Published 19/04/2024 19:31 by Martin Johnson; edited 1 times, last on 19/04/2024 19:31 by Martin Johnson.

Fifth placed Greenleys Troopers visited seventh placed Mursley Swallows, having beaten them 6-4 in their first encounter, so a close match was expected. Troopers turned up with four players, so once they had decided which three would play, Romauld Baucherel took the opener for the visitors with a comfortbale straight games win over Martin Johnson. Swallows fought back as John Paul won three close games against Jock Wallace, and then reserve David Bartlett played really well to beat Rob Anderson in straight games. John/Martin then teamed up in the doubles versus Romy/Jock, and in a see-saw set, Swallows pulled a win out of the fire in the decider, with John hitting four clean winners to take it 11-9. Romy narrowed the match score to 3-2, as he came through in three very tight games against John, but the home team went two clear again, as Martin came from two legs to one, down, to just beat Rob in five. Supersub David then did likewise against Jock, to put Swallows ahead 5-2. Troopers battled back, and although Rob saw a 2 leg lead levelled by John, he powered through the deciding leg, before unbeaten Romy scored yet another treble, though David took him to a fourth game. So, 5-4, and still all to play for, and Martin nicked the first two legs against Jock, before Jock nicked the next two back to even things up, with the fifth being just as close, with a couple of misses from Jock just seeing Martin through 11-9 in the decider. Thus, Swallows ended a run of five narrow defeats with a narrow 6-4 win, to potentially edge them a bit further away from the relegation zone, thanks to a good all-round performance.