Warwickshire Veterans enjoyed an excellent start to their County Championships Division 2A campaign after remaining unbeaten over the first weekend of fixtures held at Wellingborough.
Warwickshire began with a narrow 6-4 victory against Yorkshire 3 after initially surging to a 4-1 lead they were almost pegged back and it needed a 17-15 deciding game victory for Mark Jackson over his Yorkshire counterpart in the penultimate game of the match to seal the points. This completed a good match for Jackson who won both his singles and partnered Dawn Sagoo to a key doubles success in the first mixed doubles.
Mike Browne and Simon Griew also won a singles apiece and teamed up to win the mens doubles to keep Warwickshire in command with Griew fighting back from two sets to one down in his singles against Yorkshire No 2 Dave Randerson to take the final two games 11-9, 11-9.
In the second match Warwickshire beat Northamptonshire 1 7-3 with victories in the mens doubles and both mixed doubles proving critical. Also important in this match were fard fought wins for Browne and Griew over Northants No 3 John Fuller as well as a convincing ladies singles success for Dawn Sagoo. Northants were unfortunate in that their No 1 Andy Trott picked up an injury and was forced to concede one of his singles.
Arguably the best performance of the weekend came in Warwickshire's final match when drawing 5-5 with a powerful Staffordshire side who had won both their opening fixtures. Their No 1 Adrian Dixon was unbeaten in singles and doubles for Staffordshire, but despite this Warwickshire fought back strongly to gain a share of the spoils with Simon Griew winning both his singles including a 12-10 deciding game verdict over Staffordshire No 2 Paul Myatt and partnering Dawn Sagoo to victory in the second mixed doubles to earn the draw in the final individual game of the match. Dawn Sagoo also contributed a fine five game success against Natalie Riley in the ladies singles and Mike Browne proved too consistent for Staffordshire No 3 Zia Khan
