A strange evening somewhat affected by availability and injury. 

With no one else available Pete had offered to play for Castaways even though he currently has a herniated disc in his back, having not played for two and a half years as well, it was always going to be a stretch to immediately pick up where he left off and so it turned out with three straight losses to Ronnie and John but saving his best for George where he won three straight. 

Neil had injured a knee the previous evening but played and just about managed to beat George in five and then just couldn’t cope with Ronnie’s serving, counter hitting, and looping. However, in a strange turnaround, the injury may have helped when it came to John as he was forced to almost all-out attack resulting in a four-leg win. 

Johnny, the only Castaway not injured, found the going very tough losing to both John and Ronnie in five. Having gone two legs down against John he came from 1-6 down to win the third leg 12-10 to keep the contest alive. He ran out an easy winner in the fourth only to then find himself trailing again in the fifth 6-9 but he again brought it back to deuce but couldn’t maintain the momentum and lost 10 in the fifth. 

Johnny’s game with Ronnie seemed to be heading to a three straight win for him having won the first two legs but then Ronnie fought back to win the tight third to 9 and then the fourth to 8. In the final leg Johnny took a five three lead at the change of ends but then it all slipped away with Ronnie recovering to 9-5. Johnney managed to pull a few points back but Ronnie prevailed inning to 8. 

He then faced George and wasted no time winning three straight conceding 7 points! 

For the fully fit PRO Ronnie was the star with an excellent three wins, and taking nothing away from him for the injuries he may well have done the same against a fully fit Castaways.

John, playing with brand new rubbers, played some excellent TT, particularly against Johnny, and on another day would have won three. 

George struggled after his initial five legger with Neil only winning 23 points in his other two games. 

The doubles, of course, was crucial with Castaways desperate to avoid a defeat having constantly been chasing the match all evening and coming from 3-5 to 4-5 with the doubles to play. The Johnny/Neil combination is a hard act to overcome and so it proved for John/Ronnie with Castaways running out three straight winners. 

The match probably takes Castaways out of the Title race baring a massive win when they play Comets A but never say die!