Topspin are off the bottom for the first time in a while after only our second win of the season, replaced by MK Phoenix who could only draw with MK Spinners on an adjacent table.
 

It’s amazing that we did better against them this week, when they had their star man in the side and bang in form, than last week when Pete Tillotson and Clare Styles battled alone.
 

So, a good night for Minesh Pitamber with just one game dropped for his maximum.  But a bad night for skipper Pete as he laboured with a heavy cold and an arm injury for a zero, despite getting into fantastic winning positions against Russell Penn and myself before losing both by 2-point margins at the end of the 5th games.
 

Mervyn Kelly and I both beat Clare although she continued her domination over Russell.  That just leaves the doubles to account for and a set  Powers can’t accuse Pete of throwing away this time, as it was the Minesh/Clare combo who wasted huge leads in all 3 games in their defeat to Mervyn/me.
 

That was our 3rd and final meeting with fellow strugglers Powers and the honours have been shared pretty evenly between us, Powers winning 16 sets to our 14.  During these matches I got a hat-trick against Clare, who got her own hat-trick over Russell.  Only 4 points now separate the bottom 3 teams so the relegation issue should remain close to the end of the season.