Border Reivers 16-4 Abercorn
Del Sharratt 1-3 Stewart Simpson
A well matched pairing, both players had similar styles of play. Whenever one player had the hand they would rattle off 3-4 points (2-4, 7-4, 7-10, 11-10) at 15-15 Del played the serve out and Stewart punished him 17-15, the second game although Del took a 7-2 lead, Stewart fought valiantly and again the game was close. At 11-11 Del kept his shots tight and got to everything and took it 15-11. Del seemed to tire and Stewart had the better stamina, Del wasn’t going for some of the shots later in the match that he returned with ease earlier in the game and Stewart won 15-8, 15-9.
Graham Bensted 3-1 Peter O’Conner
Graham took the first in a one sided 15-5 affair, he bossed the game from the start and the spectators were expecting this to be over quickly but Peter had other ideas and dug deep in the second game, Peter didn’t take the ball so quickly and changed his stance, the adjustment threw Bensted and a lot of long fast rallies made for a more entertaining game, Bensted took it 15-10 for 2-0. Graham appeared to have a rest in the third, O’Conner triumphed 15-8 and either Bensted had exhausted his arsenal or was pacing himself and eased off slightly; it proved to be the latter though as a focussed performance and some aces meant Bensted took it 15-8 for 3-1.
Iain Laing 3-0 Bernard Starkey
Laings record since returning form injury was played 2 won 2, for 6 against 0. Iain plays a calculated and slow game as he reads the shots and susses out his opponent. Bernard Starkey, who had been around at Abercorn for many years would try to step up a gear every so often, but Laing would just step up two gears. This went 15-10, 15-11, 15-6 to Iain
Amir Hosny 3-0 Tom Clemens
With Tony Elliot and Pat Spence both abroad; Amir had to play at No.1 seeding, this was his debut at No.1 and he didn’t disappoint. Although some of the shots were loose this made for long rallies and Amir was trying several different shots and varied his game to keep Tom Clemens on his toes and the Abercorn man had to second guess everything; several points were won by Amir just with Tom going the wrong way. It wasn’t one sided, indeed Clemens had 4 game points in the first game before Amir stuck in and took it 19-17, the remaining games all went close and although the score suggests oterwise this was a very close affair 19-17, 15-11, 15-11.
Reivers Captain Del said “I’m really pleased with this victory, we had several key players missing and I wasn’t sure how the game would go. Abercorn only brought 4 players as opposed to the usual 5 so Gary Bramble went home without lifting his racket but it meant he won by default 3-0. But the team done really well and the effort the guys put in cannot be faulted.”