Melbourn lost 12-15

The 1sts suffered the frustration of the narrowest possible defeat in County League play for the second time this season (they managed the same trick against the Uni) as they were beaten by Comberton 1sts by three strings to two, with all three lost strings only going against Melbourn by three games to two!

The 1sts’s successes on the night came from Matt Sampspon (2), who cruised to an 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 win over Harry Hennesey 3-0 success, and Miles Jeanneret (4), Miles recovering from losing his opening game to Sean Sallis on a tie-break to win 10-12, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4.

Comberton fought back though, Kate Bradshaw (5) going down 12-10, 6-11, 11-8, 5-11, 3-11 to Nathan Taylor, Vinod Duraikan (3) seeing his match against Tom Parker turn on a third game tie-break as he was edged out 11-3, 11-9, 10-12, 8-11, 8-11, whilst Chris Shaw (1), coming back from injury and up against Connor Harmer, a talented 19 year-old (not an ideal combination of factors…), did really well to force a deciding game from 2-1 down, only for this to go against him. Game scores were 11-9, 8-11, 10-12, 11-5, 2-11.

Despite the defeat the 12 points gained, the maximum possible from a losing effort, was enough to keep the 1sts fifth in the Cambs Division 1 table.