Melbourn won 20-1

One glance at the league table prior to this match said it was a big one – the 1sts sat 8th in Division 1 on 131 points, March were 9th on 120. Whilst finishing second-bottom of Cambs Division 1 doesn’t mean automatic relegation (only bottom spot in the 10-team Division brings that, and that looks highly likely to be Ely this season) you still want to avoid finishing 9th as that means a play-off with the team second in Division 2. Which may fall on a day with bad availability or injury or whatever – a one-off match to save one’s top-flight status is situation to be avoided if possible!

That was what was on the line… but Melbourn is still a long way from March and that meant the visitors travelled short-handed, gifting Mark a walkover at fifth string. That left the 1sts looking for just two more strings, which they had pocketed two matches into the evening as Vinod overcame Christopher Parson 3-1 (11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7) and Miles was too consistent for Andy Osborne, winning 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-8).

This gave Matt and Chris at #1 and #2 respectively a rare chance to play with the bonus point pressure off – most of the 1sts matches seem to finish 3-2 one way or the other, but this time the boys were 3-0 already! Both put in strong displays, Chris having too much game and too much court coverage for Avi Warren as he won 3-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-5) and Matt picking up a very satisfying 3-0 victory against Scott Drewery (11-9, 11-6, 11-7), his first win in four tries against Scott (the overall h2h now stands at 3-3), and the first time that a match between the two has been decided in straight games.