the former twice holding the advantage without being able to overcome the final hurdle. However McCluskey and Gordon Trinder subsequently took the honours against Peter Rodwell to gain their team’s only successes.