It's a real cup of woe for the Prefects

On Monday, they went down 5-1 to Telstars, a disappointing defeat to a team in a lower division and they were hoping for more when they headed to Ward Road Gym on Saturday for the semi finals of the Chairman’s Challenge against Forthill’s Aces.

Starting brightly with wins from Sascha Roschy and Michael Hahn against Peter Dixon and Jim Dyson, Prefects saw their 2-0 lead disappear when Howard Lee was pipped by Grant Williams in four sets followed by defeat in both doubles ties.

At 2-3 down, Michael stopped the rot by beating Grant, leaving all to play for in the tie between Howard and Jim.

In a fast paced match, Howard was unable to contain Jim’s strong attacking play and so it was Aces who headed onwards to the final.

Truants had an impressive 8-2 victory away to Rollercoasters.

With Sascha winning his now customary three singles, there was excellent team back up from Alain Leger and Graham Wood who each added two wins - and Graham combined with Sascha to take the doubles point as well.

Not such a cheery tale for the other two Second Division teams who both suffered whitewashes.

Despite forcing five five-setters against Chieftains, Swots’ trio of Rob Brown, Emma Bissett and Dave Beveridge must have been in despair when they could not convert any into a win.

New Kids didn’t get the rub of the green against Thumpers. On an evening when only two of the ten ties was won in straight sets, Ian Smith was the unluckiest in losing 10-12 in the fifth to the rapidly improving Jordan Ednie.

Fabio Sani was in form for Prospects in their Division Three tie against TASS.

Fabio scored two wins and just missed out on a treble going down 11-13 in the fifth set of his third singles.

Neil Lea and Emily Howat stretched Telephone House but couldn’t turn the tie.