Father and son partnership Joe and Erik van Diepen lost a close set 7-9 to the third pair and Tom Bradshaw and Clive Johnson lost a lead against the second pair to end up losing 6-9. The two consolation sets came from Tony Brown and Sacha Richardson and Johnson and Bradshaw beating the third pair.

The women’s first team played Medbourne in some dreary weather and the whole team got soaked in the first few games. However conditions picked up and they went on to win 6-3.

Medbourne had a strong first couple but both Janice Glover and Abigail Amos and Sarah Parr and Lesley Paris gave them a tough battle. Phillipa Bradshaw and Victoria Amos had two good victories against their second and third couples.

Harborough women’s second team secured their fourth win out of the seven matches played this season so far when they defeated Oakham 2 away last Wednesday night, winning 5-4.

The heroes were Jane Cottrell and Nicky Winch, who comfortably won all their three sets, while Val Raddon and Christine Richardson won two out of three sets, one of which was on a tie-break against the opposition’s second pair.

Susan Roberts and Liz Rothero went down 0-3 but narrowly lost a tie-break, also against the opposition’s second pair in their first set of the night. As it happened the securing of this tie-break was not vital to the success of the team, however Harborough’s third pair were disappointed nevertheless.

The women’s third team played Oakham 3 at home. This was their first home match of the season – and their first win. Jill Storer and Chris Smith took all three sets. Deb Ellis and Elaine Rowlett also took all three sets with the loss of only five games, while Natasha Winch and Lin Leach beat the second pair 9-6, lost a tie-break to the first pair and lost to the third pair 5-9, giving a final match score of 7-2 and an impressive game score of 76-37.

The women veterans’ second team registered a win against Leicestershire 2 in baking conditions last Thursday.

Joan Barrett and Julie Cromack won three of their four sets, while Liz Rothero and Nicky Winch won two close sets which lasted almost two hours resulting in a 7-5 and 6-4 win to give the team their 5-3 success.